11 Best Restaurants in Wales

Close to Harlech's mighty castle, this friendly "restaurant with rooms" is a wonderful find. Chef Glyn Roberts uses locally sourced ingredients from salmon to lamb to create imaginative, beautifully presented contemporary dishes. The main house has three spacious, modern rooms and four more are in the annex, a 16th-century coaching inn. The aviation-themed bar (the inn's owner was previously a pilot) is well-stocked and has views over Mount Snowdon.

This excellent "restaurant with rooms" is renowned for its creative use of local products and the rustic-chic vibe. Fruit and vegetables come from the Griffin's own organic kitchen garden, while meat is sourced from surrounding estates such as the Welsh Venison Centre. If you'd like, stay over in one of eight cozy, vintage-style bedrooms, complete with Welsh blankets and fresh flowers; dinner packages are also available. The inn is in Felin Fach, 5 miles northeast of Brecon.

Housed in a red-brick building near the Cardiff International Sports Stadium, this shabby-chic restaurant specializes in Spanish grills and wine. Try the Asturian cider-cured salmon to start, followed by sirloin from a Spanish dairy cow, and then round it off with a Catalan tart accompanied, of course, by some sherry. The group also owns a stylish boutique hotel, Parador 44, located above the restaurant as well as a tapas bar, Bar 44, around the corner on Westgate Street.

With its gorgeous view over Cardiff Bay, this undeniably romantic restaurant is a popular choice. The classic French bistro menu is jazzed up with international influences like tempura tiger prawns and classic mac-and-cheese, but it's the steaks, especially the Chateaubriand, that diners come here for. The extensive wine list has a decent selection of vino from around the globe.

The surprise at this downtown restaurant, above the Gateway Café, is not that you've found Mexican food in Wales, but that it's so good. It's more than a little cheeky, especially in the large murals of Three Amigos and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid., which customers like to pose in front of. Although the menu only covers the basics of Mexican cuisine—quesadillas, taquitos, chimichangas, tacos, and fajitas—they're prepared with enough gusto to take them to the next level. However, authenticity takes a backseat to taste.

This 17th-century coaching inn close to Hay's center is ideal for a lunch break after you're done ransacking the nearby bookshops. The restaurant's sophisticated cooking emphasizes local meats and produce—for example, the pan-roasted Welsh lamb rump with gratin dauphinoise. There are also some interesting hot sandwiches available at lunchtime. You can even opt for an overnight stay in one of the country-style rooms.

This excellent little bistro in the center of Swansea has an air of retro sophistication. The menu is traditionally French; you might start with a half dozen escargots served with garlic butter before moving on to steak frites. Surprisingly, vegans have quite a few options. There are also daily and seasonal specials, and an enormous (entirely French) wine list.

Attached to the Holyhead Maritime Museum on Newry Beach, this bistro café offers the best view in town from its patio. Watch yachts, catamarans, and vintage sailboats crisscross the harbor while you wait for fish chowder, slow roasted pork belly, and lamb shank in minted red wine sauce, and marvel at the Victorian engineering skill required to build the breakwater, the United Kingdom's longest. Fresh ingredients from the bistro's own farm and local fishermen factor highly in the general praise, but it's the sunset seating Thursday through Saturday that is particularly coveted.

This popular bistro in central Conwy combines traditional Welsh flavors with accents of the Mediterranean. In the rustic dining room, try the seafood and herb fritters to start followed by slow-roast shoulder of lamb with minted port wine jus and potato gratin.