Allium Restaurant: could this be the best Sunday lunch in Barry?

There is a gentle luxury to a Sunday. The week fully settles into weekend like how day reclines into dusk with red wine stained smiles and warm, wine-drunk giggles in the company of close friends. Times is a little bit lazier on a Sunday. In the absence of alarm clock jumpstarts, time is characterised by mealtimes. Maybe it is therein that the beauty of a Sunday lunch lies.

Despite the late April drizzle pitter pattering against our window making me ache for a morning spent burrowed deep beneath my duvet, my own personal alarm clocks have yet to comprehend the sacredness of a slow Sunday. At 6am, Ava and Asaba dived into my bed and pulled me from my slow, Sunday slumber. We hazily crunched through Cheerios to the eternal background noise of Peppa Pig. A late roast dinner lunch already on my mind.

Allium in Barry Island is a restaurant that has been on my radar since opening. It is headed up by the folks behind The Humble Onion that previously operated in Dinas Powys and is located on the former premise of Hangfire – the historic Pumphouse. Allium describes itself as ‘an independently run restaurant using high quality, locally sourced produce’ with a focus on ‘classic combinations and cooking over fire’. And I can say it is exactly that. The standard menu showcases a lot of modern takes on classic dishes with a wide range of starters and snacks as well as steak mains.

But we weren’t there for that. We had our eyes fixed solely on one thing – a big plate filled with spuds and roasted veggies and Yorkshire puddings all topped with lashings of gravy. Luckily, we didn’t have to go far to find it. After a 20 minute train journey from Cardiff Central to Barry, we just walked 5 minutes and we arrived at Allium.

Our group of four was shown to our table and promptly handed a menu detailed all of the delights on offer. I am not ashamed to say that my belly was rumbling at this point. My 6am breakfast a distant memory. It didn’t take me long to peruse the menu before opting for the deep fried macaroni cheese to start whilst my partner went for the ox cheek ragu and the children were presented with focaccia and olive oil with balsamic vinegar for dipping.

Whilst my children took giant bites out of the generous portion of focaccia and swirled it in the olive oil and balsamic concoction, I cut into my deep fried, cheese topped rectangle and watched the macaroni and cheese insides slightly ooze out. In a somewhat unwitting trade on my part, I swapped a small morsel of my macaroni cheese deliciousness for some ox cheek ragu. The meat was tender and almost melted on your tongue.

Now we were soon approaching the main event. My partner and I both opted for the lamb over beef or pork belly. The children also went for a roast over the pasta that was also available on the children’s menu. Whilst they scrawled on paper kindly supplied by the waiting staff and intermittently presented their artistic creations to whoever they could get to stop and admire them, I soaked up the design of this newly opened – and thus newly renovated – space.

The interiors in Allium are quite modern – bordering on industrial. With shiny, marble-topped tables and blueish grey and copper effect walls on one side and exposed brick on the other. However, the space felt how I would describe the branding of the restaurant – comfortable luxury. Much like the food, it is a fine dining setting without being too stuffy or overtly ornate. The small-ish restaurant size made for a more intimate, friendly space where the room was filled with a mixture of voices and bubbles of conversation. The restaurant was filled with young couples and older groups of friends and families with children. It felt like a space that welcomed everyone but still felt special.

The mains arrived with a flourish. A tower of roast dinner deliciousness with veg and potatoes forming the base and a rolled, braised lamb breast holding up the star of the show – a giant Yorkshire pudding. The children’s portions were almost exactly the same but only slightly smaller. It didn’t last long! The method by which the lamb had been cooked meant that there were layers of crunchy, almost crackling level crispiness in between the soft meat that created a delicious contrast of flavours and textures. The Yorkshire pudding was unrivalled when dipped in the gravy. And the truest testament to the deliciousness of Allium’s Sunday lunch? My somewhat picky four year old daughter ate her whole plate and finished some of my leftover potatoes.

We ended the meal with sorbet for the children and some desserts for us and left feeling very content.

Allium, The Pumphouse, Hood Road, Barry CF62 5BE