Hills — Restaurant in Wales

It would appear that Hills is the place to go for burgers in the South of Wales. It proved a little challenging to get a table. The booking system could show ample capacity late morning, yet be completely booked out by late afternoon. In other words, book (somewhat) ahead. It was the strict cancellation policy that put us off. For a restaurant where the food bill per head is unlikely to exceed 20GBP by much, it seems overkill to have a 20GBP per head cancellation charge within 24hrs or if 15 min. late. Also, considering that walk-ins can often not be accommodated, it would appear unnecessary. I understand the predicament restaurants are currently in and I have never understood the gratuitous attitude of diners making reservations and not keeping the restaurant informed of changing plans, let alone no shows. But restaurants have now been veering to another extreme I also don't think fits the trade. With all of that preamble we had high expectations of the humble burger and certainly the menu rewards with more unusual choices. To be upfront, there was nothing seriously wrong with the three burgers we tried and we were glad that these burgers all offer a full package of sauces and toppings to finish off the dish. However, prices are steep when chips are excluded. When this is the case one expects excellence in balance and execution. Despite a warning from the waitress about the burgers not being fully cooked through, I found one of my patties still overdone. Also my Welsh Rarebit burger never even approached a Welsh Rarebit flavour. The nondescript sauce had no discernible hint of cheesy depths and the warm aroma of Worcester sauce. In fact, the whole thing as overly salty, worsened by the lardons. I found that the chicken burger my kids had suffered from the same, and the wild garlic mayonaise was too strong for them and quite beyond the mild garlicky flavour typically enjoyed from foraged wild garlic leaves. In contrast my partner's sweet and sour chicken burger had little to do with a traditional burger, but had the best balance and best cooked meat. The desert options were uninspiring and the sundae the kids shared lacked every hint of home production unfortunately (I sincerely hope it wasn't, as if it was it would be an unfortunate end result). I'm still awarding four stars, because when one lowers one's expectations to simply decent burgers with some creative options, Hills certain does deliver. Also, the rosemary salted chips were among the best flavoured and textures chips I've had in the UK in a few years. There is enough of a show of talent here that three stars would feel unwarranted. Perhaps my oversalted Rarebit was a fluke. I think their creative touches require some refinement to really shine. I'd try it again on the right occasion, but I would also consider the competition. It feels a little as if the place got hyped, but the kitchen at times fails to follow the curve (service took quite long despite the restaurant not being full and this being before the evening rush). Little improvements would secure a catch up with the reputation Hills clearly enjoys...

An Overpriced restaurant that doesn't care.

The lasting impression I will take away from Hills is that it is a restaurant that is guaranteed to be successful because of where it is placed and because of that it doesn't really have to care about anything it does. Nothing was really "right" about my visit for a burger.

We had a table booked, which is just as well as they turned away loads of customers in the time we were there, being fully booked - even though the place was less than half full - I'm guessing these booked tables were waiting for people to turn up (we were there an hour and a half though, and it was still the same when we left ?!) We had a friendly greeting when we arrived, the place looks great. The view is obviously absolutely magnificent. Then it took over 10 minutes for anyone to come and take an order, even though the waiting staff were doing next to nothing, just milling around. In the end I had to wave to get attention. If everyone is busy - fair enough, but when they're not, cmon guys.

I ordered the New York Burger and Onion Strings with a pint of Neck Oil, my wife ordered the Japanese Pork burger and fries with a homemade Cherry Lemonade. Drinks came out in about 10 minutes, Food came out in about 20.

The burger patties were totally under flavoured/seasoned. They just tasted of basic meat. The bun on mine wasn't buttered or steamed so it was dry. My wife's burger came out between 2 pieces of inch thick white bread and not a bun - why isn't that mentioned on the menu !? I think they used cold pastrami in my burger which of course brought the temperature of the patties down to near cold, especially with the cold sauerkraut. So I had a burger that was basically cold from the outset. The cherry Lemonade was a nice lemonade but didn't really taste of cherry. Even the pint of Neck Oil tasted really fizzy which its not meant to. The only good part was the onion strings, but you'd expect that when you're paying over 6 quid for 1 onion. To check out I had to basically shout someone over after waiting 10 minutes after finished eating - remember the staff still aren't busy at this point.

24 pounds for a special burger and fries is an expensive burger - you have to expect better than this all round. Here's the thing - that view is amazing and will always have people in their cars stopping to eat. Also, the restaurant is on the side of a caravan camp so it's always going to have customers from there too. Consequently they don't HAVE to do a good job, they don't HAVE to care about what they're doing because customers will always be there. And it shows. In every part of the experience.

If you want a burger from a restaurant that really cares, go to The Beefy Boys or Ansh in Cardiff - the experience is like chalk and cheese.

Disappointing and not...

I have to say that it was really nice to finally achieve a visit to Hills at Brecon. We booked our visit for first serving at 12.00 on the Friday, on-line and considering it was Thursday when we booked I felt quite chuffed to have got a booking as I had heard it was normally busy. In reality if you want a table for the evening or the weekend it would be very wise to book a bit in advance. When booking on-line you will need to put your card details in and if you dont show you are charged £20. Also if you arrive over 15 mins late you could lose your table. I personally didn't have any problem with this as 'no shows' must be a real challenge to any busy restaurant. We arrived and were promptly shown to our table that gave us a fabulous view of the Mountains and Pen-y-fan. The restaurant was lovely and clean and the decor was very pleasant. Our visit was the first day of a new menu. I chose the crispy shredded beef burger, it was unreal! It wasn't like the thin crispy strips from a chinese, these were thicker, super lean, very crispy and covered in a sauce best described as "amazing" The beef patties come cooked "medium well" as standard (which for me was perfect) but you can have them how you want. My wife ordered the Carbonara chicken and she loved it. She described the chicken as "crispy but not dry" and the sauce "lovely". High praise from my wife as she is particular about food. We also had 'Beefburger fries' to share which were dirty fries with crushed patty , cheese sauce and pickles (which were great) etc etc. Really nice. These two burgers and the fries were all we needed as the food was very filling and I left feeling very satisfied. We washed our food down with white Americano coffee and it was of a very high quality which is unusual nowadays. The young lady who looked after us was friendly and attentive. Spot on really. Don't be put off if your in a more senior age group thinking this is a burger joint. This place is for 'foodies' of all ages. Well done HILLS! You smashed it!!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ We will be...