Y Polyn
Nantgaredig, Carmarthenshire
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Remoteness is a virtue at this strikingly reconfigured 16th-century tollhouse. Run by Mark and Susan Manson as a cottagey restaurant with rooms, Y Polyn feels determinedly unpretentious, with bare mismatched tables, staff in jeans and diners encouraged to pour their own wine – although the glass-sided extension adds some modernist cool to proceedings. Appropriately, excellent home-baked sourdough bread lays down a marker for the menu, which exploits seasonal ingredients (local if possible) but puts an earthy European spin on things – as in pan-fried breast of wood pigeon partnered by a chickpea blini, pickled beets, carrot purée and walnut pesto dressing or a hefty slab of chargrilled Welsh sirloin with bourguignon sauce, cider-braised onion and beef-dripping chips. There’s always something sparky for vegetarians (perhaps roast aubergine and pearl barley risotto with chimichurri), while desserts are in the classic mould of dark chocolate mousse with griottine cherries or crème brûlée with home-baked shortbread. Lunch is a fixed-price steal, and Sunday brings a big, boisterous blowout. A very decent wine list scours the globe for appetising bottles at fair prices.
