The White Swan

The residents of Llanfrynach in the Brecon Beacons are a lucky bunch. In the middle of their charming village sits The White Swan, a haven of hearty home-cooked fare overseen by owner and Head Chef Lee Havard. A blackboard of the day’s specials and the freshly-caught seafood begin proceedings, followed by a browse through the very well constructed menu. The only problem is what to choose; you could quite happily order anything and everything.

A starter of scallops with black pudding, a rocket and bacon salad and herb butter sauce was a most agreeable dish, the scallops plump and tasty and cooked to a textbook finish. A classic combination of flavours, well executed and marking a promising start to the meal.

The main course was a grand affair; slow-cooked pork belly stuffed with more of that delicious black pudding and accompanied by a chive mash, apple compote, crackling to kill for and a rich, sticky jus that coated the lips with a sweet and tangy glaze. The tender pork seemed to melt against the knife, the juicy meat and pork fat rendered unctuous and heavenly. If that weren’t enough, there was also an accompanying basket of filo pastry filled with seasonal vegetables.

The portions are gigantic, but who would complain about that? The only problem was being so full that I had no room left for dessert, of which a sticky toffee pudding sounded most inviting. If the starter and main course were anything to go by, it would’ve been a pudding to remember; the kind of dessert that you would sell your family into slavery for. Alas, I was never to sample its syrupy delights and I am not one to pass up on such treats if I can help it. My family, thus far, remain free and unchained.

Service is friendly and being a family-run restaurant, one feels very well looked after. The interior is cosy yet somehow contemporary; a stone-tiled floor, stone walls and heavy wooden beams give the feeling of being in a 17th century coaching inn (which you are), while candles on tables lend a softness to the well-fed atmosphere.

The meal was so good that we returned a few nights later, this time in an attempt to reach dessert, the elusive summit of the meal that claims many a stomach: The Brecon Beacons Sticky Toffee Pudding Challenge 2009. After climbing both Corn Du and Pen y Fan and having eaten nothing more than a humble energy bar all day (oh okay, and a fried breakfast, I admit it), I felt well prepared for the three-course onslaught that evening, but a sizeable prawn cocktail immediately challenged those plans, pushing me closer to ‘the wall’ sooner than I’d expected. Packed with shrimps and a colossal king prawn on top wearing an expression that said, “Come on then if you think you’re hard enough”, it was the best prawn cocktail I’ve had since the Eighties.

My partner selected a pork haslet with onion rings and an onion and black pudding compote. A haslet is a meatloaf of pork offal which doesn’t sound very romantic, but it was nice to see this on the menu as it is a true palate pleaser. I managed to steal a meaty mouthful and it was quite delicious. Sweetbreads aside, you know a chef is serious about food when he puts offal on the menu; it sorts out the real foodies from the pretenders.

After tackling the first scree of a starter, the main course of Welsh beef fillet topped with Colston Bassett stilton, a gargantuan Portobello mushroom, mash and a lip-smackingly good jus, not to mention the side bowl of vegetables, continued to scupper my intentions to order a dessert, that sticky toffee pudding once again slipping from my greedy clutches. In the spirit of Ran Fiennes, I decided to admit defeat rather than risk permanent injury. I turned back deflated but still proud to have made it to summit base camp, determined to one day try again for that sugary peak.