Aberystwyth’s SY23 Restaurant is one of two brand new Michelin-starred restaurants in Wales in the Michelin Guide 2022. It also impressively picked up the accolade of the Opening of the Year from the prestigious guidebook.
Read more: The 50 best restaurants in Wales in 2022
SY23 opened in 2019 and is co-owned by Nathan Davies, a star of Great British Menu and a former head chef at the newly crowned two Michelin-starred Ynyshir.
A Welsh speaker who has lived in Wales since he was six, Nathan Davies has previously worked at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, as a private chef in France and with Stephen Terry at the Hardwick in Abergavenny.
What’s SY23 like?
SY23 is based in the seaside town of Aberystwyth and it’s set over two floors.
Open for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, when you visit for a meal at SY23 you’ll start with a drink in the downstairs bar from 6.30pm before moving upstairs to the intimate dining room where an open kitchen with a charcoal grill is the focal point.
Dinner is served at 7.30pm and there’s a single 10 course tasting menu with an optional eleventh cheese course.
If you’re looking to visit at lunchtime then Y Sgwâr at SY23 is the restaurant’s all-weather outside dining area, with fire pits built into its tables and overhead heaters. Open Wednesday to Sunday for breakfast and lunch, Y Sgwâr offers a tapas style small plates menu.
SY23 also has a sister wine bar, The Courtyard, which is open from 5pm to 2am from Thursday till Saturday. There’s live entertainment as well as small plates available.
What’s on the menu at SY23?
Nathan Davies cooking focuses on locally sourced meat and fish cooked over charcoal. Many of Nathan’s ingredients come from the SY23 postcode in which the restaurant is based.
Fermented, foraged and pickled ingredients all appear on the tasting menu and according to Michelin, “the deceptively simple looking dishes are modern and original with some good textural contrasts and real depth of flavour.”
Savoury dishes on the tasting menu include scallop with seaweed and burnt butter; crab with preserved elder; turbot with cockles and broccoli; and lamb with black garlic and mushroom. Desserts include strawberries with elderflower and cultured cream; 64% chocolate with grains and sour cream; and burnt butter fudge with chocolate and salt.
Lunch dishes on offer at Y Sgwâr include sourdough bread and miso butter; lobster with fennel and soy; lamb with mint; pork belly and hoisin; purple sprouting broccoli with preserved wild garlic; and a single dessert of rhubarb and custard.
How much does it cost?
The single 10-course tasting menu on offer at SY23 costs £95.
At Y Sgwâr, fish and meat small plates cost £10 each whilst vegetable dishes are £7.
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