Rhuthun/Ruthin boasts a higher proportion of fine dining establishments for its size. Even so, people these days seem to be content to stay at home and sit of Facebook all evening...
There follows, however, something of an encouraging sign. We found it difficult to get a table for two in town this evening. Whereas previously there has been something of a shakedown in the restaurant food trade—gone are The Anchor, The Wynnstay, The Picture House, The Castle Hotel*—it now seems that there's insufficient capacity for demand.
This won't be for long. though. Number 5 (Upper Clwyd Street) is soon to come on line (there's an open evening on April 22nd before the official opening on April 27th). We understand that Crown House, closed for over a year, will become an all-day-all-evening thing (see below).
Back to today. First port of call was this evening was The Star Bistro. This has changed hands at least four times recently and, shamefully, we hadn't used it under its new management. We very much liked the tapas management, though the hygiene rating at that time was poor, at two. The Star Bistro at 7 p.m. was fully booked. There was a possibility of a table at 8.30 p.m. but that wasn't any good for us.
Thence to the Myddleton Grill. All booked up there, too.
We didn't try On the Hill because you need weeks-worth of notice to get in there.
Other than Wetherspoon's*, that's it, really. I have excluded the traditional British restaurant staple curry (at Ocean Pearl) and the Chinese (at Panda Garden). Nether of these appealed and in any case I wasn't sure about Panda Garden's hygiene rating (I hadn't checked). There is nowhere else to try, not in town, not within walking distance. So, encouraging it may be but there appears to be a market for more (see above).
*—restaurant trade only: when owned by Herself, the Castle Hotel had pretensions in this department. Pre-Herself, who remembers Off the Square by the same people as the Picture House? The current Wetherspoon pub does not fit this category
Finally, there was the Manor House or Manorhaus as it is more fashionably known. Here was the reverse picture: there was just one table occupied by two. We waited in the lobby for someone to attend to us but a combination of no one actually showing an interest and, more critically for us, the fact that we were going to double the numbers—a little awkward, we felt—resulted in our skulking back home for some leftover homemade cottage pie, pease... and something I doubt we would have enjoyed at any of the restaurants in Rhuthun... on-offer frozen sprouts at half price from the Co-op.
There follows, however, something of an encouraging sign. We found it difficult to get a table for two in town this evening. Whereas previously there has been something of a shakedown in the restaurant food trade—gone are The Anchor, The Wynnstay, The Picture House, The Castle Hotel*—it now seems that there's insufficient capacity for demand.
Thence to the Myddleton Grill. All booked up there, too.
We didn't try On the Hill because you need weeks-worth of notice to get in there.
Other than Wetherspoon's*, that's it, really. I have excluded the traditional British restaurant staple curry (at Ocean Pearl) and the Chinese (at Panda Garden). Nether of these appealed and in any case I wasn't sure about Panda Garden's hygiene rating (I hadn't checked). There is nowhere else to try, not in town, not within walking distance. So, encouraging it may be but there appears to be a market for more (see above).
*—restaurant trade only: when owned by Herself, the Castle Hotel had pretensions in this department. Pre-Herself, who remembers Off the Square by the same people as the Picture House? The current Wetherspoon pub does not fit this category
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Pubs