(9/10) 
The owner rather likes to bombard you with facts as soon as you sit down in his new bar (well he has spent rather a lot of money on it). So why 'Illtyd 216'? Illtyd is the patron saint of Llantwit (=Llan Illtud). 216=number of gallons in a 'mash-tun' (primary vat for fermenting beer). Something like that.
Very interesting. Here are the rival teaandbiscuits facts:
Fact 1: Illtyd 216 is a newly-converted medieval malting bran
Fact 2: It's the brainchild of beer-loving ex-slaughterman 'Pugsley' who sold hundreds of real ales out of the Plough and Harrow in Monknash
Fact 3: It has a stunning tudor-style interior
Fact 4: It's still pretty affordable
It could so easily have gone horribly wrong. Modern fittings in a mock-Tudor setting. All the alarms were ringing down at the kitsch police cop-shop. But you can't mess up with good food and drink. Countless real ales await you (although bottles only for now), and vino lovers will be pleased to find the 'wine list' on their tables supplemented by the 'fine wine list'. And great to see the dozen dishes on the lunch menu written in chalk on the board. No standard menu here.
So what about the food? Loads of fish on offer today - we tried the sardines with pesto - and there are plenty of ambitious recipes. The sardines went down really well, and the basted new-potatoes likewise. Sausage and mash was beautifully presented with a really rich gravy and some freshly picked rosemary and thyme. A couple of grumbles: sausages tasted of nothing much, and the 'fresh' orange juice was nothing of the sort. And if the place hadn't recently opened we'd have a go at the waitress for having no clue what any of the food on the menu tasted like, and for general amnesia when it came to fetching anything out of the ordinary. OK, early doors.
Thing is, this place is so unusual, so stylish and such a bargain that you can't find it in yourself to be disappointed.
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What a shame! This place has changed hands and they've ruined it. Gone are the big blackboard menus and the interesting beers and wines. Instead we have bland printed menus where every other dish seems to be served with a "broiled tomato".
What hasn't changed are the prices, we paid £18.50 for a venison dish that looked and tasted as if it had come straight from a Toby carvery. It came surrounded by a ring of overcooked soggy brussel sprouts and was doused in a brown sauce. We were offered and extra jug of sauce with our meal and when I asked which dish it went with I was told that it was for all of them! Our house white wine was corked, ok these things happen, but the replacement was warm and still tasted cheap and nasty. The evening left us with a large bill and a literal, and metaphorical bad taste in our mouths.