Wales's only two-Michelin-star restaurant
Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms at Eglwysfach, six miles or so south-west of Machynlleth, is the biggest name in Welsh food: the only restaurant in Wales to hold two Michelin stars. Chef Gareth Ward serves a tasting menu of around 30 courses built on local seafood and wagyu beef, shot through with Far Eastern flavours — an intense, hours-long, music-backed experience that has drawn diners from around the world to a quiet corner of the Dyfi estuary. This is a destination in the fullest sense: people plan whole trips around a table here.
From country-house hotel to destination dining
Longer-memoried readers may recall this place as Ynyshir Hall Hotel, a luxurious country-house hotel whose artist-named bedrooms were hung with the paintings of its then owner, Rob Reen. Today the emphasis has been turned on its head: Ynyshir is a restaurant-with-rooms, where the point of staying is the meal. Guests book dinner and sleep on site, rolling from the final course to bed without seeing a car key — the rooms exist to serve the restaurant rather than the other way round. Contact Ynyshir for current menus, prices and booking arrangements; tables and rooms are released in advance and demand is high, so book well ahead.
Gwen — the sister restaurant in town
Ynyshir's orbit now extends into Machynlleth itself: Gwen Restaurant & Wine Bar at 21 Heol Maengwyn is its sister venue, a Michelin Guide-listed, fire-led destination restaurant from chef Peter Sanchez-Iglesias serving a tasting menu of around 20 courses to just eight guests per service across two open kitchens, with bookings via Tock. Between the two of them, this small stretch of Mid Wales punches absurdly far above its culinary weight — see our full eating out guide for the town's cafes, chippies and pubs as well.
RSPB Ynys-hir next door
The restaurant shares its name — and its corner of the estuary — with the RSPB Ynys-hir nature reserve, which lies immediately adjacent at Eglwys-fach. Its 800 or so hectares of mudflat, saltmarsh and sessile-oak woodland hosted BBC Springwatch from 2011 to 2013 and hold the only regular wintering flock of Greenland white-fronted geese in England and Wales, along with red kites, pied flycatchers and otters. A pre-dinner walk on the reserve's trails, followed by 30 courses, is about as good as a day in the Dyfi Biosphere gets. Machynlleth, with its Wednesday market and Owain Glyndŵr Parliament House, is a short drive up the A487.
Getting here and getting around
Ynyshir sits at Eglwysfach, off the A487 between Machynlleth and Aberystwyth, six miles or so south-west of the town. Because people travel a long way for a table here, the wider distances matter: Machynlleth is 56 miles from Shrewsbury (about 1 hour 18 minutes), 103 miles from Birmingham (roughly 2 hours 4 minutes) and 103 miles from Cardiff (some 2 hours 32 minutes), with Aberystwyth much closer at 17.8 miles, around 29 minutes.
By rail, Machynlleth is the practical railhead: most Birmingham services run direct in around 2 hours 21 minutes, and Aberystwyth is roughly 33 minutes away on a broadly hourly service. The TrawsCymru T2 and T28 run between the two towns along the A487 and pass the village, but times change and evening options are limited. Since dinner and a room are normally booked together, most guests arrive, settle in and stay put — ask about taxis when you book. More on getting here and getting around.
Filling the day before dinner
There is plenty to do before the first course. Next door, RSPB Ynys-hir has five hides and three trails, though its visitor centre keeps limited open days and non-members pay to enter, so check the RSPB's own pages first. Across the estuary at Derwenlas, the Dyfi Osprey Project's 360 Observatory stands at the end of a flat 600-metre boardwalk, with ospreys present roughly from April to early September. Further towards Aberystwyth, Borth has three miles of sand, a prehistoric submerged forest that appears at the lowest tides, and the Ynyslas dunes at the mouth of the estuary.
Practical Information
Ynyshir is a restaurant-with-rooms: dinner and accommodation are typically booked together, menus change constantly and demand far exceeds supply, so book well in advance via the website. Details here were supplied by the business and our own research — please contact Ynyshir directly to confirm current menus, prices and availability.
Menus, the number of courses and the price of dinner change constantly, and Ynyshir publishes them only on its own site — so treat any figure you find on a third-party listing with caution and book direct.
Ynyshir, Eglwysfach, Machynlleth, Powys, Wales SY20 8TA
Telephone (UK): 01654 781209 · Telephone (International): +44 1654 781209
Website: the ynyshirhall.co.uk address previously listed here no longer belongs to the restaurant and now serves unrelated content, so we have removed the link. Ynyshir publishes its menus, prices and booking dates on its own current site — search for Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms, or telephone the restaurant.
Day trips