Penygawse — Restaurant in Wales

On a long trip from the Midlands to West Wales, my girlfriend, her grand-daughter and I stopped off in Llandovery for a break and a cuppa. There are quite a few cafe-type places on the very busy high street, some seedier looking than others (!) and we made our way up-town until we saw this tea-shop. It's a bit more than a tea-shop, it transpired. A vintage building with tables under cover outside, just off the pavement. We sat there to start with, then realised that smoking was allowed ouside the shop, so we moved inside quite quickly where such a nasty habit is verboten. ||||I ordered a cheese panino (panini being more than one!!) with chips, the other two had salad-type things with tea/coffee/soft drinks. The order arrived very quickly despite the fact that the place was heaving with customers. ||||Now, if you've read my other reviews on this site, you will now that I'm pretty picky, but no need to worry in this eating-place: the panino was fresh ciabatta with cheese you could taste (how amazing is that??), the chips were voluminous and FANTASTIC, salads were crisp/fresh, drinks were spot on. In fact those chips were so good that my non-chip-eating girlfirend gave in to the temptation and helped me polish them off. I was not happy. WIth her, not the chips.||||When paying the not-expensive bill, I offered my compliments to the guy at the till who turned out to be the owner of the cafe. Great guy, and I got into a conversation with him about the merits of providing top-quality fare, his principles and mine are so simple and obvious: make it good and the punters will return and tell others. Which is what I am doing here, of course. It shocks me how many places drum up cheap, tastless rubbish and wonder why they aren't thriving. This one is so far away from that, it's in another league altogether.||||So, what a find. Such a find that we made a point of calling there for lunch on the way home from holiday and we were not disappointed. If you visit Llandovery; you are hungry, and you DON'T visit this cafe, you...

The only reason I gave 4 stars is the road outside.|We have been in here three times at various times since having our caravan nearby.|The Ploughman's lunch was exceptional but we ate outside which in our opinion this was a mistake the traffic through Llandovery is constant and largely commercial.|The second time a young lady met me at the door as I was waiting for Leila so I said I had to wait for the boss. When our Latte arrived the Barista wrote The Boss on hers, when I had seconds it was inscriber The Real Boss ( if only). I had ham egg and chips which was a really good portion, sadly frozen chips but hot and nice. Leila had beef cawl which was nice but very salty she said. My Dad used to go on about cawl as some wonderful mystery food from his youth, it took quite a while for me to realise it Is Welsh for soup.|The third visit I had a beef roll which again was a bit salty but nice and very tender and the bread was lovely.Sadly can't remember what it Leila had but she didn't complain. Sadly they are closed now until after Christmas when we...

The only reason I gave 4 stars is the road outside.|We have been in here three times at various times since having our caravan nearby.|The Ploughman's lunch was exceptional but we ate outside which in our opinion this was a mistake the traffic through Llandovery is constant and largely commercial.|The second time a young lady met me at the door as I was waiting for Leila so I said I had to wait for the boss. When our Latte arrived the Barista wrote The Boss on hers, when I had seconds it was inscriber The Real Boss ( if only). I had ham egg and chips which was a really good portion, sadly frozen chips but hot and nice. Leila had beef cawl which was nice but very salty she said. My Dad used to go on about cawl as some wonderful mystery food from his youth, it took quite a while for me to realise it Is Welsh for soup.|The third visit I had a beef roll which again was a bit salty but nice and very tender and the bread was lovely.Sadly can't remember what it Leila had but she didn't complain. Sadly they are closed now until after Christmas when we...