Felin Fach Griffin (and Brynich Play Barn!)

The Felin Fach Griffin, just outside Brecon in the beautiful Powys countryside, has become a favourite place to Eat Like Kings, and with overseas visitors to entertain (the Bristol Channel is technically a sea, right?) we headed there for Sunday lunch before seeing our visitors back across the Severn Bridge.

The Felin Fach Griffin has made quite a name for itself on the back of some outstanding local food (much of the produce comes from the kitchen garden). A feature in the latest edition of Olive magazine is the latest in a long line of glowing write-ups from Walesonline to Jay Rayner in The Guardian

Here’s another glowing write-up! 

For Mrs ELK, a Sunday lunch means meat - and meat she got.  Her big pile of classic Welsh Black roast beef was cooked a perfect medium rare.  The waitstaff even asked how she'd like it - a virtue considering (sorry folks) many Brit establishments overcook flesh, in Mrs. ELK's humble-for-an-American opinion.  The beef was accompanied by a plethora of perfectly cooked veg and a massive Yorkshire pud.  All this dowsed in a lovely, if very slightly under-salted, gravy.  But hey, you can add salt!

Perhaps, the most interesting part of Mrs ELK's meal was the starter.  A big hunk of mozzarella di bufalla topped with apple pesto and parma ham.  Sounds weird but the salty ham, sweet apple, tangy pesto and voluptuous, creamy mozarella really balanced each other.  Mrs. ELK's dessert was a dark chocolate brownie with malted milk ice cream.  Very good and due to its chocolate nature, was mostly consumed by ELK Jr.  Oh well, at least she ate loads of broccoli beforehand.

For Mr ELK, it was all about the gnocchi with pied de mouton, wild garlic and sprouting broccoli. This was chosen purely for the pied de mouton.......or to give them their slightly less exotic British name....... Hedgehog mushrooms. Actually 'pied de mouton' translates as 'sheeps feet'. Are hedgehogs are less exotic than sheeps feet?  Either way these are a seriously underrated mushroom, with all the flavour of chanterelles but a firmer texture.  They look a bit weird tho’, which may explain why they haven't yet accrued the culinary cache they deserve. We like our mushrooms at ELK, especially the less common 'terracotta hedgehog'. These pied de moutons were great with the homemade gnocchi and the wild garlic. Where are they getting them from!?

Let us not forget Eat Like Kings Jr. She can sometimes be a handful on our food adventures. She eats like a king, but she has the energy of a million Duracell batteries and, let's face it, if your fellow diners are shelling out for some fine dining on a Sunday afternoon then they might prefer a more serene atmosphere than the one created by your average snot-crusted 2 year old. The secret weapon for toddling diners  in the Brecon area is The Play Barn at Brynich (@playbarn_brecon) a big indoor play area just 5 min down the road from the Felin Fach Griffin on the A470. A strategic half hour there before eating burns off some energy and ensures a hungry Junior ELK who is focused on eating food rather than flinging it at fellow diners and 'entertaining' them with CBeebies songs.

Service and environment were both excellent at the Felin Fach, as they have been on previous visits. The big log fire is a draw, especially with the deep comfy sofas and the stacks of Sunday papers, but at Eat Like Kings it's all (mostly) about the food, and we Ate Like Kings at the Felin Fach Griffin!