Having enjoyed some brilliant times at The Castle Inn over the years, I have been meaning to write a review for a while now, but the stars have never quite aligned: we seemed to time our trips to Newport incredibly badly when their kitchen was closed.
I am pleased to say that I had a great evening at the end of our recent Christmas trip, so can finally share a rewiew.
I actually felt a strange nostalgia when we walked in, as the presence of a certain Luke Littler on the TVs reminded me of a great steak I had at The Castle Inn when visiting Newport a couple of years ago during the exciting times of purchasing of Peg-y-Don:
The darts aficionados will be aware that Littler lost in the final in 2024, but we were very happy to get the house purchase across the line 🙂
Where is The Castle Inn?
The Castle Inn is a 19th century, traditional Welsh stone pub in the heart of Newport, next to the crossroads at the bottom of Market Street. As we typically walk up Long Street from the coastal path when walking into town, it is curiously easy to miss The Castle Inn, but doing so would be a mistake. It looks especially welcoming in its Christmas guise:
There is a choice of the bar area, a dining / restaurant area and a really good beer garden which includes tables under a covered pergola, so you can still enjoy the great outdoors if the weather isn’t playing ball. I have been trawling through old photos and cannot find any pictures of the beer garden unfortunately, but you can see some on the gallery on the website.
Personally, I really enjoy the bar area, which is really cosy with a lovely fire roaring away, but this is the restaurant area if you want a slightly more formal dining experience:
I say ‘slightly more formal’ as a compliment as I think it strikes the perfect blend of being smart without being stuffy. There is plenty of space and it feels very characterful.
I failed spectacularly to take any photos of the bar area other than this one, which highlights the excellent Guiness that flows in the bar:
I hope that this helps give you a flavour of what to expect, but have a look through their gallery for more photos. It is a really nice place to go and relax, with a great vibe and extremely friendly people in every direction.
Of particular note are the staff – Alison and Glyn (the owners, who took over the pub in 2016) have gone on record as saying that “our staff are as important to us as good beer and food”. You really do feel incredibly welcome in The Castle Inn and the whole team deserve the excellent reviews that they receive. Newport is blessed with several excellent eateries but I think that the Castle could just clinch the crown for the most welcoming staff.
It is not just humans that can enjoy this hospitality, as our four legged friends are very welcome in the pub and very well cared for:
What is the food like?
The beers are great and there is a great selection of appetising food to choose from:
I want to tackle the elephant in the room head on… It is not cheap and you may hear people comment on how expensive it has become in recent years. There is no denying that inflation has hit hard and the prices feel more ‘restaurant’ than ‘pub’, but I think it is unfair to blame The Castle Inn for runaway inflation and the harsh truth is that *everywhere* has got (a lot) more expensive.
More importantly, the food is homemade and they source excellent local produce for the kitchen. Each to their own, but I would much rather pay a premium for fantastic quality and I applaud The Castle Inn for supporting local suppliers rather than using frozen, mass produced rubbish.
This is what they have to say on their website:
“Having a menu that caters for all different types of customers is challenging, but that’s our goal. Our food is made in the pub where possible, if it can be made fresh, it will be. The majority of the food is homemade, for example the Curry and Chilli is all made from scratch. The burgers are homemade using meat from the local butchers and the steaks are always Welsh and local. At The Castle Inn, we pride ourselves on offering traditional pub meals, hearty and good quality ingredients. The food is cooked well, served promptly within a relaxed environment. The Specials Board is where we like to offer something a little different; ranging from Liver and Bacon, Pigeon Pie, Sea Bass with Cockle and Samphire and so much more.”
Credit : https://www.castleinnpembs.co.uk/about-us/
In my humble opinion, they have got it right as the food is genuinely delicious and is indeed much more ‘restaurant’ than ‘pub’ in terms of quality.
We actually went off piste on our visit in January and both had one of the specials, but I know from experience that all the dishes on the main menu are excellent.
I personally had a lamb chop on a bed of crushed new potatoes:
It was truly excellent. As promised, the ingredients are of the highest quality and it was cooked to perfection. Being a gluttonous oaf, I could have easily eaten more but that is me being greedy – there is most definitely enough to satiate your appetite.
Otto (son and companion on the night) opted for the ‘stacked burger’ which differs from the traditional Castle burgers as it combines both a beef patty with a chicken fillet and a rasher of bacon:
Again, it was awesome. Otto had actually had a burger at The Sailors’ Safety the day before (review coming soon…) and chose the Castle Inn burger as a direct head-to-head showdown. The Castle Inn will be pleased to know that he declared that their burger was, like Luke Littler, victorious.
You really can appreciate the focus on quality ingredients and care in the kitchen when you taste homemade food. Like me, he inhaled it and the pleasure was over all too fast but I think that it is a great compliment to want more!
Should you go to The Castle Inn?
Newport offers visitors an amazing choice of eateries – you really are spoiled for choice for such a small town. It can, therefore, be tough to choose where to go but you should definitely add The Castle Inn to your list.
Yes, there are cheaper options but you have to pay for quality and such a warm / professional service. Value is different to price and I would argue that The Castle Inn’s quality more than warrants a small premium. Remember that Newport is generally great value – I dread to think what the prices would be for this quality in Cornwall…
It is a resounding thumbs up from us and we always enjoy our visits to The Castle Inn. At the very least, pop in for a pint (or three) just to experience the warm ambience and traditional Newport welcome. You will not be disappointed.
