50* Not out for Good Food Favourite

16 March 2007

Here’s a quick quiz question for you: Outside of London, which current restaurant has appeared in the Good Food Guide for the most consecutive year?

Is it the famous Regano oyster restaurant in Glasgow?  Perhaps the Manchester eating institution that is Old Sam’s Chop House?  Or maybe it’s Raymond Blanc’s La Manoir in Oxfordshire?

Well they’re all way off the mark! The answer?  The good old Porth Tocyn Hotel of course – the hotel and restaurant is about to hit its 50 year anniversary of being in “The Book.”   

The hotel’s restaurant first entered the Good Food Guide in 1957, the year that Harold McMillan was elected Prime Minister and the Russian’s launched Sputnik II and Laika the dog into space!  Much has changed in 50 years, but nine Prime Ministers and the end of the Cold War later the Porth Tocyn Hotel Restaurant still graces the coveted gastronomic pages of the Guide.

So how has a Country Hotel restaurant in this quiet corner of North Wales managed to maintain such a high level of recognition and consistency over the years?  Owner Nick Fletcher-Brewer is unsure: “luck probably” he says: “To stay in the Guide for that long we must have had our fair share of it. Running a restaurant is never easy so I suppose it’s quite a feat really.”

Surely there’s more to it than luck? “Oh of course there is” explains Nick: “You have to set your standards high and stick to them year-in-year-out.  The chefs and menus may change over the years but fundamentally we feel we know good food and service and we stick to it.

“But that has always been the way with the Porth Tocyn Hotel” continues Nick: “The place is nearly 60 years old now and it has always been owned by the family.  This has probably gives us a certain independence to do things our way.  Our guests seem to love the standard we set and seemingly so does the Good Food Guide.”

Any dishes survived 50 year? “To be honest no” says Nick: “Tastes have moved on so much over the past 50 years and the range of produce available now would have been unimaginable in 1957.  After all rationing had only finished in 1954!

“Although I suppose things have turned full circle in a way, as increasingly we try and source as much produce was possible locally just as they would have had to do in the 50s.”

How about another 50 years then Nick?  “Well let’s hope so, but you definitely won’t be talking to me in 2057” he laughs.