An ABERYSTWYTH restaurant is “chuffed” to join three other Ceredigion restaurants in the 2022 Michelin Guide.
Head Chef Nathan Davies and owner Mark Phillips opened SY23, an “ambitious venture” hoping to provide people with a “unique experience”, in December 2019.
Since then the restaurant has suffered through multiple lockdowns and expanded to open Y Sgwar and The Courtyard.
Ynyshir is currently the only restaurant in the guide with a Michelin Star.
Nathan said the team at SY23 are “chuffed” after a particularly difficult couple of years: “We’ve been open for almost two years to the day but we haven’t really traded. It’s nice that they’ve included us so soon.
“We wanted to be in the guide when we set out, we’ve always been an ambitious restaurant.
“It’s something we’ve worked towards, and it’s the first step in the journey, in terms of people knowing what we do. It helps us have a wider reach for people outside Aberystwyth who may not have heard of us.
“The restaurant has been brilliant, we’ve been super busy. The restaurant itself is a very unique experience and I think it’s what people are looking for when they go out.
“We’ve been stuck at home for so long that when restaurants reopened, it was a real treat. That’s what SY23 is about, it’s about the experience not just about what’s on your plate.”
But Nathan said the restaurant has faced it’s challenges over the past two years, most notably staffing issues.
“Every few months we get closed down or there are new restrictions, which means people are seeking employment elsewhere, in supermarkets for example, in industries that won’t close down because they can’t afford to lose their jobs.
“It’s the same across the industry, we are definitely not alone in the struggle for staff. With all the added pressures and the restrictions that keep getting added, I think it has made people lose faith in the industry.”
“But the team we do have are brilliant and I’m very lucky to have that team. We’ve just had to reduce our occupancy and lower the amount of days we open.”
While Nathan and Mark opened The Courtyard, in the former Why Not nightclub, this summer, they are currently only able to trade a couple of days a week due to a lack of staff.
Earlier this year, Nathan also took part in the BBC Two cooking competition, Great British Menu, and made it to the end of the Wales heat before being knocked out by another chef.
“Great British Menu helped us massively in terms of people knowing what we are and what we’re doing. The show and the Michelin Guide are good things to put us in the public eye a bit and to showcase what we do. Off the back of that, it’s been very successful.”