Grubby details

The Grub Kitchen is part of Dr Beynon's Bug Farm near St David's in Pembrokeshire. Sarah Beynon is a highly qualified professional entomologist who runs a traditional Pembrokeshire farm as a research centre, visitor attraction and restaurant. Her special interest is dung beetles (although they don't feature on the menu.) As a result of studying the benefits they confer on soil fertility and natural pasture she believes that encouraging dung beetles (the numbers of which have been reduced by the use of chemical wormers for livestock) will save the cattle industry a vast amount of money and at the same time reduce carbon emissions. She hopes eventually to supply cattle farmers and horse breeders with beetle larvae so that they can re-introduce them to their own land.

If that sounds like pie in the sky then the insect pie on the plates, along with bug burgers and bhajis, might convince you that this is a very serious and successful enterprise indeed. The restaurant serves regular grub as well as its entomophagous specialities but I can assure you that the latter is the thing to go for and if you don't believe me you can check out the restaurant's sky-high ratings on Trip Advisor. The food is scrumptious, served in pleasant surroundings by friendly staff, and has been drawing crowds over the summer - most of them have chosen the insectivorous options (there are others).

In addition to the restaurant the Bug Farm offers an insect zoo, insect art exhibits, events, demonstrations, discovery walks and a range of educational opportunities from bug-handling for kids to research placements for Ph.D. students. 

Extras show some of the grub, and the grubs, which included crickets, ants, meal worms and sago worms. They all crossed our lips unhesitatingly and proved delicious.