This has to be in the top 4 pubs in llanrwst. It's always clean and everyone is always friendly…read more The beer there is a bit pricy but it's worth it.

Recently discovered this gem on a trip to Snowdonia. Wonderful pub food, serving local meats and…read moreingredients. We ate here twice, easily the best food in the local vicinity and the atmosphere is especially suited to cold wintry nights. We had the homemade Steak & Ale pie and Slow braised Lamb Hock, both were divine. This is not fine dining but British classics using excellent local ingredients and executed wonderfully. I imagine this is the kind of fare that the local folk and the farming community have been getting for centuries but virtually impossible to find for us city slickers The perfect reward after conquering Snowdon!

We stayed at the Ty Gwyn hotel in Betws-y-coed, Cymru (Wales) in the early part of October, 2012…read more My sister found it and booked us a couple of rooms for two nights. The hotel is a B&B as well as a very popular restaurant. Betws-y-coed is a gateway to Snowdonia, the national park which is a must visit if you're in the area. If you stay some place else, you must try to get a reservation to the restaurant. And getting a reservation on a Friday and a Saturday looked like a hard thing to do. The food is excellent, well served. The breakfasts are amazing. The ambience in the somewhat cramped environment is charming. The hotel itself is very well run. The staff, and in particular Rob (?) and the owners son whose name we forgot to get, were all very professional and friendly. They do have wifi but it does not extend into the rooms unfortunately. Which means we had to go and sit in the tiny lobby to get a good signal. But it is there and it is free. The rooms are small and most come with en suite bathrooms. Some rooms look like they have the bathroom across the hall but are dedicated to a single room. Everything was clean and well taken care off though not new. The lamps are low. I'm not tall and it was easy to brush my head against the chandelier. Mattress was comfortable, room was warm, the shower had good pressure, tea and coffee provided. The outer walls to this hotel are thick. The walls between rooms are thin so noise travels easily. My wife could hear the guy next door snoring. I easily rose to the challenge and out-snored him according to her. One of the main drawbacks to the hotel is that it is right on the street. And a busy one at that during the day. And by right on the street I mean you have to watch traffic carefully as you walk next to the hotel. Traffic noise does seep in but traffic dies down at night to pick up again in the morning. It wasn't a problem for me. If you're sensitive, then a room on the back of the hotel might be better. I liked my view of the river from our window. It's a little walk across a bridge to get to the town but it's not a big deal. Definitely go to the restaurant for an evening meal. You won't be sorry. I really enjoyed staying here and recommend it to anyone.

Our hopes were high as we had passed by Stables a few times while in the area and, in spite of…read morebeing cautioned by locals to "try another place," we gave it a try. The outdoor dining area is well done, though pretty chilly on the afternoon we visited. The bar area was nothing special and was barely occupied by guests during our meal. I went with the Penne Paste which was just "OK"...nothing special to the taste and arrived promptly but barely warm. My dining partner's Herb Roasted Chicken was good but again, just warm. By the way, the Stables 200ml diet coke @ 2.99 is clearly gouging and well above other local restaurants. Once the food was dropped we never saw another staff member...no surprise. We and the three tables around us agreed the place is surviving on location and little else. Service, food quality and the local reputation were sub-par. Too bad but there are other nearby options who are interested in providing a good guest experience. Spend your money elsewhere.

The Stables is a part of the Royal Oak complex in Betws-y-Coed. There is plenty of outdoor seating…read moreavailable in the yard but there is also a nicely decorated interior - it's all beams, wood and brass. The bar offers a good selection of drinks and there is also a varied food menu which includes a wide selection of dishes ranging from mixed grills to pizza to currys. There's something for everyone. I opted for a medium spiced Chicken Tikka with rice (but could have had chips or half and half). Naan bread was available as a extra. Despite the bar being fairly busy the food arrived within ten minutes. Betws attracts lots of climbers and ramblers and clearly the portions are designed for people looking to refuel. Not only was the quality excellent, containing lots of chunks of chicken, but I got more than enough of it. If you're after a good feed, a nice drink and fast and efficient service then this is the place to go.

great local ale pub. friendly regulars, good choice of ale, decent food menu. Dog friendly too. New…read moreowners late last year so hoping its still same.

The Maenan Abbey is a grand, regal looking hotel with a large car park and well kept formal gardens…read moreto the front, and dense woodland across the road. Coupled with the backdrop of the imposing Welsh hills, over which a storm was brewing, this was a great location for a hotel, save for the static caravan site. On entering, the whole place was opulently decorated, if slightly shabby in places, the central staircase was particularly impressive. Things started to go a little awry through as we checked in, as the person behind reception gestured to us 'Your rooms up the stairs on the left', rather dismissively. The room itself was tidy enough, with a good view of the hilly scenery, but again the decoration was in need of a bit of attention. The bed as it turned out, creaked even if you stretched your leg and was very uncomfortable, leading to one of the worst nights sleep I've had in a hotel. The tiny TV in the room would have better situated on the wall adjacent to the bed, rather than on a set of drawers, from which it was difficult for two people to watch. As Qype stars were falling off at an alarming rate, I decided to look for some positives. The bathroom was large and spacious, but unfortunately rang out a symphony of noise as you flushed the loo (air in the pipes), the bath when I tried to run one, was lukewarm and the frosted glass only covered the bottom half of the bathroom window! As we watched the football results before going down for an evening meal, the strong smell of fried food wafted under the bedroom door from the kitchen, delightful, still on a plus we knew when our breakfast was ready in the morning! As we descended down for our evening meal, the Maenan Abbey was definitely at a solitary star, however, our evening meal was a very pleasurable experience. Friendly staff beckoned us into a large lounge area, bathed in fading September light and we were seated in some rather grandiose armchairs whilst we had a drink from the well-stocked bar. In these pleasant surrounding we chose our three dishes from the menu for a set price of £12.95 - bargain! When our starters were ready, we were taken into a very impressive, if again slightly worn dining room. The meal was excellent, with the highlight being the superb Tempura King Prawn starter, and the sea bass and steak mains, which came with a slight supplementary price. Just for this meal alone, I have added a star. After getting little sleep, the Welsh breakfast was great, just what we needed for long journey. Would we dine here again? - definitely, if we had not stayed here and only dined, Maenan Abbey would be looking at a solid four stars. The accommodation however, leaves a lot to be desired, it could be so good, with just a bit of money spent on it!

I used to pass the Maenan Abbey on the way to school every day but it isn't somewhere I've actually…read moreset foot in too often. However I did get to visit recently when the organisation I work for opted to hold their Christmas meal there. Apparently the area director had been there earlier in the year and was so impressed he decided it was the ideal venue. The first thing to bear in mind if you do intend to visit (or attend a party) is that it's pretty much impossible to reach the Abbey via any public transport other than a taxi. The road outside is busy and doesn't have a footpath, the nearest railway station is some distance away across fields and buses only run down the other side of the valley. Fortunately I managed to arrange a lift. The building itself is quite impressive and inside has a kind of authentic shabbiness that somehow adds character to the place. In the lobby is a piano that is played by a teddy bear which isn't something you see every day. As for the food, well it was better than I had anticipated, although the menu did sound impressive. I had a duck starter, small slices of duck served with a pot of red onions in some sort of dressing and a small pot of chutney. Very tasty, well presented (a little bit Masterchef) and just the right size. My main course was sirloin of beef, two thick cut slices served on a bed of mashed potato. Each table got plates of roast potatos and vegetables to share. There was plenty to go around and on the whole most people enjoyed their food. The one exception seemed to be the lamb. For dessert I had mandarian and chocolate triangle with honeycomb ice cream, very nice (not surprisingly it tasted a bit like a Jaffa cake) and again a lot of thought had gone into the presentation. Service was efficient and friendly which all added to a very enjoyable afternoon.

Really enjoyed our dinner & the server at the bar was very attentive. The garlic ciabatta was…read morefantastic. The flavor on the steak & ale pie was very good but the crust was a little tough in parts. The dark & stormy was the best I've had in a long time.

I don't understand listing on your website that you serve food until 9 if you don't want to…read moreactually serve food until 9. Went in at 8:24 and was told the kitchen had just closed. So we left. they did however chase us out the door to let us know that if we wanted to go buy food elsewhere and bring it in, they would be happy to take our money for the easy drink service. So frustrating. If you want to stop serving food at 8, I totally get that sentiment, but update your stupid website so people don't drive out of their way only to find out that you're just too lazy to follow your own hours that you lay out on your website.

Superb tapas, great drinks menu, excellent service. Locally and responsibly sourced products, most…read moredishes have a Welsh influence, great flavours and good selection. They also do burgers and some other dishes if you don't like tapas. Thanks!

We came to Wales for a couple of weeks, hoping to find some great Welsh food. Until we found Olif,…read morewe'd had British pub food, some great Indian meals, and too many mediocre dinners. Olif is what we were looking for. Olif features some of the best food from Wales and Spain, mostly as the name says, as small plates to share. From the Spanish side we had the hummus, Seville Gordal olives and Padrona peppers. Yum. On the Welsh side we tried mussels from the Menai Straits (wow - with a sauce from cream, onions, etc. - best mussels ever), Boozy fish (the best fish and chips on the trip), Angelsey eggs (potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, ... baked in small dish - amazing). For drinks they offer curu (beer), curu seider (cider), and spirits (several gins and whiskeys) all from Welsh producers, as well as wine and other items from other countries. Each night they offer a few desserts. They're also excellent (we tried two on different nights but I've forgotten the details). The first dinner was so good we made a dinner reservation for another evening. They had a well-curated set of Welsh music playing in the background which I very much enjoyed. Some of the music was Mim Twm Llai, Rheinallt H. Rowlands, Cerys Matthews, Gwenno Saunders, Huw M, Euros Childs and Gorky's Zygotic Mynki. I tracked some of it down and am listening to it as I write this review. I listen to music from many countries but until Olif had never heard any music from Wales. Good listening! Olif has a limited number of tables - make a reservation to avoid disappointment. On our first night there we were the last people for dinner, and we watched a number of other people turned away. While enjoying dinner we discovered they also are a B&B and have five rooms (all with an ensuite bathroom if I recall correctly). On, one more thing. They offer a smaller tapas menu until 4pm and change to the dinner menu after that. If you get there at quarter til you can enjoy items from both menus. Great food and great people! Of all the restaurants we tried in Wales over our two weeks, this was the most delightful of all. Highly recommended.

This place was fabulous! Chris, our waiter, was more than attentive. The food was delicious and…read morewe received and ate (it all) inside the conservatory. Do not pass this place up if you are in Conwy, Wales. Really. Go there.

This was a great find while out for a drive in Whales. The food and service was excellent. I…read moreordered a Home made burger that ended up being the size of my head. The burger was amazing.