Pembrokeshire Pasty & Pie Company

We heard some exciting news this week with the launch at Penally Abbey of the Pembrokeshire Pasty and Pie Co. My cousin Ollie (Oliver Booth) and his old friend Dominic Spencer-Churchill have been sourcing great local ingredients from the Pembrokeshire area and have come up with some scrumpious flavours of pies and pasties which include the Tenby Treat (beef and stilton), the Friendly Dragon (I think my girls might have this one down as mine!!) which is chicken in a light curry sauce and the Caldey Island (fish in a creamy white sauce with leeks and tarragon). The Traditional Pembrokeshire Pasty sounds my favourite by far, consisting of Welsh lamb, red currant jelly, currants and mint but certainly different to the norm is the Preselli Mountain Breakfast consisting of bacon, sausage, egg, tomatoes and beans!

What is great about this venture is that Ollie has put a lot of research up front to source guaranteed local ingredients, all grown and reared in Pembrokeshire and of doutless excellent quality. They will be baked locally as well.

Following the launch party last week we can all look forward to the first shop opening in Tenby on 1st March (we were in Tenby this weekend and as of last night the sign writer was just putting the finishing touches to the Pembrokeshire Pie and Pasty sign above the shop in George Street!).

This will be followed by a flagship store in Cardiff later in the year and a roll out plan for many more over 5 years.

The motto "Farm Fresh, Farm Made, Farm Filled" says it all with every pie and pasty being its own Parcel of Pembrokeshire Magic.

I really wish Ollie well in this venture and can't wait to try them all - how perfect, en route to the Castle Beach in the summer to pick a couple of these up for lunchtime! That will save Jon having to "nip to the Hope and Anchor for sandwiches" hopefully!!

The Ocean Restaurant, Tenby

We've had a really nice weekend down in Tenby over half term - a journey from hell which took over 6 hours in the thick snow (!) but worth it as the weather in Pembrokeshire was glorious.

We had the obligatory fish and chips on Friday night from the Park Road Fish Bar - delicious as ever and then last night ventured to the Ocean Restaurant, overlooking the harbour and with a special offor of "half price food" as advertised in the Tenby Observer. This offer is until 7pm (I think) so we booked in for 6.15pm as the girls were with us.

The atmosphere was lovely - warm, cosy with friendly service. We'd had a larger than planned lunch do went straight for main course. Jon and I both ordered the Rib Eye Steak in a peppercorn sauce and the girls opted for a Tropicana Pizza and a mozarella garlic bread between them. We also ordered a bottle of Valpollicella at £15.95 which was average.

The steaks were delicious and cooked really well - the quality of the meat was very good - juicy and succulent. The sauce was a little non descript - not much flavour but didn't spoil the meal as the steak was so good. The accompanying veg were disappointing - it was served with a few chips, a grilled tomato and a few shallot rings which were OK but also came with veg (new potatoes, broccoli and carrots) which were clearly reheated from a previous sitting and a bit grey and uninviting.

That said, the pizza and garlic bread were very tasty and almost everything got eaten. The "offer" was honoured and our bill (including the wine) came to only £41 due to the half price food. I would certainly go again when the offer is on but not sure I would be happy with paying the real price of £18.95 for the rib eye steak.

The Mulberry, Saundersfoot

We were over in Saundersfoot yesterday visiting family and decided to revisit the Mulberry Restaurant for some lunch as we were all starving! I think the last time I was there was following a funeral when we hadn't eaten all day so ended up there for a steak. Not sure whether it was because we were starving that time but I remember it being an incedibly good rib eye steak!

Anyway, the menu is reasonably priced at around £7 - £8 a dish and they are good sized portions. The menu is fairly traditional with all the old favourites on but that is just what we were fancying!

Imogen ordered the luxury fish at £7.50 which was a good size and came with peas and carrots. It had great flavour and certainly tasted homemade. Jon ordered the beef burger and fries at £7.50 - a good size, cooked well (not overdone) and again very tasty with a good side of fries. I ordered the boiled ham with parsley sauce, mash and veg. Good slabs of ham, plenty of tasty sauce and nicely firm fresh veg. Very good. Scarlett wasn't very hungry so ordered the ham sandwich (£4.95) which was amazing value as it was thick slices of proper ham on thick hunks of white bread served with fries and coleslaw.

The service was prompt and friendly with a nice warm atmosphere generally and with a total bill of £38 including drinks I would thoroughly recommend it.

Bar 10, Tenby

As you can see we ate out quite a lot which is always nice when on holiday. We were there for the first few days with our friends Mark and Sarah who also have 2 small children so on this occasion we got the lovely Mrs Lewis in to babysit (I still don't know how old she is but she is definitely over 80 years old!) and went out without the children for a change!
We stopped at the Bush for a drink on the way (obviously!) and then made our way into Bar 10 at around 8pm. This has been a Burger bar for years so not quite my cup of tea so was pleasantly surprised to find it really nicely decorated - uber modern and very "wine bar" with a real buzz to it. For atmosphere this has to be the highlight of the holiday and comes highly recommended!
We had a table upstairs which overlooked George Street so we could watch the world go by as we chatted. The menu was good and included some fish specials as well as some interesting dishes such as good old fashioned liver and bacon.
We ordered some wine and perused the menu finally deciding on starters of crayfish and prawn cocktail for myself, whitebait for Sarah and fishcakes for both Jon and Mark. All were delicious - my prawn cocktail was really fresh, crisp and a delight to eat. The whitebait were a blast to the past and the fishcakes were tasty.
For mains we ordered steak and chips for myself and Mark and the liver and bacon for Sarah and Jon. Again, cooked really well, freshly served and very tasty.
A pretty good meal and well priced although on that night the only thing letting the place down was the slightly unfriendly waiter but having returned a few days later for a light lunch (and a much less busy bar!) the chap was much more accommodating and we had a nice glass of wine with some friends.
This would be in my top 2 places to eat in Tenby at the minute - the atmosphere is great, food tasty and not overpriced.

The Hope and Anchor Tenby

I cannot visit Tenby (and write my blog!!) without mentioning the legendary Hope and Anchor pub down in St Julian Street! Normally when the sun is relentless (not very often!!) it is a pleasant reprieve on our way back from a hard day on the Castle Beach to stop for a cold pint and a bag of crisps but this trip the weather was not good and we only managed this 2 or 3 times. Nonetheless good to see the same old people that are there most nights and funny that the kids' highlight of the entire holiday was watching Frostie on a skateboard (rumour has it he'd had a couple of shandies!) being led by 2 Dobermans until he flipped backwards on his bum amongst general roars of laughter!

Anyway, we went down there for dinner on our last night and had a reasonable meal. The portions are good value as there is always more than enough to fill you up. We ordered as follows: a garlic chicken for Imogen, an 8oz sirloin steak and chips for Scarlett (yes - the 8 yr old!), a Balti curry for Jon and Moules Mariniere for me. Service was prompt and all the meals were good although my mussels were not as good as the Qube (a bit too salty!). The garlic chicken breast was really tasty (highly recommended) and the Balti for Jon was the second curry of the day...oh to be on holiday all the time!

The Qube Restaurant, Tenby

For years, our family friends the Charnocks, had the Pam Pam Restaurant in Tenby and I could never imagine it as anything else, but now it has been updated and taken over by a young local chef and is renamed the Qube Restaurant. It is right in the heart of the town square in Tenby with seats outside in the daytime.

We booked a table for my husband's birthday and the girls were looking forward to it as we had had a good meal there last year.

We were greeted by a really friendly, cheerful waitress who continued to look after us all very well. The decor is still in need of a bit of a revamp but this did not spoil our evening in any way.

We ordered a mussels in creamy sauce to start and Jon ordered king prawns. Both were totally delicious and suffice to say that having had mussels in at least 6 Tenby restaurants this trip, these were the best by far.

We ordered main courses as follows (kids meals are available and are actually free if you eat between 5 - 6 pm but it was a special treat and the girls went "grown up"): Whole lemon sole with butter for myself, Sea bass for Jon, braised lamb shank for Immy and the grilled salmon steak for Scarlett. They were all good - the lemon sole was moist and tasty and Immy managed to finish her entire lamb dish. The sea bass was a little misleading - we thought it was a fillet but came out in a puff pastry case - a bit like a giant vol au vent! It tasted Ok though and there were plentiful amounts of sides to accompany. The garlic potatoes were a little disappointing - the garlic clearly had not been cooked through but it was not a big problem.

We had a thoroughly nice evening (despite the lashing rain!) and although pricey (between £6 and £9 for a starter and £12 to £18 for a main) this was probably the best food we had in Tenby during our visit, along with Bar 10 which I will review separately.

Ronniz Wine Bar, Tenby

Well, we have finally got back from 2 weeks in Tenby and although the weather was pretty bad we still had a lovely time with a few days on the beach and general relaxation!

We ate in lots of places so I am intending over the next few days to review most of them.
Ronniz Wine Bar came as a recommendation and we have eaten nice food in here before but unfortunately things were not good this time!

We have since found out the Matt Ronowitz (who has to be the best chef in Tenby!) has sold this business on and is now the chef at the Qube Restaurant which I shall review later. Location wise it is just off the Tudor Square in St Julian Street - a thriving street that leads down to the harbour.
The concept is great - Spanish Tapas with a "6 dishes for £20" which sounded good as a light lunch for us (2 young children included). They also do other food which includes steaks etc but we were after something light as we were going back down the beach bodyboarding (the kids were anyway!).

We chose 6 dishes which included mussels in a creamy parmesan sauce, squid in a tomato sauce, sole goujons, meatballs, beef strips in a chilli sauce and finally prawns wrapped in bacon in a garlic sauce. We also ordered a garlic bread and a portion of fries for safe measure.

Our mouths were watering as the dishes were described deliciously in the menu. Alarm bells should have rung when our bottle of white wine arrived unchilled in a wine holder with a glass already poured and topped up with ice cubes! This is a wine bar with no cold white wine??

Suffice to say the food took a good while (we were the only people in there - it was only 12 o'clock) though I am not sure why as it was clearly reheated, and tasted so. In fact the meatballs were not even reheated through - they were cold in the middle. Overall thoroughly disappointing when I have had good tapas all over the world.

We did not visit again.

D Fecci's - Tenby

Just reading in the Times, their review of the Top 50 Beaches in the UK. Not un-surprisingly, Barafundle Beach is listed in the Top 10 and is near to Tenby where I grew up. During my childhood the beach was always deserted (normally because of the half mile hike from car park), but I think that these days with all the good reviews it has received it must have more visitors! We must check it out when we next visit Pembrokeshire.
Interestingly The Times also reviewed 10 of the best seaside fish & chip shops so I was delighted to see D Fecci & Sons of Tenby listed! Now that I live in the Midlands we ONLY have fish and chips when we head off to Tenby yet when I was smaller, Fecci's fish and chips were a must at least once a week! They really are delicious, made from locally grown potatoes and Milford Haven caught fresh fish. I'm not sure if rissoles are a welsh thing? My sister religiously would have rissole and chips whilst we all tucked in to the fish and chips. The curry sauce is a must for me too - to dip your chips in!!
The staff are always friendly and joking - you can eat in or take away - do yourself a favour if you're off to Tenby - plan at least one night for Fecci's fish & chips!

About Heidi

As a wife, mother and a dedicated cook, I was inspired to produce my own website, Dinner at Home to list some of my favourite recipes and share my ideas with regard to entertaining at home.

This blog will allow me to share more of my thoughts regarding food in general, including my favourite restaurants, my comments on recent food related TV programmes.

In addition to writing about food, I make no apologies for including references to Tenby, in South Wales, where I was lucky enough to grow up and where I continue to enjoy many family holidays.

Please keep checking back on these pages and feel free to add your comments.