Cwtch, St Davids, Pembrokeshire restaurant review

Situated in the UK’s weeniest city of St Davids on the Pembrokeshire coast, Cwtch has built up a big reputation since opening its doors in 2005.

Named the Good Food Guide’s readers’ restaurant of the year in Wales 2012, they’ve since changed ownership and former sous chef Andy Holcroft has stepped up to the role of head chef.

It’s very much Cwtch by name, cwtch by nature. The dining room is a cosy, warm kind of place furnished with soft cushions, flickering candles, exposed wooden beams and a fireplace waiting to be lit when the chill of winter sets in.

The menu, packed with comfort food made using local produce, sticks to the same theme as well.

Whilst we picked from the evening menu, which offers either 2 courses for £26 or 3 courses for £30, we noshed on a plate of enjoyably spongy olive focaccia. 

 
Starters were successful across the board.

A couple of generous doorstops of tender ham hock terrine, flecked with apricots and pistachios, were served with punchy piccalilli.

It would be a shame to travel all the way to the Pembrokeshire coast and not eat some locally caught fish. Thankfully, the fruits of the sea are well represented on Cwtch’s menu.

Potted Solva crab was laden with tender white meat, earthy brown meat, flecked with fragrant coriander and topped with a good glug of clarified butter. Slathered over toast it was a cracking starter. 

Onto mains, where a couple of glitches slipped in.

A crisp-skinned fillet of sewin was beautifully flavoured but a little overcooked. It was accompanied by soft and sweet confit fennel, salty samphire and a distinctively Welsh take on a sauce vierge packed with Penclawdd cockles, olive oil, diced tomatoes & lemon juice. 

Mrs G Thai-style main was highly rated. A couple of tender sea bass fillets were served with perfectly sticky & fragrant jasmine rice, a delicately fragranced lemongrass and coconut broth and richness busting pickled ginger. 

A bowl of seasonal vegetables however was pretty uninspiring – boiled potatoes, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower needed at least a knob of butter to pep them up a bit. 

For dessert, a crème brulee was well executed; the crisp crust and creamy custard were both present and correct. 

A bara brith sticky toffee pudding meanwhile was a successful mash-up of two classics. A soft, sticky fruit-packed cake was drenched in toffee and chocolate sauce and accompanied by smooth vanilla ice cream. The only problem, it was served an odd lukewarm temperature. 

Dinner at Cwtch was really good but not faultless. It’s somewhere I’ll certainly be heading back to when I’m in Pembrokeshire.

The Details:

Address - Cwtch, 22 High Street, St Davids, Pembrokeshire SA62 6SD
Web - http://cwtchrestaurant.co.uk/

Telephone - 01437 720491