I ate at a hotel restaurant by the sea and it completely exceeded my cliched expectations

It’s always disappointing when you’re on a relaxing holiday, you’ve booked a nice hotel and you think – often for convenience – “let’s try this restaurant” and, well, most of the time the result is pretty bad.

This experience is not just reserved for chain, budget or airport hotels, but I recently visited a destination in Pembrokeshire that completely surpassed this cliche: Dulse Restaurant at Ty Milford in Milford Haven, where the dishes on the menu and those ordered afterwards were of fantastic quality, carefully crafted using some of the finest Welsh ingredients.

The waterfront restaurant offers guests views of the harbor and serves dishes inspired by chef Simon Crockford’s childhood in the area. The name is taken from a type of edible seaweed that grows in abundance on the nearby coast and adds an umami flavor to anything it is added to.

READ MORE: Hidden restaurant that not even Google can find is named one of Wales’ best

MORE FOOD REVIEWS: We tried the quiet village restaurant where people come from all over Wales

With a fresh, modern interior, including outside-facing booths to enjoy the view, Dulse is a nice place to sit down for a late dinner and we made the most of being quite hungry. We didn’t hesitate to order Farm Cottage Bakery’s bread of the day to nibble on, which that evening was a chilli cheese loaf (£5.50) and the most delicious pastry I’ve had in a long time, it had the optimal ratio of cheese to hot chilli and frankly it was a beautiful bread – fluffy, soft and crispy on the outside. It tasted more like a croissant or brioche, so delicate was its sweetness.

An absolutely fabulous home cooked start to the meal, which continued with Carmarthen ham, roasted peaches and mozzarella (£11.50) and the prawn salad marinated in miso and Welsh honey (£11). Both starters were not exactly generous in terms of portion size and the flavours and combination of individual ingredients were a triumph.

The local air-dried ham – which, as many will know, is the very well-done Welsh equivalent of a Parma ham – put its Italian cousin to shame. It’s a huge plus that they opted for Carms rather than Parms and the flavour was more than convincing. Combined with the silky cheese and juicy peaches, this was a compelling, fresh, light and flavourful starter. My salad also had more prawns than you could imagine. With a delicate flavour but with a nice background kick and peanut flavour, it was another starter that offered plenty of character and flavour without leaving you too full when you move on to the main course.

OK, don’t judge us for our mains now – we were a little tired after a post-work trip out west and were feeling pretty basic at this point, so I opted for the market fish of the day and chips (£20) and fried chicken breast (£22). Two British classics you’d expect to find on a hotel restaurant menu, and ended up disappointed with dry chicken and frozen chips.

They were by no means simple. The local hake was served in two large pieces, encased in a crispy batter that someone had put a lot of effort into preparing. It was accompanied by homemade tartar sauce and mushy peas – the dish looked good and tasted excellent too. No limp, pale chips and dry fish here. Personally, I prefer mushy peas, which has a little more structure than it did, but the bright green garnish added some much-needed sweetness to the classic dinner.

Now, roasted chicken breast sounds very dry, but the composition of this main course made dinner very special. With nduja and Snowdonia cheddar sweets, sweet potato hash, smoked bacon velouté and barti ddu rum sauce, it can also sound like there are too many elements to contend with, but that wasn’t the case.

The sweet potato hash was incredible, smoky and sweet, it went so well with the lovely dollops of rum BBQ sauce and velouté, the chicken dish – superbly cooked, by the way – burst with flavour. The only slight disappointment was the candies, where the flavour of the n’duja and cheddar was lost in the deliciousness of the potatoes.

After a couple of glasses of wine and beer – they have a wonderful Merlot Reserva from Chile, served by the glass (from £6.45) – I only ordered dessert because my partner basically can’t resist anything with apples in it. So he ordered the caramel mousse (£8.50), which came with apple sorbet, apple gel, apple crisps and honeycomb. See, I told you it’s got a lot of apple in it.

An impressive looking whipped dessert. The mousse was sweet and melted in the mouth and the apple garnishes pierced the sweetness with a fruity sharpness that was very welcome.

Our experience at Dulse was part of an invited trip to try out the accommodation and activities on the Milford Waterfront, but I would safely say that our dinner was no fluke and at every table around us, people seemed to be in similar good hands. The food we spotted as we walked by was of a similarly high quality, as was the friendly and attentive, but not overly intrusive, service.

With its price point, Dulse is a great place to celebrate a special occasion or a night out for two when you want well-thought-out dishes in a stylish setting, but don’t want to spend too much.

Find it at Tŷ Milford Waterfront, Nelson Quay, Milford Haven, SA73 3AA.