Dining in North Wales

[Roger le goéland]

Dear all,

I am in St Asaph for a while, and looking for somewhere decent to eat. We have a car, would like something within 20 miles. Any ideas?

Thank you!

R

[Harters]

Going east back to Chester, the Arkle at the Grosvenor is Michelin starred. Also in town, Brasserie 10-16 did us a cracking lunch.

The Queens Head at Glanwydden (near Llandudno) is good quality pub food (not London gastro-pub, just pretty good food). Conwy mussels are a personal favourite. They are quite strong on seafood.

The St Tudno Hotel in Llandudno has a GFG Cooking 4 and is often touted, so I offer this as a potential warning. Used to be good, but a meal about 18 months back was not close to a 4. And bloody expensive for what it was!

Shakespeare's Restaurant at the Castle Hotel in Conwy was a dinner of mixed blessings in April. Deeply flavoured lamb hotpot, tarragon & bacon dumplings and homemade pickled red cabbage. Then underwhelming desserts. Well worth a try though.

Nearby is the Quay Hotel at Deganwy which I've heard good things about but have no personal experience.

I think outside of your 20 mile radius is the Olde Bull's Head at Beaumaris on Anglesey, but I recommend a trip. It has two restaurants - bistro on the ground floor (for which I don't think you can make reservations) and a more formal set-up on the first floor (for which a reservation will be essential). First floor restaurant has a GFG Cooking 6 and its richly deserved.

John

[howardlong]

Or for a real pushing of the boat out, Ynyshir Hall. Like everywhere in that bit of Wales, a real PITA to get to (don't expect to get a cell phone signal there) but the area certainly has a unique beauty.

I had a unique experience for me when I stayed there bacause I was the only one dining on the single night I was there, but both service and food were still excellent. I certainly wish there were other places like that in Wales.

H

[broadway]

At the limit of your range is Tyddyn Llan.

Pub wise I have been recommended Pen-y-Bryn in Colwyn Bay.

[Harters]

A pal who often travels the coast road (and whose views on food I respect) recommends the Kinmel Arms at Abergele. Upscale pub by the look of it.

[Mrs Woman]

Chester-wise, the Arkle has been renamed Simon Radley after its long-standing chef. Brasserie 10-16 is no more (which I'm not too bothered about, very average IMO) and is being turned into a Shere Khan (I won't be visiting). Better food can be found at Upstairs at the Grill. Good-ish simple stuff at Moules a Go Go and Chez Jules.

Conwy, try the Conwy Bistro. In Deganway, you must try Paysanne for great French 'country' grub, much better than the fur coat and no knickers of the Quay hotel opposite.

In Mold, there is 56 High Street, specliaising in seafood.

The Blu Bell in Halkyn only does a (limited) food menu on weekends (including buffalo stew, there's the North Wales buffalo farm in the village) but is a cracking CAMRA pub with lots of real ales and ciders.

The White Horse in Hendrerwydd http://www.white-horse-inn.co.uk/ is pretty good too, if you can find it!

[Roger le goéland]

Thank you very much for all your recommendations!

Now to convince my colleagues that yes it's worth driving 25min for dinner. We can't really go much further than 20m but I'll keep the starred recommendations (esp. Ynishir Hall and the Plas something) in mind for any future trips.

[Roger le goéland]

Alas, the argument was lost in advance. We did visit the mussels place (Moules a gogo), whose "best mussels in Europe" were a fifth of the size of normal ones you get in France or Belgium. Expensive, but at least it was edible.

Unlike the Talardy, whose Chestnut Tree restaurant was both overpriced (£6.95 for a shot of Lagavulin, costs me £4 in Cambridge and I consider that expensive!) and remarquably bland. It says a lot that I enjoyed the previous evening's Pizza Hut more (can't believe I complained about Pizza Express on the other thread!)

However, we did visit the Plough in St Asaph, and despite its lack of any decent spirits (except perhaps Bombay Sapphire), it did stock two nice ales and cooked decent if unimaginative food at an affordable price. If only we had discovered it earlier - it was 2min walk from our hotel!

Goodbye Wales. I'll be back.

[Harters]

56 HIGH STREET, MOLD

We liked it here. Its a place thats trying hard to serve its clientele and, generally speaking, getting it right. Located in a nondescript row of shops, its been fitted out in modern style stripped floorboards, dark matt paint on the walls that sort of thing. Regular special nights or special offers maintain the interest of its regulars (and it looked as though every table was on the two courses for two people for £25, including a bottle of wine ) but wed come to sample the main menu which heavily features fish and other seafood.

We kicked off with an amuse of smoked salmon and crab arancini. This was a cracker packed full of flavour of what must have originally been a very well made risotto.

Flavour continued into one of the starters Omelette Arnold Bennett. A good smokiness to the fish, cheesy and creamy. I dont think spinach was an ingredient in the original but here it added another flavour and texture layer. The other starter was less of a success and my wife reckoned it was the worst presentation of a scallop starter she can recall. It was served in a dish probably designed for snails indentations around the edge would hold the snails or, in this case, the queen scallops. A blob of potato in each hole, the scallop, topped with Gruyere and lemon and cooked under the grill. It lost something in the faffing about.

Moules frites were moules frites. Described also as mariniere, they werent. For the second time in a week, mariniere has been served with a cream sauce. Cream sauce with mussels is fine but mariniere it aint. Frites were frozen, of course, but none too shabby. But what it needed on the side was some mayo or aioli for chip dunking as is almost compulsory in Flanders.

My main was the 56 famous mixed grill of seafood. Loved it great presentation. Small fillets of salmon, bream, bass sat on blobs of mashed potato. There was also a deep fried oyster, a few mussels and a couple of shell-on prawns. In the shell of the oyster was a very tangy tartare sauce. Wouldnt have hurt to have had a small handful of leaf on the plate for a texture contrast.

We didnt have dessert but finished with a fairly indifferent espresso (which came with a very nice piece of shortbread). Wed drunk a couple of glasses of wine and a bottle of water. Service had been fine throughout and the bill came to £56 which we thought was very good value. If we lived locally, Im sure this would be a regular spot but, nice as it is, the one hour drive each way is just a bit too far.

Edited May 5, 2010 by Harters (log)

[david goodfellow]

John, I will mention this place to our friends who live reasonably close by.

Have you tried The Church Green yet? The pub menu (as opposed to the carte) is very user friendly.

Be very interested in your opinion.

[Harters]

Not yet, David. We keep finding reasons to put off going. But we're running out of them - once I've obtained the second mortgage, we're going for dinner.

[david goodfellow]

Not yet, David. We keep finding reasons to put off going. But we're running out of them - once I've obtained the second mortgage, we're going for dinner.

:laugh:

[Harters]

BODYSGALLEN HALL, LLANDUDNO

A bargain lunch in a classic old-fashioned chintzy country house hotel (now owned by the National Trust). £22.50 gets you three courses from a short menu, of about 5 items per course. Costs start to ratchet up, of course, once you’ve decided to have a drink. We had an aperitif in the lounge which came with a good selection of “bar nibbles”.

As to food, minted pea soup, with crème fraiche, was bang-on as a summer starter. Similarly successful was a small fillet of red mullet which sat on a few leaves and a scattering of orange and grapefruit. The citrussy effect was heightened by a coriander dressing. It could easily have overpowered the fish. It didn’t.

A main of just cooked through cod fillet came with a quenelle of smoked bacon brandade, a few local Conwy mussels, some wilted spinach and a mild mustard sauce. Good well balanced dish.

Impossible for me not to choose the lamb, or should that be llamb as we’re in Wales. Rump in this case. And very delicious and tender, even if cooked a tad past pink. It came with tarragon mash (which, I have to say, wouldn’t have been my first choice for flavouring the spuds), a couple of sautéed morels, asparagus and creamed cabbage. Nothing fancy here – just good lunchtime cooking.

Desserts, however, were a disappointment. Yoghurt panna cotta was bland and boring. Advertised as coming with roasted peach, the plate was adorned with four of the thinnest discs of flavourless nothingness that could be imagined. A small baked Alaska came with a blackberry compote. It read well on the menu but just wasn’t very nice.

Things bucked up again with good coffee back in the lounge. Service throughout had been excellent and I’d certainly call again when passing. And might even try them for dinner and stopover.

[david goodfellow]

Been perhaps half a dozen times over the years and as yet not been disappointed John. I remember last summer bumping (not literally) into a couple of chefs deciding what to put on the menu from the bumper crop available from the very well stocked garden.

Wonderful spot anytime of year, but especially so during summer.

[Harters]

KINMEL ARMS, ABERGELE

Is it the village pub? A gastropub? Or, as they describe themselves, a restaurant with rooms. I’ve no idea and I reckon the owners aren’t too sure either. We glanced at the evening menu and it’s firmly set in the “modern Brit” style. At lunchtime, the menu is much more pubby which was fine with us.

Starters are good sizes and act as a “light lunch” as well. So, for instance, cod goujons brought two generous fillets – crisp batter, just flaking fish, some well dressed salad leaves. There are also starter/light lunch versions of a number of main courses and my partner followed up with one of these. Described as “fillet of beef salad served warm with tomatoes and red onions”, she was a tad disappointed that the “salad” was just the onions and tomatoes. No leaves. No nothing. It put the “light” in “light lunch”.

I went with a very delicious Conwy seafood chowder – a rich soup laced with Pernod and white wine and packed with local mussels, king prawns and other assorted fishy bits. Came with two big slices of granary bread. My main course was their “Pie of the Week”. Pork had been braised and then reheated in a cheese sauce with a puff pastry topping. Could have been really good but wasn’t – the pastry was undercooked and the cheese sauce just made the whole thing claggy. Came with chips and red cabbage, sweetened with raisins.

In spite of this not being a perfect lunch, I’d still recommend it – decent places along the North Wales coast are few.

[david goodfellow]

If its as it was when we ate there, as a group of six, some years ago,its a Gastropub. We all thought it to be rather good food wise, but strangely enough we never returned.

You would never stumble upon it, as its so far off the beaten track, but pub it most certainly is (was)? Not sure on this restaurant with rooms tag.

I will never forget our visit, because as we drove up the hill I was thrilled to see a Rosso (red) Ferrari parked right outside. It was on french plates and I lusted after it.

It was still there three hours later, only this time it had a deep scratch along every panel on one side and this was in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon. I could have cried for the guy. I was angry and mystified why some moron could inflict such damage.

I bet it spoiled his lunch, big time.

[Harters]

PAYSANNE, DEGANWY

If you didn’t know the area (or, in our case, done our research), you could so easily miss this place situated in a converted terrace house at the end of a row of shops opposite Deganwy station. The owners have a love of France and its food and they’ve brought their passion to this part of North Wales since 1988 and I reckon they’re doing all they can to please their customers, many of whom were clearly regulars. It’s a small place, under 30 covers although you don’t feel crammed in, and decorated in the style of the bistro in a provincial French town, circa 1970. I loved it!

And it’s really hard to seriously fault a place that has warm, knowledgable service and offers a short three course menu for just £25. There’s an attempt to offer recognisable French dishes – such as escargots and cassoulet – but other dishes are in a “modern European” style which happily work either side of the Channel. So, for example, “boudin noir aux pommes” is further described as Bury black pudding with apples and a mustard sauce. It really was rather good, complemented by some well dressed salad leaves, whether it comes from an English, French or, indeed, Welsh, tradition.

The other starter – a terrine of chicken breast and red pepper – was much lighter in both texture and taste but was perked up by a wrapping of prosciutto, homemade peach chutney and, again, salad leaves.

Fish is sourced locally, even if it not always fished locally. Plaice, however, was local and very good – a generous and succulent fillet, served with a lemon butter sauce (one of several you can request with your otherwise simply grilled or fried fish).

Certainly not local was my fillet of escolar. It was a fish I had not heard of before – and having subsequently read of potential health risks if it is not cooked properly wouldn’t be in a rush to order again. It was described to me as tasting somewhere between halibut and swordfish – and that seems about right. Good meaty texture, as swordfish, and a very enjoyable taste (although I wouldn’t be prepared to risk the shits – which is the main adverse consequence). Less successful was the recommended choice of sauce – anchovy and prawn. It was all a bland insipid. Veg for both of us were served separately – a decent, if fairly liquid, dauphinoise potato, broccoli, green beans.

Desserts were a mixed blessing. On the one hand, apricot frangipane tart was dense, a bit stodgy and positively parsimonious with the apricot. On the other hand, crème brulee was an absolute belter, the accompanying “Black Forest” compote almost inspired.

All in all, this was one of the better meals we’ve enjoyed recently and, without doubt, cracking value for money. It deserves a wider recognition.

[Harters]

1620 BISTRO AT BODYSGALLEN HALL

Called in here for lunch. We didn’t want a big meal as we’d had the “full English” for breakfast and then spent the morning nibbling our way round the Conwy Feast.

A section of the menu offers some dishes in either starter or “light main course” portions. We both went for the same “light main” – it came as two “parcels” of local lamb. The lamb had been long braised, shredded, formed into two inch diameter balls, wrapped first in bacon then caul, before being reheated. They sat of some thinly sliced cabbage and mushroom. A general success of a lunchtime dish – a rich homely taste to the meat. But it seemed a tad ungenerous with the spirit of hospitality not to have added a couple of new potatoes or something to make a more complete plate.

Obviously the bistro has a very different style from the formality of the restaurant in the “big house” but there’s quite a bit on the menu to attract folk looking for a more casual meal. I presume all the likely punters were at the Feast as we were the only ones there.

[david goodfellow]

John, they must have a new chef, as on our one and only visit we were underwhelmed.

Our friends who live locally harped on about Paysanne and how good it was, so I was looking forward to eating there.

Considering they are a french restaurant I put the soup de poissons to the test and regretted doing so, it was rubbish. Sucking my thumb produced more flavour.

When I took them to task as to why there was no rouille or toasted baguette topped with gruyere or emmenthal a shrug of the shoulders and a "well everyone else seems to like it" response ensued.

We never returned.

It sounds like they have got there act together now a bit.

[Harters]

Interesting you mention the soup. We were in the area to go to the Conwy Feast (which is quite a nice little food festival) - and heard Paysanne's owner mentioning he was going to be flogging jars of it today. Got chatting and he is obviously quite proud of the product. And, yes, we did buy a jar.

http://www.paysannedeganwy.co.uk/fishsoup.htm