Hotel Portmeirion Review

The rather unique tourist village of Portmerion in North Wales is a place that had been on my list to visit for a while and whilst staying in the area, it seemed as good a time as any to make the trip. Nestled seamlessly within the village is Hotel Portmeirion, home to a restaurant of some repute, having held two AA rosettes for many years and a receiver of overwhelmingly positive reviews from regular punters also across various online review platforms. It seemed like an ideal place to enjoy a quality meal, so I duly visited with my wife and two young children for lunch, on a sunny (if slightly wet) October Sunday.

Entry to Portmerion normally requires a paid ticket, but handily if eating lunch at the restaurant, free entry is included which allows you to stay in the village after your meal also. There's a sizeable car park for all visitors, and the restaurant is a pleasant sub-ten-minute walk away at the far end of the village. Externally the building is very much as you'd expect for the destination, in a stunning position overlooking the adjacent Dwyryd Estuary.

On arrival the welcome was perfectly friendly and professional, and we were shown to our table in the main dining room. The art-deco-styled room was redesigned in 2005 and although it has an impressive feel, it does in truth look a little tired in places. The views though from the windows (including from our table) are certainly noteworthy however. On offer for Sunday lunch is a three course menu, and there's also a well thought out three course children's menu also which was great to see and much appreciated.

The wine and drinks list is substantial with a large selection of wine by the glass; I enjoyed a couple of my usual Hendrick's and tonics during the meal, and there are some decent non-alcoholic cocktail options which my wife sampled one of also. Lunch began with some reasonable focaccia, albeit it was fairly dry which was a shame. But hey, it was complimentary so I can't really complain too much.

For starters, I opted for the seafood chowder served with crispy potatoes and dill; it was a decent dish with some enjoyable flavours. My wife enjoyed her mushroom parfait with beetroot, and the kids both went for the melon with fruit sorbet which they both loved. As a bonus it was nicely plated also; it's always refreshing to see a bit of effort on show when presenting dishes from a children's menu.

My main was the beef sirloin, served with a red wine sauce, a Yorkshire pudding and roasted onion puree. It was an OK dish but not really the level I'd been expecting here, not helped it has to be said by a chunk of cartilage still being present on the edge of one of my two thin slices of meat. My wife had slightly better luck with her roast lamb, and I should add our mains were accompanied by a generous selection of side dishes including some rather-too-solid roast potatoes, but also some very tasty cauliflower cheese. The kids enjoyed their cheese-burgers with chips, but overall I think the main courses here were a bit of a letdown.

Would desserts be any better? In short, yes! Whilst my wife wasn't blown away by her Basque style cheese cake, my chocolate delice (served with a very impressive bay leaf ice cream) was an absolutely top rate dessert which I really enjoyed. The kids as always were perfectly happy with some tasty ice cream and sorbet from the children's menu. And so as my wife and I took coffee to finish (not accompanied by any petit fours sadly), and received our bill (complete with ten percent service charge) a decent lunch came to an end.

Overall, we had an enjoyable visit here, but there were some definite issues. The service which started well did seem to deteriorate a little as the meal went on; I ordered a drink as the mains were delivered and it still hadn't arrived by the time we'd all finished that course, leaving me to chase up which was a tad frustrating and a fairly avoidable error. The food also was inconsistent; whilst some of what we were served was pushing three rosette level, some other dishes were barely worthy of a single rosette for me, which wasn't what I'd been expecting.

But look, this is still a thoroughly decent restaurant in a great spot and considering the inherently tourist dominated nature of Portmeirion, I didn't think the meal was bad value either. Although I wouldn't go out of my way to return, I'd certainly have no objection to eating here again in future if I was in the area.