We had a very long day of touring which included castles as well as a railroad trip up the tallest mountain in Wales, Snowdonia, and decided to dine at the famous Dining Room in our hotel, Bodysgallen Hall. We also realized that two l's in Welsh seem to have multliple pronunciations!
The original building dates back hundreds of years and the dining room has a, shall we say, musty old British feel to it. The heat did not help and we were grateful when it finally began to cool down as we got through dinner. You must recall that virtually nothing here is air conditioned outside of the luxury hotels and restaurants in London.
We were very impressed by the vegan menu offered to Sam and the multiple choices.
He was happy with his Peroni beer and we ordered up a wonderful bottle of Baboon Rock unwooded Chardonnay 2020 from Franschoek, South Africa which was most refreshing. The amuses were a cheese fritter and a mushroom and courgettes tart.
Sam had a substitute as I had mentioned to the front desk earlier that he did not like mushrooms at all, again they were on their toes, but we only wished they could remember when we ordered another beer or water to bring it!
I started with a delicious Caramelised local Mackerel with crispy charred baby gem lettuce, a small potato salad and wild Bodysgallen garlic oil which was really a delicious aioli, the perfect foil for the fish. Sam had the semi-dried cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, consume gel and fennel salad. Will went for Hen's Egg poached with pancetta atop a White Onion Velouté. We were all happy.
Will and I switched to red wine which was a CJ Pask Gimblett Gravels Merlot from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand 2018 which was quite nice and had a decent heft to it for our main courses. The wine was brought to the table both times and never opened served or offered to be tasted. Now we've been in Wales for some time not to mention London and every time we ordered wine we were offered a taste even if it was just a glass which was always poured for us. Here they said that we had to open taste and pour our own wine due to the covid situation. I asked what happens if someone at once just a glass of wine and they said of course they would pour it... So makes no sense!! Of course, they poured the after-dinner scotch(and I am sure measured it to the dram!)
Sam's main course was a summer pea and butternut squash risotto with parmesan and pea shoots, which he declared the best risotto so far. Will had an absolutely fabulous corn-fed free range chicken which was 1st poached and then grilled so that the skin was super crispy and it was served with pak choi, Dauphinoise potatoes, parsnip cream, estate wild mushroom sauce and crispy pancetta. My main course was delcious local loin of pork and was supposed to come with roasted artichoke, king oyster mushroom, Pomme croquette and Madeira sauce, but arrives with one slice mushroom, asparagus, broccolini, the yummy crunchy potato and a pile of fennel, which I detest. I asked where the artichokes were and they apologized as they said they had run out. OOPS!
Since the meal includes dessert Sam and I chose the Poached caramelised pear with Bodysgallen damson(plum) sorbet and fresh local blackberries. Will went for the Trinity College cream which was a quasi-crème brulee with Bodysgallen poached rhubarb and rhubarb sorbet. It was nice to know that so many ingredients are grown or raised here on the 200-acre estate!
We were all very happy and hobbled out to the outdoor gardens to watch the sunset and have a very nice glass of scotch even if it was small.
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