Annwn — Restaurant in Wales

Annwn

My wife and I dined at Annwn on Sunday 23 February, whilst taking a long weekend break in Pembrokeshire. We enjoy fine dining and had also been lucky enough to dine at The Fernery at The Grove Hotel the night before, which was excellent. However we were also looking forward to the experience at Annwn and we weren’t disappointed.

Annwn is a small restaurant, with a maximum of 10 covers, based in an old bank in the centre of Narberth. The restaurant offers a 10 course tasting menu and is run by chef patron Matt Powell and his partner Naiomi. For anyone familiar with fine dining, there are often selected tables known as ‘chefs tables’ which provide visibility of the kitchen for the diners to watch the chef at work. At Annwn the kitchen is completely open plan with the servery straight in front of the diners. Here each diner gets to experience the theatre of Matt preparing and cooking his dishes in the open plan kitchen. His creations are then served by Matt himself, ably assisted by Naiomi. As he serves the dishes Matt explains them in detail. Unlike many restaurants, because the kitchen is open you get the opportunity to talk to Matt whilst he is preparing the dishes. Many of the ingredients used, all locally sourced, are foraged from Pembrokeshire’s shoreline and countryside and the menu changes with the seasons and reflects the quality of local suppliers.

The evening we dined at Annwn there were only 4 diners in the restaurant, including ourselves, and we had front row seats straight in front of the servery. The food was sublime and meticulously presented on a wide variety of pieces of crockery, many of which used natural items (i.e.slate) to complement the restaurant’s style.

We have been very fortunate over the years to dine in a number of fine dining restaurants around the world, several of which hold Michelin Stars, and some of which have a menu based largely on foraged items. Surprisingly, Annwn doesn’t yet hold a Michelin Star, although it does hold a Michelin Green Star, together with a number of other awards and is one of the UK’s top 100 restaurants. We can only assume, and hope, that this will change soon as the meal experience was exceptional in every respect - and easily equal to (if not better than) some of the meals we have had in restaurants which hold Michelin stars.

I have attached a photo of the menu and a photo of each of the dishes. If you enjoy fresh produce and are happy to be a little adventurous in what you eat, I guarantee Annwn is the place to go; you will need to book well in advance and probably have to be a little flexible on date, however, it will be worth it, you won’t be disappointed. We can’t...

We have just returned from West Wales where we enjoyed one of the best dining experiences we have ever had, at Annwn in Narbeth, Pembrokeshire.

You could easily walk by the white house in the centre of Narbeth without a whisper of the genius that lies inside, but once in the door, you won't want to miss a thing. The space is light and airy, and exclusive. When we dined, there were just seven guests -  Annwn deliberately caters for a limited number of people each night that it is open (currently Thursday to Sunday). Matt and Naomi invite each of their guests to feel part of the experience. Every table faces the open kitchen so that diners can see the alchemy that takes place. As a result, you also get a clear understanding of how much care, thought, preparation and love goes into each dish.

There is a set menu (although Matt was happy to cater for my non-meat eating dietary requirements), which comprised twelve courses when we dined there. Each features local produce, either foraged for and grown by Matt and Naomi or sourced from local producers - and you can taste the freshness of these ingredients. But it is what Matt does with these ingredients that makes it all such a magical experience. Seaweeds, seeds, leaves and coastal plants play an integral role. The combinations are unusual and inspiring, cleverly put together to showcase the local fish, lamb, oysters, cheese, vegetables.

This is exceptional food. Here lies creativity, passion, craftsmanship and the obviously genuine desire that Matt and Naomi have to share their knowledge and love of the food they source and prepare. Once a course is served, Matt goes to each table in turn to explain the ingredients and how they were prepared, so that you can savour the flavour combinations all the more. We particularly enjoyed the 'Wild garlic preserved in its cycle', the 'tatws a winwns' (potato, onion and onion sauce), the 'pelydr draenen' (thornback ray, spider crab, laver, crab sauce), the 'afal gwyllt' (fermented crab apple ice) and the 'sopas "mead so sweet"' (meadowsweet cheese curd, Boulston honey).

The wine menu includes local Welsh wines; the white we tried was light and refreshing and lasted us the whole evening, which runs from 7.30pm to 11.30pm. Savour every moment - such a dining experience is a...

Some things bear repeating… Annwn is definitely in that category, our second visit was very special for me because the main attraction was sewin, the fish of my childhood dreams. There were some familiar parts of the taster menu with little tweaks and refinements that enhanced and excited but it begs the question how do you improve on perfection…? well I guess variation is an improvement of sorts but the quality was so incredible the first time round I didn’t quite believe it could be bettered… well the spider crab and the sewin and the oyster mousse were variations that did bring something new and special. One course was simply called carrot, the simplicity of the name concealing a truly wonderful presentation of the humble vegetable in as fine a form as one could expect anywhere in the world… served with salted whim berries in a jus it made me smile for its honesty and then revel in how something so simple could taste quite that good, as is the case with all the offerings I’ve sampled at Annwn. The first time I reviewed this amazing place I spoke of how it tasted of Pembrokeshire and that if, like me, you love this place, Annwn is a must on any visit, and indeed a reason for one. But on our second visit with the sublime sewin just warmed through and served with its own reduction, Matt took me to a new cove that I’ve never visited before and made me wonder at the astonishing beauty of this place which Matt has the inherent knack of realising in his menu… there should...