A road trip around Wales delivers many of the things you’d expect: terrific scenery, postcard-pretty villages and more than a few castles. But pleasant surprises also await, not least in the quality and diversity of the food and drink. On our recent trip around the country’s nourishing north-west we enjoyed several appetising pit stops. Here are five highlights.
FLAVOURSOME LUNCHES
Cafes at visitor centres or tourist attractions tend to be a mixed bag wherever you are in the world. But here we discovered several to recommend, serving tasty and often inventive soups and sandwiches using seasonal vegetables and organic regional produce, plus a range of tantalising desserts, from Victoria sponges and scones to chocolate tiffins and bara brith (a Welsh fruit loaf). Reliably good were the cafes at the National Trust sites, including that of Plas Newydd, a country house on the Isle of Anglesey, where my Thai-spiced squash soup had a satisfying kick. A staple on Welsh lunch menus is rarebit, a twist on grilled cheese on toast layered with a thick sauce that fuses several ingredients, including mustard and beer. I have rarebit — then an avocado and courgette cake — at the Furnace Cafe of the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre. Opened by Prince (now King) Charles in 2012, it’s set on a quaint stone-built farm by a curve of the River Conwy just outside Snowdonia National Park. The farm shop here is packed with produce and products from across Wales, including jams, honeys and chutneys that you might fancy taking home.
DISHY DYLAN’S
Bank on seeing a few Dylan’s on your travels here. And we’re not just talking about the men. With its restaurants and general stores, Dylan’s has become a favourite with foodies in north Wales since 2012. Offering everything from freshly baked artisanal bread and patisserie to locally sourced meat, fish and seafood — as well as jars of flavour-packed sauces and chilli oils — they’re well worth pulling over for. You can book a table for a sit-down meal at its restaurants in Criccieth, Llandudno, Conwy or Menai Bridge, its flagship address in the Isle of Anglesey town. Dining here overlooking the Menai Strait and the groundbreaking 19th-century iron bridge that spans the water, we order from a menu that includes everything from seafood chowder and moules mariniere (with the famous local Menai mussels) to lamb tacos and beef patties from Edwards of Conwy, an acclaimed butcher recognised as one of the best in Wales.
SPIRITED ENDEAVOURS
You may not consider the Welsh and whisky as natural bedfellows — and while it’s true they lag behind the Scots and Irish in terms of experience and output — the industry here is flourishing. Two decades after then Prince Charles opened the Penderyn Distillery in south Wales’ Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog) National Park, the company is exporting its single malts to over 45 countries, including Australia. Penderyn recently launched a distillery and shop in a former school in the charming north Wales coastal resort of Llandudno. You can do tours and tastings there and also at the Aber Falls Distillery, which is fed by the river and waterfall of the same name near the village of Abergwyngregyn, a 15-minute drive from the castle town of Conwy. Aber Falls’ whisky is young — they only started producing it in 2018. And they also craft small-batch handcrafted spirits, from rhubarb and ginger gin to whisky cream liqueur, so there’s plenty of flavour on its tours at the distillery and visitor centre, which occupies a restored 19th-century slate works and margarine factory. And while passengers can fully enjoy themselves here, your designated driver can have soft drinks, including tea and coffee, at the cafe.
WINE SURPRISES
Wine is another tipple you wouldn’t ordinarily associate with Wales. But like the counties of southern England, it has regions with fertile soils and mild microclimates that are conducive to making wine to impress even the most cynical sommelier. As with the vineyards of Kent and Sussex in England, sparkling wine is a forte in Wales, but there are also good fruity white wines and even very decent reds (notably the 2021 Rondo wine from the Gwinllan Llwynhudol vineyard near Conwy). Plummy and medium-bodied, it reminds me of Burgundy and Cotes du Rhone red wines I’ve had in France. I enjoy a few glasses with dinner at Palé Hall, a dapper Snowdonian country house hotel with a terrific list of British wines. Yet you don’t have to go to a nice restaurant to savour Welsh wines. They can be sampled at more informal establishments, perhaps with a board of Welsh cheese and charcuterie. A good place for this is Gwin Dylanwad, a wine shop-cafe-bar in Dolgellau, a pretty market town where walkers like to base themselves for hikes in the surrounding peaks and valleys. A word of warning: you may be enticed across the street to Popty’r Dref, a bakery with delectable cakes.
BREWS TO BELLOW ABOUT
On previous trips to Wales, I drank pints of Brains — the pride of Cardiff — and Wrexham Lager, with both brewers very much part of the cultural landscape, having been established in the early 1880s. But craft ale is increasingly big in Wales and you’ll find countless varieties on offer at the pumps and fridges of bars and on shop shelves lined with cans and bottles wrapped with vibrant, quirky labels. Calling in at the historic harbour town of Porthmadog, the springboard for some of Wales’ best heritage steam railways, you may find yourself lured to The Australia, a pub revived as the brewery tap of Purple Moose. This multi-award-winning microbrewery uses water from the nearby Snowdonian hills to produce an array of tipples, from Antlered IPA and Elderflower ale to the Dark Side Of The Moose bitter and Chocolate Moose (a chocolate and vanilla stout). The brewery also has a shop next door if you’d like to take some drinks home. Mystery, by the way, shrouds the name of The Australia. Some claim it’s because ships did go Down Under from Porthmadog, including one carrying fortune-seeking passengers to the Victorian gold rush.
Steve McKenna was a guest of Visit Wales and Visit Britain. They have not influenced or read this story before publication.
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+ To help plan a trip to Wales and Britain, see visitwales.com and visitbritain.com
