Port Talbot Restaurant Guide

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”.

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”.