Eating in Llanberis

A few of you have already wondered why I’m not on my honeymoon but the simple reason is that we’re having our proper honeymoon later in the year. We’re going to visit Rome (first time for both of us) and any and all food suggestions are welcome!

However, we did manage a long weekend away in Snowdonia, the national park in the north of Wales. A train to Bangor, followed by a local bus, and we were smack dab in our home (at the Alpine Lodge Hotel) for three nights – the village of Llanberis, located at the base of Snowdon, the highest mountain in the UK south of Scotland. For such a small village (population less than 2000), there was some great food to be had – though it should be mentionned that this is a popular base for both climbers and people coming to walk up Snowdon. We were there to do some walking ourselves and there are many beautiful paths around that region.

One place with great food was Pete’s Eats, quite the climbers institution with it’s generous portions and low prices. Along with a hamburger, we split this plateful of egg and chips for lunch our first day.

If it’s one thing that I’ll remember of Llanberis, it’s chips (oh, and slate). These we had at Pete’s Eats were no exception – crunchy on the outside, tender inside…and lots of those crunchy little shards at the bottom of the pile!

Later that evening, we went to the Peak Restaurant for dinner, where they kindly accommodated us even though we didn’t have a reservation. While our main courses were a little oversauced, the starters were particularly good and generously portioned. Here’s my Llandudno smoked duck with mango salsa salad:

One night, we were feeling particularly lazy as we’d been out for most of the day and we opted to get takeaway pizza and fish and chips and eat it in our hotel room by the window. There’s only one fish and chip place in the village (Allports) and similarly one pizza/burger/kebab takeaway shop (Hot Shop). Both were packed and we had to wait a while before our orders were ready. This was our pizza with anchovies, capers and mushrooms.

This pizza puts most of the pizzas I’ve had in London to shame! A gorgeous thin crust made with fresh dough, just the right amount of cheese, just the right amount of toppings – all in all, an excellent pizza. Leftovers became our packed lunch the next day.

Welsh baked goods also impressed (sorry, no photos as we ate them all) – I particularly like Welsh cakes and bara brith. And if you do make it to Llanberis, we highly recommend the National Slate Museum, on the banks of Llyn Padarn in Llanberis; it was a very fascinating visit! I mean, as a kid I’d probably have hated it but now with a bit of maturity, it was quite interesting learning about the slate mining history of Wales. I’d love to go back to complete our climb up Snowdon (we turned back as we weren’t that well prepared and the weather was turning).

All our photos from our trip can be found in this Flickr photoset.

Pete’s Eats
40 High Street
Llanberis, Gwynedd
LL55 4EU

Peak Restaurant
84-86 High Street
Llanberis, Gwynedd
LL55 4SU

Hot Shop
57 High Street
Llanberis, Gwynedd
LL55 4EU