The Walnut Tree in Abergavenny has been named the best restaurant in Wales by the AA, capping a 63-year story of triumph, turmoil and revival. The accolade is the latest chapter for an institution that has survived Kitchen Nightmares, closure and a phoenix-like resurgence to remain one of the UK's most respected restaurants.
A Legacy Built on Longevity
The Walnut Tree Inn's greatest accomplishment is not its Michelin stars, AA Awards, or its place in half a dozen vaunted food guides. It thoroughly deserves all those accolades, yet at the heart of its story is a longevity that is extraordinary in the fickle world of hospitality. A commitment to its staff, its customers and its fine menu created by a team that has helped it stage a phoenix-like resurgence from the flames after an appearance on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.
Today, the Abergavenny institution is led by Shaun Hill, who, at the ripe age of 79, is still the cream of the crop - a "chef's chef" he's so called - and has been at the helm since the restaurant reopened in 2007. That year, he reopened it as a joint venture with William Griffiths of the House of Caradog after it had been through a difficult time in which it was twice humiliated by Gordon Ramsay on his Channel 4 show Kitchen Nightmares.
From Franco Taruschio to Shaun Hill
The Walnut Tree first opened in Llandewi Skirrid in 1963 when celebrated chef Franco Taruschio charmed Welsh diners, and ones from further afield, with his Italian dishes - the mushroom lasagne was legendary - and it became the place to eat for a good four decades. It became known as the "most famous restaurant in Wales" and drew diners from across the UK to sample Welsh produce cooked in an Italian style, beginning the reinvention of Welsh gastronomy.
Franco and his wife Ann were often called pioneers, cooking food that people in the 1960s in the UK had never heard of. It was once voted the best Italian restaurant in Britain. Taruschio sold it to his fellow Italian Franceso Mattioli in 2000, who teamed up with Michelin-starred chef Stephen Terry to run it. They won a Michelin Star for the first time in 2002. But Terry left in 2003, saying he wanted to leave the restaurant business and run a deli. The restaurant endured a difficult time, appearing twice on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares in 2004 and 2005, and closed in 2007.
At the time, Stephen Terry, who had taken over the Hardwick Restaurant nearby, said: "The Walnut Tree put Wales on the culinary map without a doubt." The same year, it reopened as a joint partnership between William Griffiths of Caradog Hotels and the Angey Group with the much-celebrated chef Shaun Hill. By 2010, the venue had regained its Michelin star and has remained a celebrated, much-loved institution ever since.
A 54-Year Staff Fixture
One of its longest-standing staff members is Pauline McKay, who has worked there for 54 years. "The actual building is exactly the same, this bar it's been spruced up a little bit, but it's the same as it was," says Pauline. When she started, she was paid £2.50 a shift and thought she wouldn't last a week. "It would be terribly busy. I thought I'd try for a week and I wouldn't last a week, but I did. I'd never done this sort of thing before but to be honest I needed the money and the wages were fabulous," said Pauline, who started for a week back in February 1972 and has been a firm fixture since then - celebrating her golden anniversary with the Inn with a big party in 2022.
Today's Accolade
In 2008, just a year after it opened, it won its first AA Restaurant of the Year in Wales award, in which it was praised at the time for its "straightforward food and reasonable prices". Of the 2026 AA accolade, Shaun Hill said: "There are lots of good restaurants in Wales, we just do our best. We have an excellent base of dedicated, long-standing customers who we continually see supporting us and we couldn't be more grateful to them. Loyalty is the backbone of survival through difficult times."
