7 of the best restaurants in St Davids

Located in the magnificent Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, which is aptly one of the UK’s smallest national parks, St Davids (Britain’s smallest city) was a place of pilgrimage for centuries. Now it’s your turn to visit and discover the foodie delights that await.

Being such a small city, you may not think you’d find some of South West Wales’ best restaurants in St Davids, but you’d be surprised at the quality of the eateries on offer. Read on to find out more.

Spend your days in Pembrokeshire eating three-course dinners and taking in the sights of this wonderful bijou city before retiring to a welcoming self-catering cottage for a midnight snack. Be sure to work up an appetite by having a read of our guide to 10 of the best things to do in St Davids and 5 of the best beaches in St Davids first.

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St Davids Gin & Kitchen

If you’re looking for an excuse to visit a distillery, then heading to the restaurant at St Davids Gin & Kitchen is the perfect reason. Now known as Y Gegin, TyddewI, this restaurant in St Davids is well known for its ethical approach, using handpicked botanicals found on the peninsula for its superb gins and supporting local farmers and fishermen when it comes to the food menu.

Speaking of which, this farm-to-fork establishment offers lunch and evening menus with local delicacies such as seafood platters with Solva lobster and other local catch, St Davids Welsh beef steak, and Pembrokeshire ribeye steak. Wash all this down with your choice of gin, vodka or rum made on site, and you’re in for a five-star experience.

Grain

Widely renowned for its friendly and welcoming staff, Grain is one of those St Davids restaurants that has both locals and holidaymakers flocking back time and time again. Pizzas are the star of the show here, alongside craft beers and local spirits including St Davids Gin, Penderyn Madeira and Da Mhile Welsh Rum.

With an unprecedented rating of 5/5 on Tripadvisor, the team at Grain endeavours not only to serve you high-quality food and drink but also to create an atmosphere where you’ll make memories that’ll last well beyond your Pembrokeshire holiday. With indoor and outdoor seating available, this is the best restaurant in St Davids to grab a slice.

The Bishops

Named after the outlying rocks and small islands found to the west of Ramsey Island, The Bishops is an inviting pub/restaurant conveniently located in the heart of the city. Open for food every day of the year except Christmas Day, The Bish (as it is locally known) offers locally sourced seafood including lobster, crab and mackerel.

Watch live sports on the big screen before your meal and listen to live music afterwards at the weekends. On quieter evenings, settle by the wood burner and enjoy a bottle of red over a candle-lit dinner.

The Shed

If you’re staying in one of our holiday cottages in Pembrokeshire but you’re a little outside of St Davids, head to The Shed in Porthgain for some fish and chip heaven on the coast. This bistro is situated on the Pembrokeshire Coast Path and often serves up locally caught fish mere hours after it has landed. Ethics are important to The Shed, which is why they always use MCA-certified species from sustainable stocks.

Their a la carte menu is served inside, leaving all their outdoor tables for takeaways on a first-come-first-served basis. If you don’t wait for fish suppers with ba(i)ted breath, there are meat dishes including steak and sausages or vegetarian meals such as sweet potato, spinach and chickpea curry or goat’s cheese croquettes. And if nothing else, you could always just stick to the dessert menu!

Photo credits: The Cambrian Inn

The Cambrian Inn

Discover some of our other West Wales cottages when you holiday in Solva and visit the impressive Cambrian Inn. With two indoor areas to sit, eat and drink, you can decide where to dine depending on your mood and how empty your belly is. Choose from the cosy lounge bar with its comfortable Chesterfield sofas and order some snacks or something from the bar menu. Alternatively, move through to the dining room with its rustic wooden beams and exposed stone walls to choose something from the a la carte menu. There’s even an outdoor patio area with tables and parasols.

The menu is laden with local produce, including meat from local farmers and the daily catch from the nearby coast. Choose from classics like steaks, pie of the week, burgers and wholetail scampi to something a little different such as butternut squash and red onion tagine or duck bon bons.

The Really Wild Emporium

Really wild in name, really wild in nature, this award-winning establishment is much more than just a restaurant. Sustainability and education are rooted firmly in the ethos of the Really Wild Emporium, and founders Julia and John, who are outdoor specialists, run wild foraging expeditions for anyone who is interested. They also sell all manner of natural products including soaps, shampoos and skincare, most of which are vegan.

The restaurant, which is furnished with upcycled and recycled furniture, offers a six-course menu using products that have been foraged from the wild. This means that the menu changes throughout the season as Mother Nature adjusts her offering. Alternatively, dine in the cafe for a light lunch or a homemade cake containing something from the wild, such as a seaweed brownie or some sea-buckthorn carrot cake.

Grub Kitchen

If you’re looking for St Davids pubs and restaurants that offer something a little different, visit Dr Beynon’s Bug Farm where you’ll find the Grub Kitchen. A restaurant that truly caters to all tastes, you’ll find an exceptional insect-based menu here, alongside plant-based offerings and meat choices, too.

Founded by an award-winning chef in 2015, Grub Kitchen is the first full-time edible insect restaurant to open in the UK and serves up treats like Bolognese with insect mince, mixed insect pakoras, spiced cumin and mealworm hummus, and cricket cookies. The bug farm itself is a great day out incorporating a tropical bug zoo, a bug museum, the British bug house, an insect farming exhibition, farm trails and a walled garden.

Map of 7 of the best restaurants in St Davids

Self-catering cottages in St Davids

Now that you’ve had a chance to read about the best restaurants in St Davids, Pembrokeshire, you’ll need somewhere to rest your head prior to heading out for a meal. We have several properties in and around the UK’s smallest city including bijou retreats, cottages with enclosed gardens and holiday homes with warming wood burners. 

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