On our way to Snowdonia for our long weekend of eating, drinking and enjoying fires surrounded by rolling hills and many sheep, we stopped off in Brecon at The Felin Fach Griffin pub. It describes itself as a dining pub with rooms, supporting the local community and nestled between Hay-on-Wye and the Brecon Beacons. They also have sister pubs in Cornwall The Old Coastguard and The Gurnard's Head.
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| Felin Fach Griffin |
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| central fireplace |
Inside we were greeted by a warm welcome from the landlady and a lovely fire which was more unusually set up in a grate in the middle of the room. We were given drinks and food menus, the former was impressively extensive for wines and they do a good range of Lahloo teas. Sarah and I ordered a pot of Rosebud and Bristol Brew and all of us looked over the lunch menu.
The menu is a feast for the eyes so many delicious options to choose from eventually I picked the egg pappardelle with almonds, cauliflower and pecorino, 3 of our party opted for the ploughman's with Duckett's Caerphilly, soda bread and home made pickles and Sarah and Rob plucked for the roasted hake fillet, with sweet potato, pancetta and sage butter. Shortly after we had ordered we were led into the cosy rustic looking dining room, there was lots on the walls to catch the eye and the atmosphere for a Friday lunch time was quietly buzzing.
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| Caerphilly Ploughman's |
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| Egg Pappardelle |
My pappardelle was the stuff of heaven. Quite rich but the creaminess of the sauce and the cheese was broken up by the texture of the cauliflower pieces and the toasted almonds. Everyone wanted to sample some and declared it so delicious I believe there was a touch of jealousy in their voices. The ploughman's looked really great on the plate and came with a board heavy with lots of fresh soda bread which we all helped ourselves to, and Sarah was well catered for on the gluten free side as without prompting she got her own board of gluten free bread. They also declared the hake dish so well cooked and flavoursome that it was right up there in the best fish they'd had, possibly ever.
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| Hake with pancetta and sweet potato |
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| Triple Cooked Chips |
Prices range from about £9-14 for a main and averaging at £7.50 for a starter. We were really taken aback by how good the food was here, well cooked, simple flavours and great quality produce. Definitely recommended if you find yourself near the Brecon Beacons or fancy a country drive it took us about an hour and a half to get there from Bristol. Plus I expect you would find just as warm a welcome and great menu at their Cornish sister pubs. To see what the Felin Fach Griffin has to offer visit their
website.
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I went to The Gurnard's Head with my family for my Grandmother's birthday a couple of years ago as we were in Cornwall at the time. It was great. The soda bread was what prompted me to try making my own (pretty easy & satisfying to do, it turns out). The goats cheese and pea shoot risotto is something I still remember clearly & want to recreate (just put off by my student budget!) and my plaice was excellent too. Samphire was another thing that that meal made me want to eat more of (I've recently noticed Waitrose have it on their fish counter).
ReplyDelete*day-dreams and salivates...*
I love soda bread it is so comforting, impressed you have made your own, bread scares me a little, I have made it once or twice though. That risotto sounds amazing, I used to make risotto at uni, sometimes you have to break out of the usual student food box and treat yourself can be hard being a foodie on a student budget. Totally agree with you on samphire too!
ReplyDelete:) The great thing about soda bread is the soda - there's no yeast so there's no leaving to rise or kneading. You just mix it up & chuck it in the oven. I usually use Monty Don's recipe from The Big Issue but I think they're all pretty similar. Here's one I made earlier http://www.flickr.com/photos/dichohecho/6137089107/
ReplyDeleteOooh that looks like some prize winning bread right there! Impressive! I might give it a go one weekend now I know I don't have to wait so long to eat it!
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