The Castle Hotel Review

Dating back to the nineteenth century, The Castle Hotel in Conwy is an historic venue and long time holder of an AA rosette also (and indeed two rosettes for several years in the past). After a visit to the world renowned Conwy Castle, it seemed an ideal place nearby to try, so I duly rocked up for lunch with my wife and two children, on a crisp October Friday.

As a town centre venue, there's no dedicated parking here but Conwy does have a few pay and display car parks dotted around. We originally parked at the car park next to Conwy Castle in the morning, but that has a four hour limit, so we moved to the Bodlondeb car park and enjoyed a short walk back into town.

The welcome on arrival was warm and friendly and we were given the option to eat in the bar area as the restaurant was empty, but we opted for the restaurant anyway (we don't mind a quiet room at all when eating with the kids). We were the only table booked in I think for that lunch service, but another family group did visit for lunch as a walk-in while we were there.

The dining room is a perfectly comfortable space and decor wise what you'd expect really from a lot of hotel restaurants of this style. The only thing we didn't like was quite a strong musty sewage smell throughout the meal (the rear fire door was open so it was possibly coming from there) but it didn't really affect our meal.

On offer at lunch is a comprehensive three course carte menu, including a range of pre-dinner snacks and sandwiches, and there's a full three course children's menu too which is always appreciated. Our waitress informed us this new carte menu only launched the evening before which added a bit more intrigue to what we were ordering.

Drinks wise, there's what I would call a comprehensive hotel restaurant selection, including a good choice of wine and cocktails, plus a decent range of non-acholic options. My wife and daughter enjoyed some virgin mojitos and passion fruit no-tini's during the meal, whilst my Hendrick's and tonic was perfectly well delivered.

Lunch began for me with the gin cured salmon, served with pickled cucumber, avocado and lime yoghurt. This was a nice fresh dish and tasted how I hoped it would when I saw it on the menu; I'd happily eat that dish again any time. My wife opted for the lamb kofta scotch egg, served with a coriander yoghurt and pickled red onion. This was a very tasty dish; the scotch egg itself carried a lovely flavour and was well made, it was a really solid plate.

My daughter went for the charcuterie selection to start which was a decent portion and perfectly edible, whilst my son enjoyed a slice of garlic bread from the children's menu. It's safe to say we were all very happy with our starters here.

The mains didn't take too long to come out; I went for the burger, served on a sourdough bun with fries and coleslaw. It wasn't the best burger I've ever had, but it was a pretty decent effort and I enjoyed it. My daughter had the same whilst my wife opted for the butternut squash pithivier. This was a really good dish; the pastry was well made, the flavours were all strong and the sage sauce was delicious. My son was perfectly happy too with his side of tasty skinny fries.

After some enjoyable savoury courses, of course there was no chance of us leaving without dessert. I went for the dark chocolate and praline choux bun, served with passion fruit sorbet. This wasn't a great dish to be honest, the flavours were pleasant but the choux bun pastry was overly chewy and not super enjoyable. I did enjoy the sorbet on the side though.

My wife went for the apple cheesecake served with blackberry sorbet. This was a better dessert, the cheesecake was nice and the accompanying sorbet was perfectly tasty too. My daughter had a single scoop of blackcurrant sorbet, whilst my son enjoyed the ice cream builder from the children's menu, vanilla ice cream with sprinkles, marshmallows and a (slightly odd) solid lump of chocolate sauce.

Collecting the bill (complete with a 10% service charge just on the food items) was no issue, and one thing I did really appreciate is that certain items eligible for the set 2-3 course lunch pricing (£17.95 for two courses, £25.95 for three) had automatically been discounted even though we'd ordered from the menu without really paying any attention to which dishes were part of that deal. I was also grateful our waitress adjusted the price of my daughter's dessert since she was only served a single scoop of sorbet, meaning the listed £6.95 menu price for a 'selection' would have been a bit excessive.

And that as they say was pretty much that. Overall, we enjoyed our lunch here. The food on the whole was hearty, tasty and well cooked and to be honest, better than I'd been expecting. The service too was good; all the staff were perfectly pleasant and we were well looked after. I think the meal was fair value also, and I'd certainly have no objection to eating here again in future.