A converted horsebox trailer located on The Mumbles promenade, the Gower Seafood Hut was a runner-up in the Observer Food Monthly’s best cheap eats category thanks to pocket-friendly street-food snacks like cockle popcorn with laverbread mayonnaise. It’s owned by Sarah Kift and Chris Price, who look to their Mediterranean holidays for inspiration – think Italian-style fritto misto of sardines, squid, whitebait, samphire and capers – but always using locally sourced fish from Swansea Bay and around the Gower coast.

Look out for weekend specials such as Never Mind the Scallops: queen scallops rolled in breadcrumbs and served with retro red cocktail sauce and a wedge of lemon. Hot seafood by the sea doesn’t get much better.

This family-run café is at the heart of the Felinheli community, overlooking the Menai Strait. Llofft emphasises locally sourced ingredients for breakfast, lunch and Sunday roasts. From the main menu, we recommend the Thai-style fishcakes, and you definitely need to try their homemade chips.

Currently one of five Michelin-starred restaurants in , the dining room at Ynyshir Hall, near Aberdovey’s beautifully wild coastline, creates culinary magic with Welsh lamb, local Wagyu beef and organic pork; they’re such sticklers for detail that the hotel’s breakfast sausages are even prepared to their own recipe. Much of the produce comes from the hotel’s own kitchen garden, while mushrooms, samphire and elderflower are foraged. No wonder chef Gareth Ward was named the Good Food Guide 2015 Chef to Watch. Bedrooms are equally striking, idiosyncratically but luxuriously decorated in jelly bean-bright colours.

Along the shores of Criccieth sits Dylan’s, a beautiful glass-fronted Art Deco building serving up a range of seafood from a Michelin-recommended menu. The main menu includes dishes such as sea bream tacos and moules mariniere, and make sure you peruse the specials menu as well – we had excellent fish and chips with sea bass, polenta chips, mushy peas and batter scraps.

You can also check out one of their other locations.

This is a small deli with a big heart, which showcases the flavours of Nova Scotia and Wales. If you’re a cheese lover, you’ll enjoy the wide selection of Welsh cheeses, or if you’re more of a sweet tooth, there are plenty of homemade bakery treats on offer. If you want something a little more hearty, try their Nova Scotia chowder or the gravlax bagel.

For an expertly crafted pie to wash down your pint of , you’re in safe hands at the Felin Fach Griffin, near Brecon. The Good Food Guide’s Welsh Country Dining Pub of the Year 2015, it also holds a Bib Gourmand award and is one of three Sawdays Hotel’s of the Year for 2015. This is comfort food done with a light touch; warm pork, apple and black pudding terrine, perhaps, or local duck breast with butternut squash, potato gratin and kale. A run of cosy bedrooms on site means you don’t have to rush home afterwards, either.

In the heart of the popular tourist town Abersoch, you’ll find The Potted Lobster, offering a relaxed dining experience with fresh, locally sourced seafood. As the name suggests, the most popular dish is the half or whole lobster, sustainably and locally caught from their supplier Lockdown Lobsters. If you enjoy a sweet treat, we'd recommend the dark chocolate and orange torte, served with honeycomb and rum and raisin ice cream.

Neighbourhood dining reaches new heights in Pontcanna as the chefs behind The Potted Pig trade in its city centre bank vault for a more suburban location. Dealing in clean and contemporary dishes crafted using the best of the South Wales larder, Milkwood is right at home with the area’s restaurants, bars and artisan shops.

Just outside Hay-on-Wye, you’ll find the Jacobean ‘white palace’ allegedly home to the first Welsh parliament. Now the site is home to a country house hotel with acclaimed restaurant, extensive gardens (walled, rose and fruit among them) and stunning bedrooms. For dinner, choose from a four-course or tasting menu. With the likes of lobster croquette, golden and crisp, surrounded by a moat of rich parmesan sauce and mackerel with pickled vegetables and tomato.

Owners Neil Kedward and Zoe Agar have looked to Oxwich Bay on the stunning Gower Peninsular of South West Wales, for the setting of their third venture, Beach House. With an impressive seaside spot and a bounty of local fresh seafood, it’s popular with locals and tourists alike.

A relaunch of the restaurant at The St David’s Hotel, in Cardiff Bay, sees Wales’ first Australasian-inspired dining spot. Docked within a striking sail-shaped structure on Cardiff Bay, The Admiral promises to marry Welsh produce with influences from Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka.

Read our full review here

If it’s seafood and seaviews you’re after, two of the country’s most sophisticated recent openings are both set close to the waves. In Penarth, just outside Cardiff, Restaurant James Sommerin bagged itself a place in the Good Food Guide’s Top 50 UK restaurants within three months of opening; Michelin stars are already being talked about. Meanwhile, in Pembrokeshire, ex-La Bécasse chef Will Holland has also made a large culinary splash at Saundersfoot’s new Coast restaurant.

The passion for small plates is taking Wales’ kitchens by storm. Nowhere more so than at Bar 44’s two tapas joints, in Cowbridge and Penarth. Owned and run by brothers Tom and Owen Morgan, both branches are under the direction of head chef Tommy Heaney (with input from ); most of what’s on the menu is either house-made or imported from artisan Spanish producers and the drinks list has an equally strong Spanish flavour, from sherries and wines to cava cocktails. Look out for seasonal specials, too; if you fancy a change from leeks, the end of March sees the bars hosting a calçotada festival.

For something slightly less grand but equally indulgent, try Llys Meddyg in Pembrokeshire. Smart modern bedrooms are paired with a kitchen that takes provenance deeply seriously but clearly has fun in the process. It’s dog-friendly, too.

A modern and bright space, with attentive staff on hand, The Brasserie's menu is a tome of Pembrokeshire bounty. Highlights from the 2-AA rosette restaurant include starters of pan fried scallops, glazed curried pig cheeks, pressed ham hock terrine with salt baked pineapple and a quail's egg, while mains include treacle marinated pork fillet served with a confit pork belly croquette and an almond milk rigatoni served with sun-blushed tomatoes and crispy shallots.

Set in a renovated, 18^th-century calf shed, this restaurant is based around the beliefs of head chef Andy Holcroft and his partner, entomologist Dr Sarah Beynon, that the Western world could do with a little education on the nutritious and sustainable virtues of entomophagy (that’ll be eating insects). Dishes change frequently depending on season and supply (Sarah’s family farms much of the meat in neighbouring fields) but look out for toasted cumin mealworm hummus, black ant crusted goat’s cheese, cricket flour crepes and Andy’s signature bug burgers.

With another branch in Abersytwyth and an outlet in Cardiff, Ultracomida has proven its recipe as half deli/half restaurant really works. The company is known for its commitment to sourcing fine Spanish produce, and for its well-executed tapas. Don’t leave this, the original outlet, without ordering the silky morcilla (black pudding), a plato mixto (cheese and cured meats) and a serving of authentic patatas bravas. Can’t stop to eat? Fill a hamper with fresh bread, olives and a selection of artisan cheeses large enough to rival the likes of that in Harrods’ food hall.

Run by husband-and-wife-duo Gemma and Lee Evans (the team behind The Harbourmaster in Milford Haven’s Nelson Quay), The Boat House is in a prized spot in the popular coastal town of Saundersfoot. With its appropriately designed seaside décor, dine on homely cooking with carefully sourced ingredients and be sure to look to the specials for the freshest catch of the day.

For what is arguably the finest food (and comfiest beds) this side of the Severn Bridge, this small, independently owned hotel (sister to Coast in Saundersfoot and Beach House Oxwich) is the ultimate treat for discerning diners.

It’s the attention to detail and delicate finesse of pairing flavours that makes Executive Chef's Allister Barsby's dishes so memorable; a sirloin of Welsh beef, plaice with wild mushrooms and a pistachio souffle with bitter chocolate proved particular highlights.

This is everything a gastropub should be: homely and familiar with unbelievably good grub. The nearby Pembrokeshire Coast Path brings ramblers in their droves for boards of farm ham, cheese (Caerfai cheddar, Boksburg Blue, Caws Cenarth and Heb Enw), pickles, apple, salad, chutney and home baked bread, while an aged rib of local beef is fit for a sharing with chunky chips, rarebit topped mushrooms and beer-battered onion rings.