Kitchen Garden - Caerphilly

What a treat! Newport is fast becoming a foodie paradise and within that constellation no star burns brighter than the Kitchen Garden at Llys Meddyg. We had driven for several hours and were ready for something special and distinctive. We were greeted by Llys Meddyg proprietor and culinary entrepreneur Ed Sykes. Ed’s legendary geniality took us to the Cellar Bar where he settled us down with a couple of expertly prepared whisky sours. Suitably refreshed we were then gently ushered through to the Garden Restaurant where we were greeted by our hostess Florence. A poached haddock with pumpkin and sunflower seed amuse bouche quietly followed ...amazing! For starters we loved a crab, cucumber and crunchy pickled kohlrabi...delicious. The salmon was also fabulous. For mains I had a fantastic rib eye steak with a crispy roasted hispi, nutty turnip and vanilla jus. My partner had fabulous, locally caught sea bass with mustard seeds, Jerusalem artichoke and sea beet just amazing. To finish we just lived the delicate cardamom flavoured panda cotta. OMG. To die for. Everything was expertly prepared and watching the chefs curate the final plating and delivery in tandem with Florence was a joy to behold. Culinary choreography in action. Professional. Poised. Perfect. An all round masterclass. Just great. Highly recommended. Did I mention the whisky sours...?

Oh dear. What a shame. When we first sat down the waiter was brusque. He obviously found our party of eight, which included one child, and one vegan, pretty tiresome. We had called ahead to check that the restaurant offered vegan options, but there were none on the menu. Our guest was advised to order cauliflower (hold the cheese or put together her own dinner from sides. We asked if the chef could suggest a vegan meal (the restaurant was mostly empty at 6;15 so we didn't feel it was too much of an imposition ...the answer was..order sides ...the sides were fairly uninspiring (potatoes, carrots, plain greens so our vegan guest and her child left. And then there were six... We ordered fish and one order of pork. The waiter got the order wrong and brought multiple orders of pork ..so one of our guests ate alone, while the others waited for their food (to be fair, the other server, a lovely waitress, did offer to return that meal and bring all the food at the same time, but our guest was hungry and needed to eat. . The waiter did not apologize and he continued to ignore us for most of the evening. Perhaps chastened by his mistakes, he took orders at the tables around us, shouting them back to customers at full volume. The lovely romantic setting lost its lustre in the face of his boorishness. There were three servers working that evening and I need to point out that the two other waitresses were very solicitous and extremely accommodating. I got the impression they had been hired to compensate for his gruff ineptitude. The sea bass and pork were both delicious. Perfectly cooked. The sides were very good. Would certainly recommend the food, and the setting but the whole experience was marred by one very rude waiter.

We had a very nice dinner in this lovely restaurant. The staff was very friendly, the place was very nicely decorated and the food was tasty and presented with a lot of detail.

We were looking for a dog friendly, child friendly place to eat after packing up our tent; and before going home from our holiday. We hadn't booked and they fitted us in. Friendly is the word of the evening. All the staff were very friendly. The owners were lovely. The food was fantastic and my dog and child were very welcome. The garden is spectacular, worth a visit just for that! A very pleasant visit. Highly recommend it and will definitely be back next year. Ps Scampi loved the chicken you gave her!

We visited without booking and enjoyed cocktails and drinks in the secret garden, a great little find with lots of heated pods and plenty of places to chill. We didn’t eat but the food did look good. We’ll certainly return next time we’re in Newport.