Alium is one of the latest restaurants to come to Barry, taking over the much-loved Hang Fire Southern Kitchen after the restaurant announced its closure last year. Owned by Cardiff-born chef Antonio Simone, who has built his reputation at the popular Humble Onion in Dinas Powys, Alium opened its doors earlier this month.
'Alium' is a play on two Latin words - 'alium,' meaning 'another,' and 'allium,' meaning the family of species to which onions belong. The restaurant is set in Barry's Victorian Pumphouse, with exposed brick and liquid copper Venetian plastering as a nod towards the building's industrial heritage. The restaurant uses locally-sourced beef from Oriel Jones and crockery from Matthew Jones Ceramics.
We reserved a table ahead of time just in case, but, as it was a Wednesday evening at 6:30pm, the restaurant wasn't too busy. We were shown to a pleasant table with a tealight as soon as we arrived. The restaurant has a lovely relaxing atmosphere, with soft lighting from tealights on every table and lanterns attached to the walls.
