Hurrens Inn on the Estuary

Not much separates this former inn from the Loughor estuary and the views from the front terrace are stunning. Inside, it has been redecorated, its two linked dining rooms done in bold blue and lilac, with well-spaced pale wood tables, comfortable chairs and a firm no-smoking policy. Graham Hurren prides himself on using top-quality local ingredients for dishes that have a modern slant but no pretensions or frills. His astonishingly good value lunch (£9.50 for two courses) reveals solid competent cooking, whether an intensely flavoured filo tart of Mediterranean vegetables and goats’ cheese with ‘pomaddara’ sauce, gutsy Welsh faggots with mushy peas, or tender, flavoursome minted lamb chops. Dinner is a more elaborate affair but despite a salsa here, a ginger and lime butter there, much of the cooking tends towards classic combinations: a cream sauce with a chargrilled sirloin of veal, and bearnaise with fillet of beef. Desserts are in a similarly mould, with lunch delivering rhubarb crumble and home made custard, but hot chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream and white chocolate cream at dinner. Affordable drinking is the key to the wine list, which scatters a few unexpected gems amid choices from Europe and the New World.