Two Michelin star Ynyshir near Powys 'could charge more'

Gareth Ward’s double Michelin star restaurant, Ynyshir, which was crowned the UK’s best earlier this year offers 30-course tasting menu.

However Mr Ward has said that even though the menu costs £380 per head, he doesn’t see a huge profit.

Quoted in the Telegraph, Mr Ward said: “I’m not sat here, like rolling in money – I’m not Scrooge McDuck. Not a penny comes out of this place.

“Anything we make, which is not a lot, goes straight back into improving Ynyshir because I want to hopefully push it to be one of the best restaurants in the world one day."

Ynishir which is regarded as the one of the top restaurants in the UK uses a number of high quality ingredients, such as caviar, blue-fin tuna, and wagyu beef aged for 300 days in a Himalayan salt chamber meaning that the restaurant is not making a large profit.

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“It’s a passion project. It’s not a money-maker at all. I wish it was,” continued Mr Ward. “To anyone who says the pricing of the restaurant is extreme, I would say you need to come and have a look at our figures.

“I don’t do a GP [gross profit] on it because I’m scared … we’re using the most ridiculously expensive ingredients in the world.”

“I have 27 members of staff for a 20-cover restaurant – I have 14 acres of land that costs a lot of money to run. It’s my fault, I have made it the way it is.”

“I have wanted to push and push, use better ingredients, have more staff, be more extravagant in the things we do to give the most incredible experience … but, unfortunately, that comes at a cost – someone needs to pay for it.”

Ynyshir’s website describes the food as “ingredient led”, “flavour driven”, “fat-fuelled” and “protein obsessed”, while diners are told to expect “fire, intense world flavours and the best meat and fish from around the globe”.

The country house hotel, set in woodland near Machynlleth, is Wales’s first two-star Michelin restaurant and was named Britain’s best restaurant this summer at the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards 2023.

Earlier in in the month the restaurant began offering a £200 takeaway tasting menu, available on Uber Eats in London. This involves 10 courses which include hot and sour crab soup, BBQ lobster claw, A5 rib-eye steak as well as delicacies not normally associated with takeaways, such as caviar.

In the autumn the team behind the restaurant opened a second site, Gwen, in Machynlleth.