Llugwy River Restaurant @ Royal Oak Hotel

The peaks of Snowdonia exert a powerful attraction for serious hill walkers as well as ambling tourists, who converge at the crossroads of ever-popular Betws-y-Coed. At the epicentre of all this activity is the Royal Oak, a Victorian coaching inn with a newly revamped dining room. The Llugwy River Restaurant now has a swish contemporary look involving cappuccino walls, crystal chandeliers and fashionably bare blond-wood tables to suit the kitchen's modern Welsh output. Local materials are the stars in a well-balanced starter of crispy pork belly with seared Anglesey scallops and sweet potato purée, while main course celebrates Welsh lamb with a two-bone rack, rillettes of slow-cooked shoulder, and a rosemary and herb lamb crumble, accompanied by carrot and caraway gâteau, dauphinoise potatoes, pan-fried pak choi and red wine jus. Can't make your mind up about pudding? Then go for an assiette of bara brith bread-and-butter pudding, cream pannacotta, toffee ice cream and meringue with strawberries.