The Wynnstay, Machynlleth

The Wynnstay Hotel, Machynlleth

(Hotel restaurant)

Wednesday, Midday,

Reviewer: Em

The Wynnstay Hotel

Heol Maengwyn

Machynlleth

Wales

SY20 8AE

This hotel restaurant sits in the heart of Machynlleth, a town deep in the Welsh countryside, it has been there since the 1800’s. Honestly, the history of the site is in scant supply on the hotel’s website, which is a bit disappointing for a hotel placing pride on existing for over 200 years.

Restaurant: 42/100

Service: 9/30

There was a certain amount of confusion over whether this was a table service establishment or a bar service one – all of the menus, including the set lunch menu we took advantage of, had 'order at the bar' written at the bottom of them in large red letters, but their wait staff came around to take out orders instead. In hindsight, this may have been because it turned into a particularly busy lunch service, but still, it would have been nice had this been clarified. Additionally, we ordered a jug of water at the beginning of the meal, and it didn't appear until the starter plates had been collected...as this was the first opportunity we had to grab a member of the wait staff, who were perpetually out of sight unless they were bringing or collecting plates or taking food orders; no one bothered to check we were alright with our meals either when each course was delivered.

Decor: 10/20

Rather aged – the walls and wall paper was faded, and most of the flower arrangements were noticeably fake, although it was at least clean – just to add to this odd sense, the walls were liberally littered with paintings and prints which were for sale by local artists. In a place where the building itself was a little more of a blank slate, that may have worked well, but in this case, it just felt confused.

Drinks: 5/20

They had a rather limited selection of non-alcoholic drinks, and while they had a good selection of real ales, one of which was local, my dining companion informed me – having first pulled a rather disappointed face – that the tubes were either in dire need of cleaning, or had been recently cleaned and not flushed properly.

Value for Money: 12/20

We went for the set lunch menu – which was 2 courses for £10 or 3 for £12.50 – but ended up having to select dessert from the a la carte menu, as the set gave so little choice. The a la carte was a little over average prices.

Menu Selection: 6/10

The a la carte menu had a wide variety of choice, most of which was locally sourced – the same can't be said for the set menu, which had only 3 choices for starter and mains, and if you wanted the meat option, you'd better hope you like venison as this was your only option. To give them credit, there was a vegetarian option on both of the courses, even if they were a little uninspired – soup, and that ubiquitous menu listing, 'vegetable curry'.

Starter: 53/100

Venison Terrine with Apricot Chutney and a selection of Breads (2 courses for £10)

Taste: 4/30

Unfortunately, the main word that springs to mind when describing this course is 'disappointment'. I'm a big fan of terrines, but this wasn't a good one. Texture wise, it was incredibly firm, and to have any hope of getting it onto the bread instead of eating it with a knife and fork, I first had to slice it thinly myself. Then there was the taste; I couldn't have told you this was venison. Actually, to be honest, from the taste I couldn't have told you anything other than it contained a large quantity of close-to-raw garlic, the harsh, acrid taste of which was so strong that both myself and my dining partner could still taste it when we left the restaurant after finishing the other two courses! Due to some french heritage on my side, not being a fan of garlic is something I could never be accused of – I use it in nearly all of my cooking – but this was just too much. The chutney was overly harsh as well, but in many ways, the vinegar in it, over done though it was, was needed to cut through the garlic in the terrine, but even it failed eventually, and gave up the fight. Eventually after struggling my way through about half of it, it became too much for me to stomach, and I ended up feeding the remainder to my dining partner. A very low score here – about the only positive I can give is that it didn't make me ill!

Presentation: 15/25

There had been some effort here, I will allow for that – the chutney was colourful and heaped in three separate piles which drew the eye – there was a very small side salad to prop up the slices of terrine, which had obviously been placed with care. Nothing ground-breaking, or even overly pretty, but care was taken and it did look appealing.

Wait Time: 24/25

6 minutes flat – fine, it was always going to be relatively quick, as this was off a set menu and was cold, so was more than likely preprepared and plated, but still.

Portion Size: 10/20

Two thick terrine slices, three heaped spoonfuls of chutney and 3 slices of bread with butter is certainly a decent portion size for a starter, but could never be mistaken for a main course

Main Course: 54/100

Poacher's pie with greens (2 courses for £10)

Taste: 7/30

It was better than the starter, but given the score that the starter got, that really isn't saying much. It was at this point that we realised that the main clientèle of this restaurant were all significantly older than us, and suddenly the overly strong flavours that were coming through in each dish made sense – although, for those who still have most of their taste buds in a functioning state, it doesn't make the resulting dishes any more palatable. We'd been told that poacher's pie is effectively shepherds or cottage pie, just with venison where lamb or beef may be – I couldn't have told you this if my life depended on it; the meat tasted mainly of onion. They'd also minced some carrot into it as well, which is one of my pet peeves – I firmly believe carrot and anything else you have by way of veg in a potato-topped pie should be chunkily diced, and not smaller – and the entire thing was far too liquid, when a couple of tablespoons of seasoned flour would have thicken the entire thing and bound it together perfectly well. The greens were far to insufficient for the amount of meat on the plate, and weren't actually greens, but wilted savoy cabbage which had been seasoned heavily with cloves; not especially pleasant. The mashed potato was rather under seasoned and bland, but actually, this provided a bit of relief against the other two main ingredients on the plate, which is never a good thing. Overall, the entire thing put me in mind of a shepherd's pie you might have been served at school, if the chef had had an accident with the spice rack. Low score.

Presentation: 7/25

To be fair to them, there isn't an awful lot you can do with a pie like this, where the filling is so runny, and it's not being served in its own container or similar – the choice of plate wasn't brilliant, it might have done better in something more high sided – but they'd managed to get the potato out in one piece, and the 'greens' were piled to one side. A 7 is the best I can do.

Wait Time: 25/25

4 minutes. Flat. Set menu it may be, preprepared it may be, but frankly, short of going to a fast food take away – and not even then in some circumstances – I don't think it's humanly possible to be faster. Spectacularly short wait time pulls it back with a perfect score.

Portion Size: 14/20

I was certainly full when I'd finished this, but the size of the components on the plate was off. To have the majority of the plate taken up by, effectively, onion-y mince, while the potato is a mere topping and the greens an after thought, isn't an ideal break down. While the overall amount was ok, there should have been less mince, and more potato and greens.

Dessert: 66/100

Chocolate Terrine with Hazelnut ice cream (£5.50)

Taste: 12/30

I ended up ordering off the set menu, as the two items on offer there for dessert – an apple pie and a banana sponge – didn't appeal to me. I've never had chocolate terrine before – being an absolute chocolate addict, I've had most everything else – and so was intrigued by what a 'chocolate terrine' consisted of. If this is an adequate representation of one, the answer is 'something that's halfway between a torte and a cake, with a solid, an almost powdery texture'. I'm not sure if the chocolate that was used to make this was of a low cocoa solids percentage, or whether they didn't actually bother to use any and just defaulted to cocoa powder, but either way, the taste of chocolate didn't exactly smack you in the face, but it wasn't totally unpleasant. The ice cream was sweet and cold, but I couldn't have told you it was hazelnut flavour – there were no actual pieces of the nut even. Had you given it to me in a blind test and asked me to name the flavour, I'd have gone with 'caramel'. The caramel sauce, mind, was a nice touch.

Presentation: 15/25

The two terrine slices have been placed carefully, and the caramel sauce pattern was well done, plus, the ice cream had been balled nicely. Obviously effort had been put into it, but nothing spectacular.

Wait Time: 24/25

6 minutes and some change – very impressive. Even more impressive when you consider they had a stuffed restaurant where everyone else was ordering off the set menu, and I'd gone a la carte. Over 5 mins, so I can't give a perfect score, but very nearly.

Portion Size: 15/20

Certainly, I felt like I was struggling to finish by the time I hit the end – I would have preferred to see more ice cream though, as the single ball for two terrine slices wasn't brilliant.

Overall Score: 214/400 (53%)

A very fast, but very disappointing meal – for the price we paid, thankfully, disappointed is all we felt. Had we ordered off the a la carte menu, and therefore the starter and main had cost us more than £5 per dish, we'd have ended up feeling seriously hard done. Saved by the short wait times and set menu offer.