Penallt Restaurant Guide

This “unique beach-side restaurant with iconic views across Oxwich to Three Cliffs Bay” has become established as a major culinary destination, and one that provides a reason for foodies to trek to the distant Gower Peninsula. There is a three-course option at lunch, but in the evenings chef Hywell Griffith and his team offer either a six-course or eight-course menu for £110 and £125 per person respectively. Fans (most diners) say “the whole dining experience is exquisite, with staff who are friendly, courteous and very well trained and truly enchanting food – locally sourced with combinations that are fresh, subtle and delicious”. Ratings this year, though, came under pressure from a minority who found it either pricey or patchy in its delivery.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

“Good quality in a remote location” is found at Mark & Sue Manson’s whitewashed bistro, full of mismatched wooden furniture, and tucked away in the Towy valley not far from the National Trust’s Botanic Garden of Wales. Even a reporter who thought the hearty local cooking “unadventurous and pricey” rated it as “very good” – maybe they missed the “snip” of a set lunch menu: at £34 per person it provides “a good choice for all three courses”.

2021 Review: The former chief inspector for the AA, Simon Wright, owns this five-year-old café/deli and wine store. “Something a bit different in this neck of the woods” – “it’s the best breakfast, lunch and tea place: in fact, drop in any time and you’ll find something to delight you… but it’s extremely hard to leave without a slice of one of their fabulous cakes!”

In a converted Victorian warehouse near the Prince of Wales Dock – with yachts moored nearby – this February 2024 newcomer is part of the city’s ongoing waterfront development. Opened to instant acclaim, it looks like the culinary champion this city has lacked for so long. From an open kitchen, local lad Jonathan Woolway produces a modern bistro menu steeped in ‘Hiraeth’ – a term meaning a ‘deep sense of belonging’ – with the focus being on Welsh meat and some fish and seafood. It’s yet to generate feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but in her March 2024 review, The Guardian’s Grace Dent declared herself a fan: “definitely a place for farm-to-fork lovers keen to eat every mooing, baa-ing tasty thing from across the Gower Peninsula, the Brecon Beacons, Herefordshire, and the lush farmland of West Wales and the Monmouthshire borders. It‘s also a top spot for Welsh rarebit”.