Address: South John Street, New Quay, Ceredigion SA45 9NP, West Wales

Telephone number: 01545 561 844

Website: www.traeth.co.uk

Date of visit: 21 June 2010

Approximate cost per head: Ranges from £15 to £30 plus for 2 courses

Comments on wine list/beer: basic but OK

Summary:

This is a very unusual restaurant for 2 reasons. Firstly, it is located on the first floor with a side entrance. You could easily walk pass without even realising that there is a restaurant there. Secondly, they do high quality steaks with a price to match – still less than London prices.

This was the site of the old Thai Restaurant – they have since migrated into the suburbs offering only a delivery service that majors on main courses.

The restaurant is housed in a bright and  airy room with a huge balcony that also serves as a drinks area. The tables are well spaced apart. The balcony offers a fantastic view over the harbour and bay.

There are two menus: an upmarket steak menu and a bistro menu offering burgers, pasta etc at around £10.

We went for the steak menu – I had the tartare steak (£19.50) whilst my friends had the fillet steaks with bone (£24.50). The tartare steak was served with skinny chips – a cross between pommes aluminates and french fries – and a small water cress salad. The steak was similar to AWT’s Greyhound Pub (they used a lot of green peppercorns in the raw meat mixture). I am actually surprised that they offered steak tartare as a starter or main course – New Quay is not an area that you would associate with this type of food.

The fillet was the fillet side of a T Bone – cut thick. The restaurant can cook the steak in 6 different ways – from blue to well done. One of my friends ordered blue whilst the other ordered medium. They got exactly what they asked for. The steaks were served with various sauces and chunky chips. I was very impressed.

The wine list was pretty basic. We had a bottle of rioja at £19. It was fine.

The tap water had slices of cucumbers in it – unusual but refreshing.

The steak here is as good a piece of steak as you will ever get. If  fact, having dined at various steak houses reound the world and the USA – Prime, Gibsons (Chicago only) and Mortons. I rate the steaks here in the A plus bracket. Lets pray that this place survives.

We finished the meal with a peach melba (£5.50).

E

Comment from Nigel (Chef)

Thanks for the comments. For information, the steak tartare has no green pepper corns in. It does include capers, together with other traditional ingredients including dill cucumber, red onion, shallot, dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, tabasco, anchovy and, of course, a freerange egg yolk.
We believe we have sourced the best possible meat and fish available in the UK, and freeze neither! Well spotted regarding the similarity to AWT’s Greyhound. The recipe is almost the same. Regarding the steak pricing we are competitive for the area, even compared to inferior quality cuts / meats, and considerably cheaper than London! For example, the most ecpensive steak, our fillet on the bone, at £24.99 is £2 (nearly 10%)cheaper than a local competitor, is 2oz heavier and exceptionally well sourced. Exactly the same cut in London is £35! Thanks again for the review , and very many thanks for visiting us. I hope you revisit