Penrhyn, Cardiff: a tasting menu with a sense of humour and a price you can almost justify – restaurant review

Penrhyn is a 24-seat restaurant in the ground floor of a Victorian terrace in Pontcanna, the bit of Cardiff where the delis are, and it does one thing: an eight-course tasting menu, £65, three sittings a night, no choices and no substitutions beyond the obvious. The chef, Owain Lloyd, 41, cooked at two Michelin-starred restaurants in Bristol before opening here in 2024 with his sister Nia, who runs the room. Nia also writes the menu, which is the only tasting menu I have seen that includes a joke about Barry Island.

The first three courses are so good they set a standard the rest of the meal cannot hold. A single raw Pembrokeshire scallop sliced thin and dressed with laverbread and a little cured egg yolk is the kind of dish that makes you sit up straighter. A warm bara brith with whipped Caerphilly and a smear of damson is, I think, perfect. And a tiny bowl of cawl, the Welsh lamb broth, served clear as consommé with a single piece of neck fillet and a leek cut so finely it looks like hair, is cooking of real precision.

Then the meal sags. A course of hake with brown shrimp and sea beet was fine but underpowered; a dish of Welsh Black beef with salt-baked beetroot was cooked well and seasoned badly, and arrived at the same time as a glass of Welsh red from a vineyard near Monmouth that could not stand up to it. A cheese course was a single piece of Perl Las with an oatcake, which at this price felt like something being withheld.

Puddings rescued things. A pre-dessert of buttermilk sorbet with sea buckthorn was properly sharp, and the final course, a plate called “Tea at Nan’s” with a miniature Welsh cake, a scoop of tea ice cream and a thimble of condensed milk caramel, was funny and delicious in equal measure. The petits fours included a Penguin biscuit made in the kitchen. I ate two.

The room is small, candlelit and warm, and Nia Lloyd runs it with the ease of someone who has worked in restaurants since she was 15, which she has. The wine pairing (£40) is interesting, with three Welsh bottles among the six and a sparkling from Glamorgan that I would seek out again; the non-alcoholic pairing (£25) is better than most, built around sodas and vinegars made in house.

At £65 for eight courses, Penrhyn is cheap by the standards of the genre and it is worth saying that in Cardiff, where the tasting menu has struggled to take hold, this is a real achievement. But three stars is what it is tonight: a restaurant with a brilliant opening and closing act and a middle that needs work. The scallop alone is worth the trip from Swansea. I would wait a few months before making it from further.

Dinner for two with wine pairing and service, about £240. Penrhyn, 58 Pontcanna Street, Cardiff CF11. Open Tuesday to Saturday. Food 7/10, atmosphere 8/10, service 8/10.