Llanerch Vineyard, Hensol, Vale of Glamorgan restaurant review

I’m sat in a stylish dining room glugging a glass of wine, taking in panoramic views of the vines made to produce it, and all the while enjoying a meal of technically accomplished, classic French cooking.

Surely this sounds like I’m about to write a review of a restaurant in Burgundy, Bordeaux or the Languedoc?

No, as it happens, I’m at Llanerch Vineyard in Hensol, a hotel located just a fifteen-minute drive from the edge of Cardiff.

It’s been a good few years since our last visit, which was a bit of a mixed bag.

But, in the intervening period, they’ve opened a gorgeous new 100 cover dining room, with a tree feature sprouting out of the middle of the space.

More excitingly, Grady Atkins took over as executive head chef in October 2023. If you’re a keen collector of Cardiff chef Top Trumps like me, then you’ll know that Grady is a huge talent who was formerly head chef at Bacareto and Le Gallois in Cardiff as well as running his own successful Paysan pop-up.

However, Grady isn’t the only talent in the kitchen at Llanerch Vineyard. Tom Martin, a two-time runner-up of Junior Chef of Wales who has worked for multiple Michelin-starred restaurants in London, is head chef too.

All in all, it’s a pretty dynamic duo.

It’s demonstrated in the menu of classical French cooking made using Welsh ingredients, which includes captivating sounding dishes like terrine of Welsh beef with ravigote sauce and oxtail croquant as well as confit Welsh pork belly with trotter sauce and caramelised apple. With the standard of ingredients on show, a two-course lunch for £30 and three-course dinner (including sides) for £45 seems like decent value for money to me.

It’s clearly popular as the dining room was full on the Saturday lunchtime we visited and the only table we could bag the week before was at 12.15pm.

With Llanerch’s own wines on offer, it would have been churlish not to give them a go. Glasses of Cariad sparkling wine (£9) were different yet fairly enjoyable – it reminded us all of a sparkling perry such was the forwardness of the fruit.

Snacks arrived nice and promptly to go with our pre-dinner drinks. Thin slices of quality salami (£4.50) were more of a semi-crisp than the crisp they were billed as. Dusted with smoky paprika, they were excellent dredged through a bowl of thick and super caramel-y onion chutney.

Gargantuan marinated Gordal olives (£4) were top drawer; they were a fine example of excellent ingredient sourcing.

A trio of langoustine quenelles (£2 supplement) were enjoyably light-textured but arguably a little too subtle when it came to their headline ingredient. But, the other components on the plate more than made up for it, a trio of tender, sweet langoustines, meaty borlotti beans with a nice amount of bite, and a sauce Natua (a creamy bechamel boosted by the intensity of shellfish).

Pressed confit of leeks was described by my mother-in-law as posh egg and chips based on its accompaniments. The pretty as a picture dish saw soft and sweet leeks topped with a beautifully runny egg, a tumble of crispy shoestring potatoes, and a well-balanced dressing with a compelling warmth of wholegrain mustard.

I opted for the meatiest of starters. A golden puck of caramelised-edged shredded pork shoulder had a killer core of earthy black pudding. Sweet, buttered carrots were a nice accompaniment, but it was slices of fragrant and palate warming ginger and a ginger scented carrot puree which provided the necessary top note to balance the richness of the meat.

Having ordered a rib-sticker of a starter, I of course followed it up with one for main course too.

A leaning tower of braised shin of beef was a real trencherman’s portion. Nudge apart tender and super rich in flavour, it was topped with squidgy and sweet confit garlic cloves and intense caramelised garlic crisps. A vibrant spinach puree and a rich, glossy and meaty bordelaise sauce provided were both excellent, but such was the portion of the meat that it would have benefited from a little extra jug of sauce on the side.

If my main was an exercise in richness the other was beautifully light, yet no less flavoursome. A precisely steamed fillet of trout was sat on a bed of salty samphire, briny cockles and vibrant sea vegetables. A jug shellfish broth, which had the compelling savoury hit of mussel liquor, was an excellent dressing for the dish.

Accompaniments, all included in the price of the meal, were very good. Decadent cabbage flecked with salty bacon and drenched in cream was a meal in itself.

Finely layered confit potato terrine had good crisp edges to balance their soft and tender interiors.

Buttered carrots, the most basic of the sides, had a pleasing bite and nice sweetness.

Dessert was my standout dish of the meal and that’s no slight on the quality of the rest of the food. It was simply one of the best puds I’ve eaten in a while. A gloriously rich, dense and silky-smooth chocolate delice (£10) was coated in a fine crisp chocolate coating and topped with whipped cream with a boozy hit of whisky. Crisp honeycomb shaped biscuits, chocolate sails and a malty chocolate crumb completed the deliciously indulgent dessert.

A moist yet not too dense fruit cake (£9) was laden with booze-soaked fruit. Salty, creamy and slightly funky Gorwydd Caerphilly should have been the ideal accompaniment, but the piece of cheese which was initially delivered was sadly almost entirely rind. When this was pointed out, it was immediately supplemented with two additional generous pieces.

We had a corking lunch of big flavoured, technique-packed cooking at Llanerch Vineyard and it’s a testament to the talented team in the kitchen. If you’re looking to get away from it all whilst only being a fifteen minute hop from Cardiff, then Llanerch Vineyard should firmly be on your map.

The Details:

Address - Llanerch Vineyard Hotel, Hensol, Vale of Glamorgan CF72 8GG

Web - https://llanerch.co.uk/

Telephone - 01443 222 716