New solo venture from Nathan Davies and Michelin starred entry to the 2022 Michelin guide

Time to dine at SY23, where Executive Chef Nathan Davies, formerly of Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms and chef to Stephen Terry, reigns in his first solo venture. The restaurant boasts a simple town house style, with open kitchen and features a very reasonable wine list. The menu is a no option, 10 course menu at lunch and dinner for £130pp with an additional cheese course for a supplement of £12. The key findings for this first visit were that virtually each course was strong in design and execution and I was very pleased with this visit, more so than most other 1 starred restaurants I could cite. There are some restaurants you just know you are in safe hands to return to and want to because you know you will be getting food that will please and this is one of those restaurants based on this first visit. Well recommended.

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First up was a mushroom amuse bouche in the form of a mousse with mushroom ketchup, from maitake mushrooms, served with buttered mushroom mousse, croutons, and a disc of mushroom. The dish was a delightful umami bomb, with beautifully pickled mushrooms to offset the richness of the mousse. A superb start. Homemade sourdough was very well fermented with good crust and served miso butter, made with cream from local farms just outside Aberystwyth. It was a simple but very satisfying start to the meal.

Next came the large, hand-dived Scallop, which was cooked over coals and served with buerre butter, chive oil, local seaweed lettuce, sea purslane, pickled with soy and rice vinegar, furikake (a Japanese seasoning), and scallop crumb with nori (seaweed). The sea additions were lovely, and the wonderful scallop was perfectly cooked and plump. Another great dish.

Turbot was cooked Basque style, dried for three days, and served with a soy sauce dashi and miso butter dashi stock and mirin. The fish had a lovely sweetness to it, and the pickled elements and mirin rice wine helped to control the acidity in the dish. No problems here of any kind and another pleasure.

Next came what I thought was sheer genius and complete pleasure. Gently smoked eel with sour cream and Oscietra caviar was served with shards of Turbot skin, dried and grilled to form the perfect ‘blini’ or cracker base to put the eel and caviar on and have bites of. The turbot skin had the perfect, textural crunch and the smoked eel had its salt content well handled along with good caviar helping the sour cream. This was actually so good it commanded a glass of sparkling wine and as there was Loui Roederer on the menu by the glass (one of my favourite Champagnes), this was one of the best dishes I have had in a long time. Clever, gorgeous and so enjoyable – bravo SY23 on this one.

The Lamb dish was a showstopper, featuring the saddle cooked over fire and the rib brined for 30 hours, smoked over shallots with beer fermented grains, and cooked in beef fermented shallot. It was served with grilled winter gem, sprayed with wild garlic and pickles. The rib was done beautifully, charred to perfection and the flavour combinations on this were absolutely stunning. A very good lamb dish executed beautifully.

For pre-dessert, a chocolate mousse was served made with 61% chocolate with tofu and grains from bread salted caramel barley with miso, spelt, ice cream with local milk infused with Gyumro grain and rapeseed’s oil. The chocolate was a wonderful blend of malt, orange, and orange zest, with a lovely texture and flavour.

Lastly, came the rhubarb dessert, which featured buttermilk panna cotta and shiso, fresh diced rhubarb, and shiso leaves. The diced rhubarb and biscuits provided lovely textures, but the dish was a little too punchy in tartness for my taste, but was a good dish nevertheless.

Overall, my dining experience at SY23 was outstanding and brushed on 2 Michelin starred levels on occasion in my opinion. Chef Nathan Davies’ background at Ynyshir and collaboration with Stephen Terry has resulted in a menu that showcases extremely good flavours and techniques. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a quality dining experience as now the flagship, neighbourhood option in the Aberystwyth area.

Food Grade: 86%