Catch 22

Where Anglesey's Producers End Up on the Plate

On the A5 through Valley, the London Road is the corridor that funnels traffic toward Holyhead and the Irish ferry terminals. It is not, historically, a stretch of road associated with places worth slowing down for. Catch 22 is the exception. The two-storey building has an open-plan interior that reads immediately as modern and considered: the most telling detail is a striking pictorial relief on the wall depicting Anglesey's artisan producers, the farms and fisheries whose output defines what arrives in the kitchen. That image is not decoration for its own sake. It signals what the operation is actually about.

The broader context matters here. Much of Wales's hospitality offer outside Cardiff and a handful of destination spots remains heavily dependent on seasonal trade, closing out of term or shutting early when visitor numbers drop. On Anglesey specifically, the calculus of year-round dining is a difficult one: the island draws strong summer footfall but can feel deserted by October. Catch 22 runs against that pattern, staying open through the year, which earns it a different kind of loyalty from the community it serves. Locals use it as a neighbourhood resource, for breakfast, coffee, afternoon tea, and the full menu, not merely a summer treat. That structural commitment to year-round trading is rarer than it sounds in this part of North Wales.

The Sourcing Logic Behind the Menu

The emphasis on local procurement is most visible in two areas: seafood and meat. The kitchen draws on Anglesey's seafood supplies, and the dry-aged meats come from a local butcher rather than a national distributor. Dry-ageing, which concentrates flavour and alters texture through controlled moisture loss and enzymatic activity, is a commitment that requires a reliable supplier relationship and a kitchen prepared to work with the results. That the owners name this process specifically suggests it informs how the beef-based dishes, including the substantial bacon cheeseburger with triple-cooked chips, are conceived and executed.

Seasonal menu uses this sourcing base as a platform without restricting itself to a narrow regional identity. Welsh Cheddar croquettes, served with leeks, black garlic, and Parmesan, draw on local dairy and the deep vein of Welsh cheese production. Crispy chicken wings with garlic and Parmesan butter have, according to guests, crossed the line from popular dish to household reference point, a family favourite in the specific sense that people order them on repeat. The menu also moves outward, with Singapore-style chicken curry and pork belly bao buns that introduce Southeast Asian register into a kitchen otherwise grounded in British brasserie traditions. This kind of range is common in the all-day brasserie format across the UK, where the imperative to serve different occasions, business lunch, family dinner, solo coffee, drives menus toward breadth rather than depth. What keeps it coherent here is the sourcing thread: even when the flavour profile shifts toward Asia, the underlying proteins and produce trace back to identifiable local or regional origins.

For comparison, venues operating in a tighter fine-dining register, The Ledbury in London, L'Enclume in Cartmel, or Moor Hall in Aughton, pursue hyper-local sourcing as a philosophical and tasting-menu-defining commitment. At that end of the spectrum, Waterside Inn in Bray, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton operate kitchen gardens and multi-year supplier relationships as defining features. Catch 22 operates on a different tier and with a different purpose: it is a community brasserie, not a destination restaurant. But the sourcing discipline it applies within that format, named local butcher, identified seafood provenance, the artisan-producer wall, places it meaningfully above the generic pub-food model that dominates comparable price points across rural Wales.

The Snickers Trifle Question

There is one dish that has taken on a separate life from the rest of the menu. The Snickers trifle, constructed from malt panna cotta, peanut caramel, and chocolate ganache, has been described by at least one diner as the leading pudding in the world. That is the kind of claim that circulates locally and, once embedded, becomes self-reinforcing: people arrive specifically to test the verdict and tend to leave having confirmed it. The kitchen offers it to take away for those who cannot manage dessert at the table, which implies both that portions are serious and that demand for the dish extends beyond the dining room. Dishes that develop this kind of autonomous reputation, detached from any particular occasion or meal occasion, are a reliable indicator of a kitchen that has found something genuinely worth repeating.

Drinks and the All-Day Format

The drinks list covers a range suited to the all-day operation: mango daiquiris and elderflower lemonade on the lighter end, Welsh beers for those who want a regional reference, and a short wine list priced mostly below £30. The wine pricing is deliberate and practical for the audience the brasserie serves, it ensures no barrier to a glass over lunch or dinner without requiring a specialist decision. The format of hosting breakfasts, cake and coffee, afternoon tea, and evening service in the same space demands a drinks program with similar range, and the list here tracks that logic without overcomplicating it.

Beyond the food, Catch 22 hosts markets and business events, making it a venue that functions as a community anchor rather than purely as a restaurant. This is not incidental to the dining experience, it shapes the kind of clientele the room sees and the service register that results. Visitors making the crossing to or from Holyhead will find it a functional stop on a route otherwise thin on quality options. Those based on Anglesey will likely have their own standing order.

Planning a Visit

Catch 22 sits at London Road, Valley, Holyhead LL65 3DP, on the main A5 corridor toward the Holyhead ferry port. It is one of the very few restaurants in this part of Anglesey that operates year-round without early seasonal closure, which makes it a reliable option outside the summer peak. The all-day format means the kitchen runs from breakfast through to evening service, accommodating coffee and cake visits as readily as full meals. Given the volume of traffic the Holyhead route generates, both from ferry passengers and island residents, arriving with a table booked during peak periods is advisable, particularly for the Snickers trifle, which runs on limited numbers. For more on what the area offers, see our full Valley restaurants guide, Valley hotels guide, Valley bars guide, Valley wineries guide, and Valley experiences guide.

For different registers of British and international dining worth knowing, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Midsummer House in Cambridge, hide and fox in Saltwood, Opheem in Birmingham, Le Bernardin in New York City, Emeril's in New Orleans, and Waldrestaurant Maxlmühle for country cooking offer useful points of comparison across styles and price tiers.