For many years, food from Wales has been rather shy, keeping out of the spotlight even though Welsh farmers and food producers are rightly proud of their high-quality produce. We wanted to shine a light on half a dozen of our favourite things to eat from Wales.

Welsh cakes are a culinary emblem of Wales

We had to start with Welsh cakes (cacen gri in Welsh) if for no other reason than that they have the word Welsh in their name. These small round flat cakes contain dried fruit and plenty of sugar – half cake half biscuit (cookie) these are a joy to eat – and to make. A number of cookery schools and chefs in Wales offer classes to make them yourself.

A delicious Welsh oggie ready to eat!

Oggies are the Welsh cousin of Cornish pasties and started life as savoury delights for miners to take underground. Traditionally filled with lamb and leeks – how typically Welsh is that? – these ready cooked pastries could be eaten without cutlery on a miner’s (short) break. Today, in many bakeries in Wales you can find a wide range of oggies with many different fillings. We feel an oggie tour coming on…

An oggie shop in Llangollen, North Wales

In South Wales, faggots probably crossed over the Bristol Channel from the West of England as a cheap and nutritious meal – especially when combined with mashed potato and gravy. Using offal as their main ingredient, typically liver, they were inexpensive so again a favourite of coal miners. Offal fell out of favour with many consumers, but is growing in popularity again as chefs create more sustainable meals.

Faggots are an everyday favourite in South Wales

But not all foods have to be so dependent on meat. The Glamorgan Sausage might sound like a meat product but these delicious sausage shaped patties are made using cheese and leeks coated in breadcrumbs. Popular around the time of the second world war due to their inexpensive ingredients, they are now very popular, especially for those cutting down or reducing their meat consumption.

Welsh chef Gaz Oakley’s famous Glamorgan sausages!

Wales has a stunning coastline and one of the most traditional foods to come from the sea is the humble cockle. This mollusc has been eaten for generations along with laverbread (Welsh seaweed) as part of a Welsh breakfast or simply with a dash of malt vinegar as a snack at a market stall.

Fresh from the sea: cockles at The Lobster Pot in Barmouth, mid-Wales

Perhaps the dish that can best claim to be the national dish of Wales is cawl. This lamb-based soup with leeks has many varied recipes and was often made with whatever was available to the chef. We’d be hard pressed to recommend the best place to enjoy a bowl of this hot soup, but perhaps we could suggest enjoying it with a thick slice of crusty bread on a cool day overlooking the Welsh coast or mountains, in a Welsh city or a village… the choice is yours.

A hearty bowl of cawl!

We could have listed so many more delicious things to eat from Wales, and for each dish you will find a variety of different recipes or ways to prepare it, so we are definitely not saying this is an exhaustive list. In fact, the best way to judge whether we have made a good selection is to visit Wales and take a taste test yourself!

If you or your group would like to enjoy the best of Welsh food on a tailor-made tour of Wales, from home-made favourites to Michelin-starred delicacies, please do contact our friendly team today! If you would like to try your hand at making your own Welsh food, why not include a cookery course on your tour?

All photos © Hawlfraint y Goron / © Crown copyright (2026) Cymru Wales, except 'an oggie shop in Llangollen'.