Hospitality & Food in North Wales

We know how to do good food in Wales – after all, our national emblem is a vegetable!

Our Welsh black beef and salt march lamb are world renowned as fantastic cuts of meat. Surrounded by sea, we’ve also become rather famous for our seafood – especially sea-bass, mussels and oysters.

Here are just a few dishes we’re particularly well known for:

Cawl

Any kind of Welsh soup, although traditionally containing potatoes, carrots, swedes and salted bacon or beef. Our national dish!

Welsh Rarebit

Everybody loves cheese on toast (except coealiacs and vegans). Originally called Welsh rabbit, it’s a lot easier to remember rarebit as it has no rabbit in at all. With an egg on top, it’s called a buck rabbit – when it’s served with tomato soup it’s a blushing bunny. The first recorded reference naming Welsh rarebit is from 1725

Laverbread

Made from laver (a type of seaweed), the laver is boiled for several hours and then minced or pureed into a paste. Once described as “Welshman’s caviar”, it’s often fried and served with bacon and cockles as part of a Welsh breakfast, or rolled in oatmeal.

Welsh Cakes

Popular traditional cakes, not unlike Eccles Cakes – a combination of flour, sultanas and raisins with other spices. The North Wales version Mynydd Cymreig (meaning Welsh Mountain) has additional baking powder for a larger rise, and they are then dusted in icing sugar to symbolise the peaks of Snowdon.

Bara Brith

Colloquially known as speckled bread, it’s an enriched bread made with dried fruit traditionally served sliced and buttered.

Glamorgan Sausage

A traditionally vegetarian sausage containing cheese, leek and breadcrumbs, although some variations include pork. They were originally made with Glamorgan cheese, although the Glamorgan cattle is now nearly extinct.

Crempog

A Welsh pancake made of eggs, vinegar, salted butter, buttermilk and flour, cooked on a griddle and served in a stack with butter.

Wine has been produced in Wales since Roman times, but temperance movements hampered the progress of beer production for centuries. Despite this, Wrexham was home to the first lager producer in Britain, and the Felinfoel Brewery was the first in Europe to sell beer in tins. We’re also great at whisky – it’s the Welsh who emigrated to America that helped to found Kentucky Whisky.

Rustle something up yourself. There are plenty of quality ingredients to pick up. Try Maldwyn Thomas’ organic lamb and mutton from his farm in Bala. Or Edwards’ of Conwy’s famous (and award-winning) sausages. Talking of award winners, Margaret Davies’ Gorau Glas cheese is one. She stumbled into cheese making by accident. Try a drop of Tom Barlow’s wine from his vineyard in Cemaes Bay. It’s only right.

Anglesey was producing wine when the Romans were here, and more recently, were finalists in the best Welsh food destination of the year.

Food and drink fairs are a regular thing here – why not check out our Food Festivals page?