Review of 'Hotel Portmeirion - The Dining Room'
Portmeirion is one of my favourite places to visit with my returning time and time again over the years from my very first visit to the UK in 1995 to the present day. As I now live just a few hours drive away it is even easier to visit this quirky “village” on the Welsh coast. One thing I have always wanted to do was to stay in the village or perhaps eat at the highly regarded “Hotel Portmeirion” located at the base of the village cliffs. When my mother visited us recently and expressed a desire to return to the village we decided to visit the hotel for lunch so we called and made a reservation for a Thursday lunch. It turned out a reservation was not really required as we had the dining room largely to ourselves.
The small Hotel Portmeirion has a quite charming interior, sort of like visiting a stately home with eclectic but comfortable décor (yes, including the iconic “egg chairs” from “The Prisoner” television series that was filmed in the village). The main entrance the hotel is at the bottom of the road that runs through the village with “The Dining Room” located at the far end of the hotel. The restaurant holds two AA Rosettes which it has retained for a few years now with it's executive head chef Mark Threadgill and head chef Daniel Griffiths.
The interior of the small restaurant is very cool and bright with white walls and a bank of windows looking out over the waters of the Dwyryd Estuary. The tables are nicely spaced apart on the parquet flooring with comfortable green seats. It is looking a bit tired with wear marks on the furnishings and the walls but otherwise it is quite a relaxed and, surprisingly, informal atmosphere.
We were shown to a table near the small conservatory where tea is served. The Dining Room has a lunch and dinner service with “table d'hote” and “gourmet” menus on offer. We were given the short lunch menu made a bit more wordy with both Welsh and English present. It is divided into “Snacks”, “Lunch Menu”, “Sides” and “Desserts & Cheese”. We were also given a drinks menu with a modest selection of wines but we opted for non-alcoholic options all round.
We opted to start with two orders (one would have been enough, but our server was not too clear on how many) of the “Kitchen sourdough Ty Tanglwyst butter” (£4 from the “Snacks” section of the menu). The thick cut slices of this brown bread was moist but not too firm and the butter was wonderfully indulgent. The only complaint we had was that some of the slices were, oddly, too salty but not all of them suggesting the kitchen was a bit uneven in their application of seasoning. This would be a reoccurring theme throughout the meal.
I opted for the “Crispy Welsh belly pork, nduja roasted hispi cabbage, carrot puree, tarragon” (£25) which was very indulgent indeed with a massive portion of “pork belly” with an amazingly crunchy skin - In fact, so crunchy you had to stab it with your knife before cutting otherwise the thick layer of fan beneath would all ooze out. The pork itself was juicy and flavoursome. The cabbage, hidden beneath toppings including the nduja (spicy) sausage meat was quite nice indeed. A large pot of gravy tasting for all the world like (instant) “Bisto” was quite out of balance with the size of the dish. The gravy also provided an entirely unwelcome, extremely salty note to the plate which was, it has to be said, already quite salty. So much so that I had to leave the gravy largely untouched which is very unlike me.
My mother opted for the “Chalk stream trout, cauliflower purée, pickled leeks, kipper butter sauce” (£24) which she said was quite tasty and cooked very nicely. The fish was slightly drowned by copious amounts of the sauce (she is not a huge fan of sauces) but otherwise quite good indeed.
My other companion for lunch opted for what I had been eying up as well as the pork - “Welsh lamb rump, hay baked celeriac, roasted garlic potato purée, ramsons” (£25). She very much enjoyed this and particularly loved the celeriac and the mashed potatoes. She noted that the dish was also seasoned quite heavily and the flavour of the lamb was overwhelmed (to the point it could not really be tasted) by the thick, “Bisto”-like sauce.
For our two orders of bread, three main courses and three bottles of “J20” (fruit juice, £3 each) the bill came to just under £104 including a discretionary 10% gratuity which is slightly expensive but the quality of the food, with it's general focus on local ingredients, was impressive with generous (perhaps TOO generous?) portions elegantly presented on the plate though with the severe disappointment of over-seasoning throughout and the oddly strong and cloying gravy. The service was very friendly and attentive throughout our stay despite only 3-4 tables in use.
A wonderful venue with an interesting menu, great atmosphere and nice selection of dishes. I would like to hope the seasoning issue was a one-off problem so I would like to come back and try their dinner options, perhaps the “gourmet menu” which sounds quite interesting and would give me a chance to try to understand the chef a bit better - 6 courses for £100 (per person). Will have to save up for that one.
Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”
Review Date: 2024-09-26
Cuisine: American/British
Address: Portmeirion, Penrhyndeudraeth LL48 6ER WALES
Public Transport: 
Minffordd
Location: Gwynedd (Wales) - Portmeirion
Map:
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Telephone: +44 (0) 1766 772440
URL: https://portmeirion.wales/eat/hotel-portmeirion/the-dining-room