Hanson at the Chelsea

‘A staple of the Swansea area’ since 2007, Andrew Hanson’s characterful restaurant continues to please, and his cooking never gets old – thanks to a solid classical grounding, excellent local ingredients and a focus on unfettered indulgence. It’s a convivial setting, small, homely and comfortable, with banquette seating and coordinated blond-wood furniture. Typical starters play to the gallery with the likes of Swansea smoked salmon with crab and prawn blinis, goat’s cheese Chantilly with an assiette of beetroot or a handmade Gala-style pork pie embedded with a quail’s egg.

The classics come out in full force for main courses, perhaps herb-crusted roast rack of Welsh lamb with a mini shepherd’s pie, tournedos of beef or oven-crisped confit duck with gratin dauphinoise, port sauce and glazed orange. Cornish seafood is the star of other dishes ranging from new season’s lobster with pommes frites to a ‘rendezvous of salmon’ with roast scallop, king prawns and a cockle and clam herb butter sauce. There are also prime steaks and decent meat-free options – a porcini risotto, say, with avocado, wild mushrooms and crispy roots.

Desserts are a strength, whether you fancy a traditional syrup sponge pudding or a chocolate crémeux with a quenelle of white chocolate mousse. The taster menu is a ‘superb treat’ too. Wines favour the classics, with plenty of affordable options plus a few reliably good luxuries; the comprehensive whisky selection also comes highly recommended.