We were lucky enough to stay at Hammet House twice in 2014, and loved it each time. We weren't the only ones, as it's recently been recommended in the Michelin guide 2015. Read on for why we think Hammet House is a gastronomical gem tucked away in the beautiful countryside in West Wales.
The first stay was in June, as a special night away to celebrate my partner turning 30. The second time was as part of a blogger review for their relaxed, indulgent New Year's Eve celebration. The following review covers the experience and service we received on both stays. And the highlights of the fantastic five course meal we had, to see 2015 in.
Location:
Hammet house is located in Llechryd on the Pembrokeshire - Ceredgion border. I'm obviously biased being Welsh myself, but the area is beautiful. There are plenty of places to visit nearby including various Castles, villages with quaint boutique shops, and gorgeous estuary and coastal walks. In fact, a big attraction for staying the first time was that it was a great stop over on the way to Saint Davids, where I'd planned a fantastic coasteering surprise for my sea loving adrenaline junkie fiance.
Comfort:
The building itself has quite a history. Dating back to 1795, every effort has been taken to keep many of the original Georgian features, whilst keeping the furnishings and decor up to date (so you don't feel like you're in a museum!). The people at Hammet House have managed this well, with splashes of vibrant modern colours, and modern furnishings complimenting the granduer of the vast Edwardian building. Bearing this in mind the hotel has an authentic feel, with some creaky floorboards and not all walls and rooms being totally straight, but for me this adds to the charm. The quality of the bedding and furnishings are very good, so you still feel like you're staying somewhere with luxury.
They also add a lovely touch of home made flapjacks and good quality tea and coffee in the rooms, as well as gorgeous smellies in the bathroom.
Service:
Stunning location, charming building aside, the service is quite possibly what bowled me over both times. I can't express in one blog post how genuine and lovely each member of staff came across. Having stayed at some top hotels in the past, I find sometimes, the higher the quality the snottier the guests (and unfortunately the staff). What sets Hammet house above most of the hotels I've stayed at is, they've got the quality, but are down to earth and make every guest feel like they're welcome and special no matter what car they may have driven up the drive in.
Nothing is too much, they made my fiance a special passion fruit gateau for his 30th Birthday breakfast, on top of a delicious cooked breakfast (at no extra cost). They even ran around looking for something we could take it home in as we had to dash off for his surprise coasteering trip.
At the most recent visit, I made the cardinal sin any guest could make... we got there slightly late, after trying to get things finished in the house before heading out for our relaxing New Years stay. I was rushing getting ready for food (as usual) and shock horror spilled make up on the beautiful cream carpet. Cue a mad dash trying to clean it up, making it look worse (typical), getting in a hot sweaty fluster, making us even later to the meal and totally stressing myself out that we were going to leave with a huge bill. There goes my relaxed evening, and it was all my own fault. Luckily the service and food was so good I managed to forget about the cursed black stain on the carpet upstairs (I would deal with it in the morning). By check out the nerves were back as I felt terribly guilty of ruining their lovely carpet and nervously mentioned it, asking if they wanted to go and have a look (and hanging my head in shame). But you know what? They were LOVELY! so polite and professional, they assured me that there would be something they could do for it and sent us on our way. I even panicked that in a few days time I would get a bill as they hadn't managed to clean it but... nope, nothing.
Now I know me spilling makeup on the carpet isn't exactly a testament to the hotel, but it's the consistently welcoming professional manner of the staff that I love, and have experienced when I've been at my most frazzled (trying to keep a surprise secret from my fiance, and feeling guilty after carpet stain - gate). During our meal you could hear some regulars asking staff how they were keeping, and even on the table next to us the couple had their small child sleeping in their room and ate while watching their nifty video baby monitor app on their phone with staff being attentive and asking how everything was going. Top class service.
Food:
Easily one of the most important parts of our stay, and luckily it did not disappoint. Interestingly on our first stay we had our food cooked by one of the young chefs and it was superb! We wouldn't have known, so the training must have been good (we haven't been so lucky elsewhere).
The New Years menu by Andrew Beaumont was as follows:
Welcome cocktail and chefs selected canapes
Ballotine of guinea fowl, chestnuts, tarragon mayonnaise, cranberries
Confit trout, salt baked baby beetroot, buffalo cheddar, grapefruit
Cutlet of venison, potato & parsnip pressing, pancetta, braised savoy
White Chocolate & passion fruit cylinder, toasted hazelnuts, sorbet
Perl wen & truffle fondue, crisp breads, dipping sticks
Coffee & petit fours
Midnight munchies & Champagne
The cocktail we enjoyed was a Gingham cocktail which was made up of Casis, vodka and lime, just a few of my favourite things! It was really good.
For canapes we had lemon Parmesan risotto balls, which quite frankly I could have eaten a whole plate of! We also had smoked salmon, chorizo sausage roll and chicken liver with fois gras canapes, all were delicious.
I was also there for New Year (not resident) and thoroughly agree with the review of the service and food. A night to remember!