Gwynedd Restaurant Guide

This “busy restaurant with a lovely view of the Menai Straits” from its “airy” conservatory – is “a good place for an everyday meal” – “mussels and seafood are not-surprisingly a good place to start your choices” – on a menu that combines Welsh produce in popular dishes from around the world. The Menai Bridge originally opened in 2012 and has been followed by four branches across north Wales, the most recent of which opened last year in Barmouth.

Under chef Stephen Stevens, this moodily converted butcher’s shop just over the Menai Bridge has become one of the most accoladed dining destinations in Wales, providing “a unique culinary journey” based on “a series of dishes using the best locally sourced produce available… on the day” for £175 per person. Feedback remains more limited than we’d like, though, and remains a tad up and down. The least favourable view? “Very good but overpriced”.

This spacious, family-run modern brasserie with a focus on seafood makes “a great place for friends and family”; by all accounts, “while the menu looks good, the dishes largely exceed expectations”, going “far beyond the basic description”, while the desserts also inspired excitement this year (“the ‘Snickers Trifle’ is simply not to be missed!”).

A heavenly presence in Menai Bridge for near a decade (it relocated to its current premises a few years back), this bright and airy dining room has won a firm local following for chef Mike Jones’s “super flavours” and “inventive small plates”, with the “regularly changing menu” cherry-picking inspiration from around the globe, albeit with an Asian bias showcased by dishes like Korean-fried chicken (the in-house signature, meanwhile, is the twice-baked soufflé with balsamic grapes).

2024 Review: This unusual beachside destination – a contemporary glass-walled and environmentally friendly Huf Haus – is a “lively and colourful place, full of character”, serving “quick and efficient” meals that tick all boxes for “families and surfers”. With its “great views”, it might well be “the best of what’s available on Anglesey”.

“Be prepared for a treat”, with “impeccably sourced ingredients, wonderful cooking and great presentation” combining for “Welsh cuisine at its best” at this four-year-old venture from locally born ex-Fat Duck chef Nick Rudge, whose nine-course tasting menus reflect his interest in Welsh history (a ‘Jackdaw’ is a traditional nickname for people born within Conwy’s castle walls). There’s a “long and interesting wine list organised by distance”, which introduces “the interesting concept of wine mileage”, with “help at hand from the friendly and well-informed front of house staff”.