An Aberystwyth wine and tapas bar is “chuffed” to be listed in the Good Food Guide.

SY23 head chef Nathan Davies said the inclusion of Y Sgwar, the outside, wine and tapas section of their business, in the Good Food Guide is a “pat on the back” for the team.

“The Good Food Guide is one of the best in the UK, it’s probably the most read, the most direct to our customers really,” Nathan said.

“It’s the perfect market for what we want downstairs especially. In my experience in the past, the Good Food Guide does hit the market right where we want it to. They seem to write more for the general public.

“Michelin is amazing but it’s a select few people who would read it and travel for it.

“It’s a little bit of a pat on the back for the guys outside, who are working so hard, it’s accreditation for them. We were lucky to pick up the Michelin Star in the restaurant, but this shows that they’re also working just as hard.

“They’re really chuffed. I’m not there everyday cooking, so we have other people there taking care of stuff. Even though they have a hand from SY23, it’s them that have achieved this. It’s quite special.”

This comes after SY23 was awarded their first Michelin Star in February this year, as well as the Michelin Guide Opening of the Year award.

Earlier this year Nathan took part in the BBC cooking show Great British Menu for the second time, beating 32 of the United Kingdom’s best chefs and securing a place on the menu at a banquet celebrating 100 years of the BBC.

But Nathan said there is still an “exciting year ahead” for the business, as they prepare to publish a cook book later this year.

“At the moment we’re just writing it, we’re finishing it off. We’re hoping for it to be out later this year.

“It’s going to be a nice chilled cooking guide for cooking out in the wild. So not so much restaurant cooking, but more cooking on beaches, that sort of thing.

“It seems a million and one things are going on at the moment, like we’re doing something new every week.

“The big thing is continuing to focus on the restaurant, The Courtyard and Y Sgwâr. The Courtyard has taken up a lot of our effort recently, just to build it because it opened recently. That’s getting busier and busier, which is really brilliant.

“It’s been mental, but it’s an exciting year ahead.”

Nathan added: “We’ve been really over the moon with how everything has transformed. We were busy anyway because of the television things we were doing on the BBC. Then this year we did better on Great British Menu, we had the Michelin Star and best restaurant award, it all came together.

“On the back of that, we’ve had peak interest in SY23 and people travelling from all over the UK. They’re eating with us, but staying in local B&Bs, guest houses, hotels, Airbnbs. Because we’re so far away from everything, they’re travelling for a few days and making a holiday out of it. I think it’s also brought people to Aberystwyth who wouldn’t have come here otherwise.”