YNYSHIR Hotel

Wales

Obscured behind towering mountain ash and beech trees on the edge of Snowdonia National Park, lies this 18th-century country house that’s home to one of the best restaurants in the UK. Lord over the manicured grounds from one of two homely garden rooms equipped with huge bathrooms and working fireplaces, or bed down in one of six individually designed rooms in the main house. Downstairs, the intimate Michelin-starred 26-cover restaurant dishes up a simply superb tasting menu that erodes any memory of kamikaze pheasants and hairpin bends on the drive here.

While 19 courses may seem daunting, Gareth Ward and his team meticulously weigh, taste and plan every dish to perfection. Highlights include the Not French onion soup, infused with pickled seaweed from nearby Aberdyfi beach and onions from Ynyshir’s 4.5ha garden, Isle of Skye prawns seared on hot coals, and Welsh Wagyu rib that has been aged for 227 days in a custom-built Himalayan salt chamber that’s well worth asking to be shown round. We finish with a dainty bowl of porridge topped with foraged brambles that Goldilocks, the three bears and even Mr Wolf would have licked clean in approval. Rooms from £220. SK. ynyshir.co.uk