The Farmer’s Arms at Cwmdu (meaning Dark Valley) is an intimate and cosy affair, and you’ll be well advised to book at least a couple of days in advance. From the main road it looks nothing at all – just a straightforward country pub – but it is worth exploring and experiencing. Incidentally, it also has a couple of guest rooms, and although I don’t know what they were like, the pub did have a great ambiance and every one was very friendly and welcoming. Although it’s a typical country pub, there was no feeling that we were intruding on the "locals territory" – and that can’t be said of every country pub.
Blaenau Mawr’s owner had recommended it to us, and we’d also spotted it as a commended pub in the CAMRA guide – that’s always a good one for me – and our first point of call was, of course, the bar. It was 8pm on a Friday ,and the place was heaving, so we had to wait a while to get served at the small bar. Not that we were bothered, because the pub is rammed with interesting memorabilia and photographs, and we had also to consider the options from the range of "real ales."
We indicated our presence to one of the waitresses – the dining area (previously the lounge bar for the pub) is behind the bar, and she guided us to the table saying that she would send the bar staff over to take our drinks order. True to her word, the guy soon stood at our shoulder with his notepad, and shortly after a pint of real ale was stood on the table in front of me. The ale was exceptionally well kept, and I gather that the farmer’s arms stands host to wide and ever-changing selection of guest ales. It must be superb if you live nearby!
We studied the menu, salivating over the choices, and I finally decided on roast rack of Breconshire lamb topped with a herb crust with a Cumberland sauce, whilst my son (a vegetarian) opted for a spinach, sun-dried tomato & goats' cheese tart served onto a tomato-and-basil sauce, and his girlfriend and my wife both went for grilled fillets of Swansea Bay sea bass. Everyone had chosen to eat at 8pm, and the waitress came, very apologetically, to say that there was a 30-minute delay in serving. We didn’t see this as a problem, and if we’d have been having starters, we wouldn’t even have noticed a delay. To begin with, I found the restaurant a bit noisy, perhaps because we had a table of four "loud" young men at the table behind us, but with hindsight, I was perhaps being super-sensitive, and we were soon matching their volume.
All the meals were delightfully well prepared with a good selection of vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, carrots, and suede). It's all local products, and the puddings were great!