Aberthin’s Hare & Hounds has been keeping locals fed and watered for the past 300 years. Head chef Tom Watts-Jones, formerly of Anchor & Hope and St John, returned to his teenage boozer in 2015 with a plan to well and truly prove Welsh cooking is so much more than a sorry-looking bowl of cawl. Consider it a job well done.
The white-stone walls, roaring log burners and a wooden dresser lined with Kilner jars are more farmhouse kitchen than the fine-dining of his London past. The relaxed dining room fits nicely within the beloved local boozer, where Watts-Jones enjoyed his first pint, and on the wall is the pub’s range of ales, wines and homemade seasonal drinks scribbled across three cobbled-together blackboards.
The Vale of Glamorgan, where the pub is situated, boasts some of the most productive soil in the UK and game, meat and vegetables taste all the better for it. The twice-daily changing menu means what’s on each day is largely guesswork, but big portions and bigger flavours are guaranteed. Go for Welsh Rarebit dripping with cheese and drowning in punchy Worcestershire sauce; crispy pig’s cheek so jammy it’s like bacon; irresistible roast plum madeleines to finish. Prices are beyond fair, especially with the lunchtime saver menu. French doors open out onto the garden. Step through them, breathe in the air and, sighing, relax into the afternoon.
Aberthin , Glamorgan, hareandhoundsaberthin.com
