Hiraeth Kitchen
12-miles west from the centre of Cardiff lies the fashionable market town of Cowbridge, home to some of the biggest success stories in the capital.
Fourty Four Group’s first restaurant was here - before openings in the city centre, Penarth, and Bristol. Hare & Hounds of Aberthin has been followed by The Heathcock in Llandaff, and most recently The Clifton in Bristol. You may have seen that this month, Rocket & Rye scooped the Good Food Guide award of Best Local Restaurant in Wales 2023.
These venues all have things in common: they started off in Cowbridge, and they (or their sister restaurants) are all mentioned in the prestigious Michelin or Good Food Guides. The town has some real culinary prowess.
Hiraeth Kitchen only opened in November 2022, but they also fit into this mould - making an immediate impact by landing a place in the Good Food Guide a mere 7-months after their inception.
It’s an independent pub/restaurant run by Lewis Dwyer and Andy Aston with a casual, rustic feel inside a 16th century building - formerly The Carne Arms. Their creative yet modern taster menu is ever changing, and they’ll be starting an A La Carte come August.
To the rear of the restaurant is the sites entrance, where you must cross a patio kitted with furniture and a pizza oven - perfect for the summer months which seem to have already evaded us.
The restaurant is split into a bar packed with locals on communal tables, and a dining area with a relaxed vibe, a blazing open fire feeding the cosy ambience and filling the room with a feint scent of smouldering wood.
I came here for the tasting menu, which is scrawled on a chalk board hung on the dining room wall. £60 for 9-courses - at a glance it seems to be both classic and innovative. Lamb and mussels? How could that possibly work?
Up first are the snacks, all too often a course which is unmemorable as you nibble on some bread with a decently churned butter.
However, there’s freshly baked two-toned bread (one-tone fennel and the other black olive). Accompanied by a quenelle of pink peppercorn & thyme butter, and a ramekin of whipped pork fat with a crumbling of crunchy crackling.
A delicate, ‘garden tart’ filled with homemade ricotta, courgette, peas, broad beans, mint, and radish. Some of the fresh vegetables sourced from their own garden.
The snacks are completed by some tapas style boquerones en vinagre (pickled anchovies). This is an elevated trio of snack plates.
The second course combines some classic combinations: Isle of Wight tomatoes, goats curd, and basil. The basil in the form of a sorbet is imaginative, so too the tomato consume and dusting of fennel pollen. I used this term so often throughout the evening: it’s clever.
I questioned how the lamb could work with the mussels. I was even more inquisitive when the dish arrived.
It’s a ravioli of nori (seaweed) stuffed with lamb breast, mussel poached in a red wine jus, and chard. It all works, and it’s fantastic. A twist on the classic surf & turf.
The Pembrokeshire potato hash is packed with onions and swimming in a thick cheese and chive sauce. Another spin, this time on the traditional ingredients of cheese & onion.
The octopus carpaccio course was the one I was most eager to try. I was a little disappointed - the dainty slices of octopus and strips of orange braised fennel were washed away by a nutty and overpowering romesco.
Although this was a tasting menu, the beef was served as though it were a main course. The beautifully tender beef, sous vide for 36-hours, arrived with beef fat chunky chips, and kale & chard, again sourced from the garden and enriched with even more beef fat. It was truly wonderful.
We were challenged by member of staff (who was superb), Edward, to guess what the crumb was - Millie nailed it first time. Pickled onion Monster Munch.
A palate cleanser which was described as a ‘Jammie Dodger’ of Amalfi lemon curd & vanilla cream was expectedly sweet.
Treacle tart with clotted cream had the appearance of a heavy dessert, after so much food already, but this was light and delicious. It was the course I finished most quickly, practically inhaling the lot after it was presented.
We rounded off the 9-courses with even more bites of sweetness, in the shape of some white chocolate and rosemary macarons.
The evening culminated with all five tables in that section of the dining room immersed in conversation about their favourite restaurants - couples from Porthcawl, Rhoose, Llandaff, and a father & son from Swansea. One of the many things I love about food; it brings people together. This perhaps sums up the casual and homely venue that Lewis, Andy, and their brilliant team have created in this charming building.
The cooking here possesses ingenuity. It’s clever, it’s daring, it’s modern, it’s laidback. It’s everything I want from a restaurant in 2023.
Hiraeth is a Welsh word which roughly translates to: “a longing for one’s homeland, more than just mere homesickness”. I can certainly imagine many patrons will be pining to return after visiting here.