The Bear Hotel, Crickhowell

A large and imposing pub/restaurant/hotel at the top of the High Street. Inside there’s three different bars areas as well as a separate restaurant. The left hand bar also looked to be geared up mostly for eating, and there was a plusher snug beyond this. The two main, adjoining bars contained a mixture of diners and drinkers. There was a reserved table right in front the bar, but this seemed to be just for local drinkers. I thought this was a nice touch, I can imagine some of the locals may get fed up with not being able to get a seat thanks to all the tourists. Although quite sizable, it still manages to retain a certain charm. There’s a parquet wood floor with a number of rugs, some exposed stone walls, a couple of old fireplaces, one of which had a fire going, an old grandfather clock, a unusual wood panelled back to the bar and plenty of old pewter jugs hung on the wall. Although very busy on a recent Friday evening, there were plenty of staff and the service was quick and efficient. Food was a notch above your usual pub grub, but £10 got me a pleasant enough curry with some decent, tender pieces of chicken, a poppadom and some pickles. Beers on tap were Rhymney’s Bitter, Henry’s IPA, Rev. James and Bass. The solitary cider was Kingston Press.

Official site of the Bear Hotel, includes menu and wine list - www.bearhotel.co.uk

Official site of the Bear Hotel, includes menu and wine list - www.bearhotel.co.uk