Powys Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: In Spring 2022, Andrew Birch (erstwhile head chef of London’s Savoy Grill) and his wife Rachel relaunched this well-known coaching inn, part of a small scenic town in rural Powys. The main option is a seven-course tasting menu (with a vegetarian alternative), but there’s also a simpler lunch. No feedback as yet in our annual diners’ poll.

This well-known border-country inn is “still one of the best places to eat in the area”, with “well prepared and flavoursome food”. Long-time regulars miss Steve & Nicola Reynolds, who retired a couple of years ago, but the new management team of chef Tom Tudor and his partner Vittoria Turolla, FOH, have settled in well and the place is now “performing better again”.

2022 Review: Kerry Huber serves “wonderful ‘posh nosh’ meals” in her home, a beautiful old black-and-white house full of atmosphere – “highly recommended” and very good value at £35 for seven courses, served ‘supper-club’ style. Top Tip: guests rave about the signature twice-cooked soufflé.

2023 Review: This “fab former stately home” set in “beautiful grounds” in the Welsh countryside was restored by Laura Ashley co-founder Sir Bernard Ashley. Known for its “exceptional food”, it has lost two highly regarded head chefs in recent years, Nick Brodie and Sam Bowser, but still achieves strong ratings across the board.

2022 Review: This “busy” seventeenth-century inn is appreciated for its “simple, tasty, well-executed dishes” of “good honest food”.

“Highly recommend if you are around Hay on Wye” – a “small but perfectly formed restaurant” which puts its emphasis on “very locally sourced dishes that are well prepared” from a “carefully-put-together tasting menu” (five courses for £60 per person) “with unexpected but lovely flavour combinations”.

Ideal for a “hideaway date night in the shires”, with a “combination of discrete modern features melded into an ancient, beautiful and comfortable building” (whose stone dining room was built at the time of the Norman Conquest) – Pippa & Willem Vlok’s country-house guarantees a “really great experience”. “Truly remarkable staff” include head chef Nick Bennett, whose “highly skilled cooking” produces meals to savour.

This “top-of-the-range gastropub” on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park has long been one of the most famous in Wales for good reason and is “always busy” as a result. “If only there were a lot more rural pubs working so hard on all aspects of the dining experience” – from “impeccable and considerate service” that creates “a lovely, welcoming, characterful ambience” to “flawless meals with an excellent selection of brilliant-value wines”. The menu changes daily with seven starters and seven mains showcasing meat from the lowland hills, vegetables from nearby Penpont and fish delivered fresh from Cornwall.