Few restaurateurs have the balls to make one of the most reputed chefs in the country sit it out in the pub over the road until there's a table free, but then Gavin Davies isn't your usual man.
The fisherman-turned-restaurant owner is as big a character as the beef steaks and fish fillets on display in the counter but he confides he's really just "winging it". Whatever he's doing, Gavin is doing it right - his tiny 11-seater restaurant on the main road through a tiny village in Pembrokeshire attracts some of Wales biggest names in sport and business. Not to mention his new best friend, chef Marco Pierre White, who popped in over the summer and left proclaiming his meal to be "the best meal he’d eaten in a long time".
People travel miles - literally flying in to the county on their private planes - to eat at Rib and Oyster he said and it's not uncommon to turn away 15 tables over a weekend. He's had offers to take his brand - which he had the foresight to trademark in the early days - to the city but for now Gavin is content doing what he does best: producing top notch food sourced as locally as possible from an unassuming salmon-pink shop in Kilgetty.
Indeed, the brand has rather snowballed from the original idea to simply sell his catch of the day from the back of a van when the Covid pandemic hit and his trade dried up almost overnight. Originally from the Rhondda valley, Gavin moved to Pembrokeshire when he was in his early twenties to find work and ended up as a successful fisherman with his own trawler.
But forced to consider his options when hospitality stopped for several months, Gavin had the bright idea of selling his fresh fish and shellfish from a van. Amazed by the response and often selling out within hours, Gavin jumped at the chance to set up a more permanent base in Kilgetty when the shop came up for rent.
What started out as a fish and meat counter 18 months ago has morphed into a tiny restaurant. Through word of mouth alone, and the power of Facebook, people started coming in their droves. He's discreet about the big names but suffice to say, some greats of Welsh rugby are regulars.
"We were crazy busy," said Gavin about those days at pop up markets all over Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. "We were selling out and having to drive the van back to get more. I realised I needed to expand and then I saw this shop come up for rent." With the help of his brother, who'd been a butcher for 21 years, Gavin set himself up complete with his well researched name - "There's no other restaurant named Rib and Oyster" - and catchy logo.
After six weeks of opening, he and his wife Lucy converted an old storeroom into the restaurant which had just two tables to start off with. The latest addition - a vintage builders block some 84 years old - brings the total number to 11. That's not to say Gavin and Lucy haven't given the interior the attention it deserved - Gavin has taken care not to spoil the dining experience with a fishy-smelling fish counter. But seeing the meat and fish on display in the cosy evening bistro is certainly part of the appeal. Plus, because everything is freshly caught there really is no smell at all, said Gavin practically.
"The food is key," said Gavin about their immediate success. "We're all about fresh ingredients, nothing is fussy, we have a specials board which changes daily and the menu is very small." The most popular order is the surf and turf sharing platter. It's not cheap at £90 for two people but it comes on a massive board with a mouth-watering selection of a 10oz steak, catch of the day, half a lobster, mussels and tiger prawns, with a side of big chunky chips.
As we chat on a drizzly afternoon, people continually stream through the door seeking out Gavin's opinion on what's best that day. One group of regulars waxed lyrical about the 1kg T-bone steaks they'd bought over the Christmas period.
The meat and fish counter supplies some notable restaurants from afar, including those of renowned chefs Marco Pierre White and Pierre Koffmann. In fact Gavin is off to Marco's in Bath later that day to personally deliver a big slab of beef which will be used for filming the next day. Gavin is expecting to be treated well and is anticipating a night of good food and good wine. Marco it seems is a great influence- even offering his top tips for the faggots they sell behind the counter and how best to serve the Dover sole on their evening menu.
What's Marco like then, I ask about the chef who's oft-branded as intimidating, snobbish, arrogant and rude. But even he's no match for Gavin: "He rang up on a Saturday asking for a table," he explained. "But we were full that day. So I said if you come after service, at around 3.30pm, we'll stay open for you."
Even so, Marco turned up at 2.30pm and when he was told the restaurant was full, he thought the team were joking. But Gavin sent him on his way to the pub over the road where much to the delight of everyone at the bar they were bought a round by this chef from Bath brandishing his Coutts card. Jake Davies did the cooking that day - an environmental conservation graduate who learned to cook at the Mulberry Restaurant in Saundersfoot.
Jake must've done something right because Marco told the team it was the best meal he'd had in a long time. The chef hadn't arrived completely ignorant - in 2021 he asked Rib and Oyster to supply him with bass and lobster for a TV show he was filming.
"I thought he was winding me up and told him where to go," said Gavin recalling the phone call. But within days, Gavin found himself on the set of This Morning with Holly, Phil and Marco. Not that he was fazed by it all - it seems not much can shake this 45-year-old fisherman.
Gavin sold his boat before Christmas to focus on the restaurant full time. It's that fishing insight however that sets him apart - Gavin really can vouch for the fact his "fish is fresh from the net". He added: "I believe what we are doing is the best." It seems so do many of his customers, many of whom are regulars, based on the glowing reviews on TripAdvisor.
"Really great fresh produce," wrote one satisfied diner. "The monkfish was sooo good and perfectly cooked. The steak, well if you like it big, you’ve landed here! And it was sooo well cooked. We had a great night and the team were superb! But, shhhhhhh, we don’t want everyone finding out about it."
While another recalled how, upon arriving at the restaurant without a wallet, Gavin "just calmly poured me a glass of wine" and told him not to worry, they could pay him over phone when they got back home. "How's about that for customer service," said the review. "He didn't even want my car reg. Anyway, had the surf and turf and white house wine and we were both blown away. It was exceptional - I haven't eaten steak in nearly 30 years but you hardly needed steak knives as it was so tender and as for the chips, I am still in heaven!"
The dad-of-two is rightly proud of what he's built. Starting with just three employees, Rib and Oyster now employs nine people and they will easily turn away 15 tables over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he said. It seems his tiny restaurant has done so well it's too late to keep it a secret.
Will he expand one day, perhaps into Cardiff, I ask. Gavin keeps the same expression on his face as he says: "Never say never." After a hectic 18 months, he wants to concentrate on consolidating what Rib and Oyster is all about. But with the likes of Marco to call on for help, the foodie world really is his oyster.
