SAMPHIRES AT STRADEY PARK HOTEL
Immediately impressive and imposing, Samphires proudly juts from the four-star Stradey Park Hotel, an Edwardian mansion on the outskirts of Llanelli. Surveying the town scenery from its elevated position in the village of Furnace, the view once seated in Samphires is finer still, gazing across to Carmarthen Bay through beautiful half crescent windows. All of which would count for little, of course, if its food weren’t equally easy on the eye. But Samphires craft wonderfully presented high-quality dishes, placing a strong emphasis on Welsh ingredients evident from starters onwards. My partner opts for mild Llandeilo goats’ cheese, roasted beetroot and apple salad with homemade seasoned chutney, with similarly from-scratch love going into my Black Mountain smoked salmon with homemade bread and olives.
Mains are where Samphires’ sheer generosity begins to tell, though, breaking culinary conventions that the posher the nosh, the smaller servings become. That is perfectly illustrated by the roasted Gower salt marsh lamb, a huge hunk of succulent meat nicely offset by sumptuous duck fat roast potatoes and fresh mint sauce.
A well-balanced range of wines caters for almost all wallets. Splash out a little for the best rewards, however: our subtly smoky Italian-produced Duetorri Pinot Grigio certainly exceeded its £25 price tag. And if that hasn’t sated your appetite, let us point you in the direction of the incredibly flavourful blackberry and apple crumble, served with addictively tasty Penderyn whisky custard.
For luxuriant eating without extortionate prices or helpings that should come with a magnifying glass, Samphires has the competition sewn up.
Adam Kennedy

THE PROMISED LAND
And as they did reach The Promised Land he cried,
“Behold! I have seen a vision!”
“Was it an Angel?” the others asked. “A dove? A massive talking dragon?”
They listened in fear and awe as he replied,
“No. It was a gigantic wheel of meat.”

It is quite tempting to continue this review in such vein but going by the photos of pop stars constellated upon the walls, The Promised Land, in Cardiff, owes more to the classic Joe Smooth house track than the Good Book. Still, I shall testify, and indeed it was with fear and awe that we looked upon the Charcuterie Platter for Two. This cornucopia of meats, from Black Mountain smoked duck to Carmarthenshire ham, was severed with cornichons, piccalilli, and enough bread to bring another Bible story to mind. It wasn’t really a starter. It took us half an hour to eat it. It was a delicious half an hour.
After a short break and some Vedic digestion exercises, we were ready for mains – a steak and ale pie for D and the fish and chips for me. My fish was particularly good with a crispy, Otley Ale batter. It was a shame I had to leave a few chips to make room for dessert. Again, the sacrifices I make for you…
This was definitely a sacrifice worth making, however. D went for the cheesecake – light and littered with shredded mint, a good warm-down choice. In fact, he looked at my sticky toffee pudding with an expression that suggested I might be about to do myself serious injury. He needn’t have fretted. The cheesecake was good but the pudding was the real revelation of the evening. In fact, to paraphrase D’s own reaction upon the tasting: ‘We went to The Promised Land; no milk and honey, but what a sticky toffee pudding!’ Proof indeed.
Matthew David Scott

We find the pleasure in eating.

Previous RedHanded Reviews

CLARY’S RESTAURANT

THE WHITE HART

GILBY'S@THE BAY

THE CROWN AT CELTIC MANOR

CAMEO CLUB & BISTRO

HAVELI

STRADLEY PARK HOTEL

GIOVANNI'S AT THE MILL

TROY

BRASSERIE CENTRALE

MEDITERRANEO AT THE BOAT HOUSE

TOUCAN