The Mermaid restaurant is an iconic Mumbles institution (I feel like I use that phrase a lot, but it just is – it’s been around for donkey’s years and the locals love it).

Right on the main Mumbes strip in Swansea, with outside and inside seating – The Mermiad is famously dog-friendly and is always busy. Inside it’s bright and breezy, with local art on the wall you can buy. 

I’ve been twice now, and what I’ll say is that the food is properly home-cooked, top quality and the portions are great. Plus, the staff have been incredible both times we have visited. 

The first time we went, we were trying to find a fry-up at about 1 pm on a Saturday and were not succeeding. So ended up wandering into The Mermaid in a bit of a grump – starving. 

We both ordered the gammon, egg and chips as it seemed the closest thing to a fry-up available. It was so, so good. 

The gammon itself was perfectly cooked and absolutely massive. The chips are some of the best I’ve had in Swansea. Those hand-cut, properly deep-fried ones – not the frozen sort you get in most places these days. 

If you’re planning to drive there, there are some free spots around, but it’s always so busy around there, you’re probably going to have to cough up for parking. But the car park is pretty much opposite. 

The Mermaid Resturant Mumbles Menu 

The Mermaid had an all day menu – things like pizza, burgers, pasta etc (around the £14- £16 ish mark), and ‘deals of the day’ – such as pie and battered fish and chips which land around the £12 mark. 

It also does a lunchtime deal between Monday to Friday for £17.95 for two courses. This has jumped up quite a lot in price, but what hasn’t with the cost of living crisis, eh?

I recently tried this out and picked the Beef Bourguignon with chips (I would usually have gone with mash, but I really do love the chips here). Went with profiteroles with Joe’s Ice-cream for dessert – but my dad picked a prawn and cod fishcake for starters for his second course. 

The Beef Bourguignon was utterly divine! It’s not usually my sort of thing, but there was so much tender beef, perfectly cooked veg. I’ll probably get that again when I go back – but did see on the table next to us the chicken and battered fish which looked really good. 

The desert was alright – nothing mind blowing. I have A LOT of opinions about Joe’s Ice-cream (i’ll get around to sharing with you!), but one of them is that you can’t get ‘real’ Joe’s Ice-cream outside of the main stores. The pre-packaged stuff doesn’t taste remotely the same. So if you’re a tourist, you’ve probaby been told to eat a Joe’s (and that’s right!) – make sure you do in the Mumbles or Sandfields one. 

Mermaid Mumbles Resturant Opening Times

The Mermaid restaurant, mumbles is open seven days a week, 10am – 11pm apart from on Sunday when it closes at 3pm. 

The Mermaid Sunday Roast Mumbles 

It also has a carvery on a Sunday, which I’m pretty sure is the only place in the Mumbles that has one, and is one of the few places that does it in Swansea. It was decent, but there are places with more veg options. What I didn’t love is the staff spooned it out for you, including gravy, and well, I like my roast to be nearly soup, and sure – could have asked for more gravy, but isn’t the joy of a carvery you just add what you want on, once the meat has been served?

At the time of writing, the roast is £14.95 and you pick from hand cut beef, lamb or pork. You know what, I don’t think I’ve seen lamb offered in a carvery elsewhere, so that’s a definate plus.

The Mermaid Resturant reviews

So you know what I think of The Mermaid Restaurant – but how do others rate it? It has nearly 1400 reviews on Google and has a score of 4.5 out of 5.

So pleased we booked for our midday Sunday roast carvery, as the restaurant was full. The menu was good for all incl children’s options. On the day we went the chef carved generous slices of meat (beef, pork and lamb, were available on the day we went. A selection of vegetables with a large yorkshire, gravy etc.
Bonus for us it was dog friendly.

We visited twice on our trip to Mumbles over the Bank Holiday weekend. Both nights we had a lovely dinner. The food was amazing! The fish was gorgeous and they had the best garlic bread ever! The service was very good and extremely friendly. The place is extremely dog friendly! Will definitely be back next time we are in the area.

Visited twice while on holiday in The Mumbles…very impressed with the service, staff & atmosphere.
The food was piping hot & very generous portions. Prices are really reasonable & staff are friendly & efficient, it was quite busy but we were served fairly quickly.

Had to rush off the second time due to parking (prices are very high close by)
I would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. 5* service.

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What do you think of The Mermaid Restaurant? Let me know in the comments.

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Love the Mermaid, but can’t decide where to eat next in the Mumbles, Swansea? The Lighthouse Restaurant might be the place for you.