The Pen Y Cae Inn – He Says/She Says Review

Me and Jon are lucky enough to have been booked to shoot a tiny little wedding at a pub called the Pen Y Cae Inn, which is in Powys, next month. So as we do with any venue that is new to us, we visit it before the wedding date to find out what the space is like and what grounds we have to work with, its like a little recce to help us get ideas and understand where the wedding will take place. Now we had already been told that this venue was quite beautiful, quite unusual (it has its own little menagerie) and has amazing food…so we figured if we were going to visit we may as well stay and try some of the food! And do this little Pen Y Cae Inn Review for you all.

We thought we would make an afternoon of the visit and take a few friends along with us too, so my best friend Heather, her partner Pete and his brother Phil all came along for the ride. Well we weren’t disappointed. The building itself is beautiful, as you can see from the image above, and the interior was an elegantly done traditional pub feel, lots of oak beams and exposed stone bricks, with a few comfy leather sofas dotted around, plus the walls were covered in beautiful art and photographs from local artists. It will be a great venue for a wedding so we are really looking forward to shooting there next month. You can find out more about the Pen Y Cae Inn on their Website. So on to the food!
Picture Shows (from top left clockwise): Roast Lamb Dinner (which also came with a side of fresh vegetables), Venison and Pear Burger with Chunky Fries, Ham Hock with Creamy Leek and Cheese Sauce (also came with fresh veggies) and Cajun Chicken with Chunky Fries. – We also had a Baked Brie with Sweet Chilli Sauce to start. So here is what we really thought

He Says: The Pen y Cae is a little bit out in the sticks but is a beautiful little restaurant. Inside is smothered in chunky oak which I’m a big fan of. We were seated in the waiting area and given menus pretty quickly.  I’m a sucker for a good burger so the pear and venison burger was chosen pretty quick! After about 25 mins we were seated upstairs in the restaurant, but another 25 mins went by until we finally received our food.  Personally I think 50 mins is a bit much. If there was for some reason a long wait on food we should have been pre-warned. That aside the baked brie which Chantele and I shared went down well, the sweet chilli sauce wasn’t too spicy for me but I think Chantele struggled. Soon after our mains arrived and the burger was pretty darn good. A nice thick patty, juicy all the way through and cooked well. I wasn’t able to taste the pear however, but it didn’t spoil it one bit. For me personally the one thing that would have improved the burger would have been a soft bun or even a sweet bun rather than a toasted ciabatta. Having to eat a burger by cutting the bun with a fork kinda dulls it down for me, maybe its just the caveman inside me!

She Says: Well friends had told me about the Pen y Cae Inn and how good the food was there so I was looking forward to visiting. As with most restaurants we visit I checked them out on Trip Advisor first and overall they are really highly recommended. The menu had a great selection of dishes but both me and Jon chose the Venison and Pear Burger and a Baked Brie to share for starters. The brie was pretty standard, although it was served with Sweet Chilli sauce instead of a sweet sauce which I would have liked. I love a good venison burger and the idea of a venison and pear sounded tasty. The burger and chips were really good, but sadly I couldn’t actually taste any pear – venison is so strong taste wise that it tends to drown out anything that is too subtle, which it obviously did in this case, but I didn’t mind as the food was really good! My only criticism is that the food took almost 50 minutes to arrive. I understand that everything was cooked fresh, but there were only 2 other tables in the restaurant, so I think 50 minutes is a bit much to wait really. Other than that I loved it there, and am looking forward to returning!And then there were the animals!! Like I said, the Pen y Cae Inn has a bit of its own menagerie in the gardens of the pub. The family who own and run the venue love wildlife so decide to make their home a home to some great little creatures too. There were lots of birds and ducks, some wallabies and pigmy goats but our favourites were the meerkats and the Marmosets. This is definitely a place that kids will love and a must visit when in Wales