Pembrokeshire has quietly become one of the better places to eat in Wales, and the reason is supply. There is a fishing fleet, some of the best beef and lamb in the country, a serious artisan food scene around Narberth, and a visitor economy prosperous enough to support restaurants that would not survive on the local population alone.
The geography is spread out. This is a county rather than a town, and the good places are scattered — a harbour bistro in the north-west, a country house hotel in the middle, seaside restaurants in the south. Plan on driving, or on eating where you are staying.
The Shed at Porthgain is the county’s best-known fish and chip bistro — a converted machine shop in a tiny stone harbour on the north coast, serving fish landed locally, with the ruins of the quarry works above it. It needs booking, particularly for dinner.
Solva, Little Haven, Saundersfoot and Lower Fishguard all have harbour pubs and restaurants, most of them doing local crab, lobster and fish. Milford Waterfront, at the old fish docks, has been redeveloped with a run of restaurants overlooking the marina.
Narberth is Pembrokeshire’s food town: a small market town with delis, a bakery, an independent department store and a run of good restaurants. Just outside it, the Grove of Narberth is the county’s leading country house hotel with a serious kitchen — the place to book for a proper dinner.
Wolfscastle Country Hotel north of Haverfordwest and Roch Castle on the St Davids road are the other two destination stays with kitchens to match.
Picton Castle and Upton Castle both have good cafés attached to their gardens.
Britain’s smallest city has a disproportionate number of places to eat for its size, most of them small, seasonal and busy: cafés and bistros around Cross Square, a couple doing serious cooking, and the cathedral refectory in the Bishop’s Palace grounds.
Abereiddi, Porthgain and Trefin along the coast, and Fishguard and Newport in the north, fill in the rest. Newport in particular has an unusually good pub and restaurant scene for a village.
The south of the county has the largest concentration of visitors and the food follows: seafood restaurants, chip shops and pubs in Tenby and Saundersfoot, with an increasing number of ambitious kitchens among them. The Gower Hotel at Saundersfoot and a number of the Tenby seafront hotels serve non-residents.
Pembrokeshire pubs are a genuine strength, particularly the coastal and village ones. The Druidstone on the cliff above Druidston Haven has been serving food and putting people up since the 1970s and is unlike any other hotel in Wales. The Salutation Inn at Felindre Farchog, the Victoria Inn at Roch and the Wolfe Inn at Wolfscastle are all good country pubs with rooms.
Welsh brewing has grown considerably, and Pembrokeshire has several small breweries whose beers are widely stocked.
Seafood first: crab, lobster, mackerel, sea bass and, in season, scallops. Much of it is landed at the small harbours and much of it is exported, so eating it here is a matter of finding the places that buy locally.
Welsh Black beef and salt marsh lamb from the estuaries. Laverbread, the seaweed preparation traditionally eaten with cockles and bacon. Welsh cakes and bara brith. Caerphilly and the newer Welsh farmhouse cheeses. And Pembrokeshire early potatoes, which have their own protected status and a short, celebrated season in early summer.
The county has an unusually good network of them, which matters if you are self-catering — as a large share of Pembrokeshire’s visitors are. Narberth has the best food shopping; there are farm shops scattered across the county, and produce markets in Haverfordwest, Fishguard and Narberth.
For a beach picnic, a Narberth deli and a bakery will do considerably better than a supermarket.
Booking. Summer and school holidays are busy and the good places are small. The Shed at Porthgain and the Grove at Narberth both need booking well ahead.
Seasons. A substantial number of restaurants and cafés here close or reduce hours from November to March. Out of season, check before driving.
Distances. Nothing is far but everything is slow. Allow more time than the map suggests, particularly on the lanes in the north.
Self-catering. Most visitors do, and the county is set up for it — farm shops, good bakeries and fishmongers at the harbours.
A practical note for walkers, because it changes how you plan a day. Some stretches of the Pembrokeshire coast have a pub or a café every few kilometres — the south-east around Tenby and Saundersfoot, St Bride’s Bay, the St Davids peninsula. Others have absolutely nothing for a full day: the Castlemartin coast, the stretch between Marloes and Newgale, and much of the north coast between Strumble and Newport.
Check before you set out, carry more than you think you need, and treat the harbour villages — Porthgain, Solva, Little Haven, Abercastle — as the fixed points to plan a day’s walking around.
Worth understanding, because it explains why a rural Welsh county eats as well as it does. Over the last twenty-five years Narberth, a small market town in the middle of Pembrokeshire, has become a genuine food destination — delis, a bakery, an independent department store with a food hall, several good restaurants and, just outside, one of the best country house hotels in Wales.
That created a supply chain. Producers who had been selling into Cardiff and Bristol found a local market; farm shops opened; and the coastal restaurants gained somewhere to buy from. The result is that a village pub on the coast path here is far more likely to be serving local beef, local crab and Pembrokeshire potatoes than the equivalent would have been a generation ago.
Summer and the school holidays fill everything, and the county’s best places are small. The Shed at Porthgain, the Grove at Narberth and the better village pubs all need booking well ahead.
From November to March a substantial proportion of the coastal restaurants and cafés close entirely, and the boat operators stop. The market towns — Narberth, Haverfordwest, Fishguard — stay open year-round.
The county divides here as it does in everything else. The south — Tenby, Saundersfoot, Pembroke — is where the volume is: seafront restaurants, chip shops, family pubs and a growing number of ambitious kitchens among them, all busy in summer and much quieter in winter.
The north — St Davids, Porthgain, Solva, Newport, Fishguard — has fewer places and a higher hit rate. The restaurants are smaller, more seasonal and more likely to be cooking with what came off a boat that morning. Newport in particular has an unusually good concentration for a village of its size.
The middle of the county, around Narberth, is where the food economy actually lives, and it is worth a drive from either end.
The Grove of Narberth for a proper dinner; the Shed at Porthgain for fish in a harbour; the Druidstone for the setting.
At the harbours — Solva, Porthgain, Saundersfoot and Milford — and from the fishmongers in the market towns.
Seafood, Welsh Black beef, salt marsh lamb, laverbread and Pembrokeshire early potatoes.
Yes — it is the county’s food town, with delis, a bakery and several good restaurants in a very small place.
Many reduce hours or close from November to March. Check before travelling out of season.