Oi Abergvanny, what’ya playing at? Can you please just stop hogging all the best restaurants. It’s a testament to Abergavenny’s embarrassment of restaurant riches that up until late last year I’d never considered a visit to boutique hotel Llansantffraed Court. However, the appointment of Mike Hendry as Head Chef (Hendry was Sous Chef during James Sommerin’s Michelin starred reign at The Crown at Whitebrook) and the restaurant’s subsequent award of Best Small Restaurant in Wales at the National Tourism Awards gave me cause for a rapid change of opinion. Llansantffraed Court is now boshing out high-end grub, using cracking local produce and vegetables from their kitchen garden, which showcases the best Wales has to offer. Whilst there’s a 3 course set dinner menu available at £27.50 and an a la carte offering mains around £20, I found it impossible to resist the siren song of the tasting menu ; Llansantffraed’s 6-courser weighs in at a rather reasonable £50. After a 40 minute drive from
To summarise, Mrs A and I truly loved the meal. It’s a great reflection of what dining in a country house hotel should be. High quality, local ingredients cooked superbly by a chef that understands both flavour and texture. There is a high level of skill on display here, in both process and cooking. Credit to Chef Hendry for being able to demonstrate both, whilst not being distracted from what, for us, is the primary objective, flavour.
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