Station Road, Dinas Powys. 029 2051 4900 / www.thehumbleonion.co.uk
Food *** Atmosphere ****
“#stayhumble” insist the proprietors of this fairly new, fairly petite restaurant. Repeatedly, via social media. It sounds like a vapid corn-studded nugget worthy of the shallowest Instagram narcissist, but in most respects The Humble Onion seem to be living up to it. While this is not a cheap restaurant – three courses plus a bottle of pinot grigio weigh in at over £80 for two – neither is it ostentatious or self-important.
As it goes, they could stand to shout a little more about their precise location (tucked behind Dinas Powys alehouse the Star) and their evening menu (the July edition – it changes monthly – of which is unavailable to view anywhere online). Once bedded in, though, décor is unfussy and loosely rustic, staff warm and attentive. The French onion soup starter seems to be a signature dish of sorts here; unsure if it inspired the restaurant name or vice versa, but it’s a splendid, plutocrat-rich pool of darkness emboldened by beef stock and marred only by a stingily single slice of sourdough. Across the table, a goat curd salad is comparably short on the titular ingredient – walnuts, tomatoes and a mildly incongruous poached egg could each lay fair claim to top billing.
My main course of duck breast brings requisite punchy flavour, albeit not quite as pink as I’d prefer. Its accompaniments assert themselves well, discs of pickled turnip the out-of-leftfield star player. Tagliatelle with tenderstem broccoli is something of a wildcard on the menu, in that it otherwise seems to be a jumble of British and French inspirations, but it’s thoroughly enjoyed by my co-diner. Her chocolate orange brownie is also endorsed, although the ice-cream is humdrum and a £7.50 dessert ought to be nigh-on flawless. To that end, an £8 cheeseboard featuring cream crackers and cheeses you can buy in any British supermarket is a real clunker, even with a nifty fig chutney in the plus column. There’s much to like about The Humble Onion, in both aesthetic and culinary terms, but our meal was sometimes only passable at a price where you’d expect it to soar.
words NOEL GARDNER