At Guernsey restaurant Vraic it’s not unusual for the family meal to include lobster and crab. That’s not because chef Nathan Davies has a penchant for splashing the cash on his staff but because the restaurant has eight lobster pots located in the sea nearby. With no licence to sell lobsters, the team itself benefits from any bountiful catch.
This is just one of the many pluses Davies has found since relocating with his wife Hollie and his two children from Aberystwyth to the second largest Channel Island last year to open Vraic. On the day of my visit the sun is beating down so we have opted to conduct the interview on the restaurant’s rooftop terrace, with unrivalled views of the golden sands of Chouet Bay at one of Guernsey’s most northerly tips and over the sea to the tower at Rousse Point. As restaurant locations go, there are few to top this.
Davies, a Wolverhampton-born chef who now considers himself to be a Welsh native (his children speak the language) thanks to his time spent in the country, is not your obvious candidate to be running Guernsey’s only Michelin-starred restaurant (more on that later). Circumstance and a bit of luck played their part, with Davies being referred to Vraic’s wealthy owners by a chef friend. Having been out of full-time employment since the sudden closure of his Michelin-starred restaurant SY23, Davies and his wife were open to new beginnings and flew over to the island to look at the beach front site that was to become a fine dining restaurant. “We viewed it on a day like today,” says Davies, shielding his eyes from the sun, “and we were like ‘OK, deal us in!’”.
What attracted the couple to the project wasn’t just the location, however, but the ambition of its owners. He recalls early conversations about what they wanted to achieve on the island and was instantly beguiled. “They said they want there to be a brilliant restaurant in Guernsey because it deserves it,” he says. “And they had the means to make that happen.”
For a chef who had opened his previous restaurant in a former hairdresser on a shoestring and a turnaround time of just six weeks, the prospect of doing something with a bigger budget and more time was mouth-watering. Yet, as is often the case, Vraic’s opening was no cakewalk. “I looked at the initial budget and thought that we could do anything we wanted with it, and then realised we were in Guernsey,” laughs Davies. “Time wise it was also a real crunch. We knew we had to open for the summer season so people could enjoy the outside space and give us the best chance of having a good first year. If we’d have opened in December, it would have been a long winter.”
A seaweed sensation
Vraic, which takes its name from the Guernésiais word for seaweed, hit its deadlines and opened its doors in summer 2025. Its impact was almost immediate, with Davies bringing many of the fire-led elements of SY23 that made it such a hit in Wales, and won it a Michelin star, to his new home.
The namesake ingredient appears within the menu – including in a seaweed martini to kick off proceedings – but its use is often subtle and never contrived within the tasting menu-only format, which spans 10 to 12 courses. A typical meal includes a starter of seaweed, crab and thinly sliced hazelnuts; and a deeply satisfying seaweed broth. Early in the meal guests are also presented with a wicker basket of bread and a selection of butters (pictured below) which they are encouraged to use to mop up the sauces they encounter during their meal. At the end, they are presented with a freshly-wrapped loaf to take away.
We viewed it on a day like today and we were like ‘OK, deal us in!’
Other highlights include lobster, soy, black garlic (dishes are typically just three-word ingredient descriptors) that turns out to be a dish served in two parts. Part one is lobster topped with black garlic in a glossy XO style sauce while the second act is a kind of lobster prawn toast coated in black and white sesame seeds.
Then there’s the lemon and burnt meringue dessert, which sees dishes lined up on the pass before a glowing charcoal is used to finish them off, providing that little touch of theatre.
The cooking is imaginative and precise with punchy flavours, with dishes cooked over an open flame so that they have the gentle kiss of smoke.
Tasting menu only
Though not completely alien to the traveling gourmands of the island, the tasting menu format was not without it challenges. “There are two very different sides of the market here in Guernsey,” Davies points out. “There are the islanders who have got wealth and are used to this type of dining experience all over the world. They either have a holiday home here or are travelling back and forth or live here but are very well travelled. They didn’t need any encouragement.
“Then there’s the born and bred islanders, and for them the jury was out a bit as soon as we said what we were charging (£155 per person). It’s good value for lobster, turbot, and fillet of beef but people can go into town and not spend so much each time they eat. They took a bit more warming up.
Our menu is more Guernsey than our menu at SY23 was Welsh
“Then you’ve got the group who are never going to come and think you’re the most expensive place on earth and for that price it should come with diamonds.”
Davies also admits to agonising over how much Vraic had to reflect not only his style of cooking but that of the island. “You must be careful on an island like this. What we love about it we didn’t want people to turn on us for, which is its culture and tradition.
“The island has loads of character and personality because it is very much in tune with its history and heritage, but we didn’t want to get here and be a rip off restaurant of Guernsey tradition. We wanted to lean into it as much as we could because it’s why we came.”
To this end, the skills of local basket weavers have been employed for the breadbaskets and the island’s produce is incorporated into the menu as much as possible.
“The range of ingredients over here is unbelievable,” he continues. “We’re getting tomatoes, melons, and all our citrus from the island. You get an extra couple of degrees with the glasshouses, so the growing season is extended by six weeks at the start and six weeks at the end. Really you get another season.
“Our menu [at Vraic] is more Guernsey than our menu at SY23 was Welsh.”
A family affair
With his bald head, thick set stature and big beard, Davies is an unmistakable character. Beyond his initially intimidating appearance is a chef that has not only has garnered a lot of respect in the industry – SY23 was also named Opening of the Year by Michelin in 2022 - but a strong sense of loyalty. So much so, that when Davies told his former SY23 team that he was moving to the Channel Islands, most of them decided to leave their homes and follow him.
Head chef Kuba Biskup, who Davies describes as his right-hand man for six years and a safe pair of hands was one person who followed to join Vraic, as did head barman Filip Peitrzycki, who has worked for Davies for four years. Chef Max Davies, who worked for a year at SY23 before going to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and later returning to Wales is another. Davies’ wife Hollie is Vraic’s operations manager.
“I have senior people in the kitchen, the bar and out front. If you’re going to pick four or five people to come you don’t want five dead good chefs, because you can find them anywhere. You want people who understand what you’re doing. It was the dream scenario in terms of staff.
Looking back at it now, SY23 closing was the best and worst thing that’s happened to me
“It’s not the experience; it’s the combination of us and the culture. They know what it takes and to just get on with it. That’s probably given us three years of progression with the restaurant.”
This sense of loyalty partly comes from how SY23 ended, with the couple having a disagreement with the owner about the direction of the business and things coming to a head very rapidly. “The nature of the way it ended felt like it was unfinished business,” he says. “I said at the end of the final night that we would be in touch as soon as we found something. Everyone said OK but I didn’t think they would hold me to it.”
Impressing Michelin
The abrupt nature of the SY23’s closing and the soul searching that ensued has undoubtedly helped shape Vraic into the restaurant it is today. Davies says he and Hollie originally intended to go straight back in with another restaurant and had looked at places in Aberystwyth but were ultimately deterred by the risks involved.
“The restaurant scene was probably at its worse back then. We thought we could pull all the equity out of everything we owned and try and do something of our own and it might work or it could fuck up our lives forever, so we waited.”
It was during this period that he realised how much he missed restaurants and concluded that if a second chance was to come, he would grab it with both arms. “It did me the world of good because I missed it - the people you surround yourself with, the guests. When I came back [with Vraic], I thought this time we’ve got to work even harder at it to make it even better. It gave me time to think how to do that. Looking back at it now, SY23 closing was the best and worst thing that’s happened to me.”
The stars won’t pay the bills. Being a good restaurant will. And I think we’re pretty good
That hard work has paid off, and in January Vraic was awarded the Michelin star that Davies had set his sights on reclaiming. With a restaurant as ambitious as Vraic, and with Davies’ starred pedigree, winning it a star in its first year was almost a necessity in terms of its long-term future, he believes.
“In the run up to the awards I’ve never felt so much pressure in my life,” he says. “Nobody knew who we were at SY23, so when we did cool stuff and got mentioned anywhere it was a complete freak. For five years we were a noisy little restaurant in the arse end of nowhere. But when we came here, we had nowhere to hide, it was land and get it right because all eyes are watching.
“I didn’t realise how much that would add to the whole thing if I’m being honest until it came to the awards.”
Vraic’s star, achieved less than six months after opening, has proven significant. For Guernsey, it is the first restaurant to hold the accolade in many years - the previous restaurant to hold one, Christophe, closed back in 2009 - and marks the return of the guide to Guernsey. In this year’s guide five restaurants now appear - Alba, which was awarded a Bib Gourmand, and Fukku, Hook, and Le Nautique. “It feels like we’re on a little bit of a food revolution in the island,” says Davies with a smile.
For him, it was a total release. “It felt like 12 tons of pressure had come off my chest. If we hadn’t had done it, I would have felt responsible for the people who have moved their whole lives for it. The biggest thing I felt was an unbelievable sense of relief.”
The restaurant has since also debuted on the UK’s Top 100 Restaurant List, ranked at an impressive number 45, becoming the first restaurant in Guernsey to make the prestigious list.
Chasing two stars
That sense of relief has since dissipated and in its place a dogged determination for even better things has set in. Davies says that before the star he felt he had to be quite cautious but that having the stamp of approval from Michelin he can now afford to be a little more daring.
“When we built the restaurant, we knew we were asking a lot to get into the guide, but we wanted to build something that we wouldn’t outgrow. We’ve developed our food further, we’ve got more identity with our food, and I don’t feel embarrassed to say that the next goal is two stars.”
While he acknowledges that the gap between one star and two is ‘huge’, he believes it’s a goal that is worth chasing. “I know in my heart that that may ever happen and I’m absolutely fine with that because that way I can rationalise it in my head,” he says. “If we work on our food and refine it more and it becomes better and we don’t win a star, no one loses. If we develop the restaurant and the diners have a better experience and we add value for them in so many ways and we don’t get two stars nobody has lost either.
I feel no pressure to get two stars, just a desire to. I would never previously have said out loud
“All we are doing is trying to create a better restaurant for our guests so, as a business that’s not a bad thing. If it takes us five years or 10 years or if it never happens that’s also fine.”
This declaration of ambition but also a peace with what the future might hold is a sign of maturity that Davies admits has come as a consequence of the past few years.
“I feel no pressure to get two stars, just a desire to. I would never previously have said out loud that the goal is two stars because it probably hasn’t been before, but here how the whole experience feels makes me think we can do it. We might have misjudged it and be miles away, but I don’t think we are that far off. We just need to refine and grow.
“The stars won’t pay the bills. Being a good restaurant will. And I think we’re pretty good.”