The Hardwick, Old Raglan Road,
Abergavenny, Wales, NP7 9AA
22/09/2013
She said: I’d spent the day before doing
‘Tough Mudder’ which essentially involved lots of mud, electric shocks, ice
water and climbing walls (for 3 hours) so I wanted to indulge our trip to Wales
with a good Sunday lunch. The Hardwick was an excellent pick and lives up to
its reputation. The pub looks like any other from the outside and is located on
the B4598 but as you pass the ‘mind your head’ sign in the drinking area, the
space opens up into a series of dining rooms. We were seated in the most modern
and open room at the end which was my favourite. There was a wide selection of
great sounding dishes to pick from as well as a set menu. Service was brusque
and we had different people serving us throughout the meal as the restaurant filled
up over the course of our stay. Looking around, you could tell this was a local
favourite and a place people dress us for to enjoy good food. And good it was.
I started with a goats cheese salad which was creamy and a good intro. For
mains I opted for the Plaice with brown shrimp, greens and mash. The fish was a
generous portion and very tasty. My dessert was the perfect ending – a
spectacular ‘Valrhona Chocolate Mousse & Millionaires' Shortbread with
White Chocolate Ice Cream & Brownie Crumble, Chocolate Popping Candy and
Sea Salted Caramel Sauce’. That is how to make a desert. And the coffee came on
time with the dessert as requested – impressive. Now I understand all the fuss
about going out for a Sunday pub lunch. The meal was reasonable at £30 per person
making me wish the Hardwick wasn’t stuck on a B-road in Wales but closer to
home. If you happen to be anywhere near the country, I recommend stopping in
for a while and treating yourself.
He said: The Hardwick came at the tail
end of an amazing weekend in Wales; we stopped here for lunch, to pacify
ourselves ahead of the 3hr+ traffic-chocked drive home. My enduring memory was
of everyone around us speaking Welsh. Very cool, and a bit like having a
stroke, maybe: everything visually was very familiar, but none of the sounds
made any sense. Hardwick is your classic Bastion of Culinary Excellence for all
those wise folk who have decided to escape the big smoke of Cardiff. It’s
incredible how well you can eat in these far-flung places where expense-account
dining is the exception. It’s not all Chicken Shacks and micro-waved Chinese;
maybe fine dining is the reason that Britain is in the grip of a diabetes
epidemic. In which case Hardwick should be at the top of the list for its share
of the NHS bill. The room itself is no big deal – the usual converted
formerly-something-else on a B road. But the food! Hardwick clearly cares about
exciting the punters, not with Blumenthal razzle-dazzle, but with top-quality,
seasonal ingredients and vibrant presentation. I had a posh bruschetta, made
with funky-coloured heirloom tomatoes and home-made bread, followed by
feather-light gnocchi in a tomato sauce livened-up with asparagus pumpkin and
goats cheese. Great value at £30 with coffee and chocolates. 3hrs is a long way
to go for a meal, so I don’t expect that either you or I will be going any time
soon. But I’d be here regularly if I was a local; just have to work out how to
pronounce this cryptic language…
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