Celebration time as Llangoed Hall retains place in UK’s Top 50 restaurants

The champagne corks were popping on Thursday morning as news filtered through that Llangoed Hall, near Brecon had retained its place in the Waitrose Good Food Guide’s top 50 UK restaurants for 2017.

To make the listing even more special, Llangoed Hall is the only Welsh hotel included in the top 50. The other Welsh properties listed are Ynys Hir Hall, near Machynlleth, a restaurant with rooms and Restaurant James Sommerin, Glamorgan.

The hotel is one of 27 restaurants, which include Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, Oxfordshire and Gidleigh Park, Devon, listed on seven points.

The guide was first published in 1951 to list "600 places throughout Britain where you can rely on a good meal at a reasonable price". It still relies on reader feedback of eateries up and down the country together with anonymous inspections by a team of experts.

“We are delighted to retain our position in the top 50, which is down to the hard work of head chef Nick Brodie and restaurant manager Cedric Mace and their teams,” said managing director Calum Milne.

“We are thrilled to be the only Welsh hotel in top 50, which is a great endorsement of Llangoed Hall and its staff. There are a lot of very nice hotels across the UK that are not included, which demonstrates the high standards applied.

“Whilst it’s fantastic to win national awards, I think it’s equally important that Llangoed Hall supports the local community and we are looking forward to welcoming the Brecon Beacons Tourism Awards next month.”

Mr Brodie has assembled a brigade of talented, young chefs to put Llangoed Hall’s restaurant on the map as a food destination renowned for its culinary excellence. He praised the dedication and loyalty of the kitchen and front of house team and said retaining the restaurant’s top 50 listing was a reward for hard work across the board.

“We work as a close team, which I think makes a difference,” he said. “I receive amazing support from Calum, who has given me free rein to realise our full potential. There are restrictions on what you can achieve in a lot of restaurants, but here it has been an open book.”

He and his brigade work with the freshest ingredients possible, as the well-stocked gardens at Llangoed Hall supply 95 per cent of the vegetables, herbs and fruit used on the hotel’s summer menus. The winter total drops to around 45 per cent of garden produce, but the mission is to get vegetables, herbs and fruit from the garden to the plate in two minutes to preserve flavour and freshness.

The hotel also has its own chickens, quails and ducks to provide guests with a choice of fresh eggs for breakfast and also produces its own honey thanks to beehives in specially created flower meadows.

Llangoed Hall, a Relais & Châteaux hotel, is no stranger to awards. Last year, it won the Best for Green Practises award at the 2016 Condé Nast Johansens Awards for Excellence, was listed at 29th in The Sunday Times’ top 100 UK restaurants, was the only Welsh hotel shortlisted for The Caterer’s Hotel Cateys 2015, achieved a double listing in The Good Hotel Guide 2016 for Great Britain and Ireland and was runner up for the Eco Hotel of the Year at the AA Hospitality Awards.
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The success highlights a remarkable transformation of the historic property’s fortunes in the last four years. Mr Milne rescued Llangoed Hall from administration in July, 2012 with the intention of guiding it back to the top of the UK’s hospitality industry.

A £3 million refurbishment has taken place, retaining the influence of the late Sir Bernard Ashley, co-founder of the Laura Ashley fashion brand, who restored Llangoed Hall from a parlous state in the 1980s.

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