The story
Home, in the Penarth town centre, is the latest expression of James Sommerin’s decades-long pursuit of excellence. It is, quite literally, a family business: James cooks alongside his daughter Georgia, while Louise Sommerin manages the operation and her twin sister Cath leads the front-of-house team. The restaurant earned a Michelin star soon after opening, a recognition that the Sommerins have held across multiple locations — from The Crown at Whitebrook in 2007 to their previous seafront restaurant in Penarth.
James’s path began in his grandmother Elinor’s kitchen, using a pan he still cooks with today. A Saturday job at a Newport restaurant at age twelve confirmed his direction. After formal training, he moved to Scotland, where head chef Richard Lythe taught him the importance of seasonality and flavour. Returning to Wales, he took the reins at The Crown at Whitebrook, winning his first Michelin star in 2007. When that restaurant closed, he opened a namesake venue on Penarth seafront in 2014, which also earned a star. The pandemic forced its closure, but the family pivoted to provide over 26,000 meals for NHS workers. Home opened shortly after, and the Michelin star was regained.
Georgia joined the kitchen full-time at seventeen, and in 2020 became the youngest ever competitor on Great British Menu. She competed a second time, encouraged by her father. “We don’t even need to talk to each other during service,” she says. “We’re like two peas in a pod at the stove together.”
The dining room is deliberately intimate, shielded from the street by thick velvet curtains. There are no sea views; the focus is inward. The menu changes every five weeks and is a surprise — a tasting menu built around ingredients at their seasonal peak. Expect produce like A5 Wagyu beef, 12kg turbot, and hand-dived Orkney scallops. The kitchen, which also includes chef Ollie O’Toole (a veteran of other Michelin-starred kitchens), works with some of the finest raw materials available. The style is modern cuisine, driven by purity of flavour rather than fussy presentation.
“Home means many things to many people,” James says. “At its best, it’s where you can be your most relaxed and are surrounded by those who mean most to you. It’s where you belong.” That ethos — warm, unpretentious, exacting — is what makes this Cardiff-area restaurant a destination for anyone seeking a genuinely personal fine-dining experience.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
High quality cooking
Shielded from the street by floor-to-ceiling curtains (press the doorbell to enter), James Sommerin’s latest venture is darkly dramatic with the deepest slate grey walls, seven linen-clad tables and retro wood panelling lending ‘a bewitching 1960s recording studio vibe’. The centrepiece is the broad open kitchen, lit like a Hopper painting, and creating a hypnotic and beautiful piece of live theatre backed by a luscious dreampop soundtrack. James Sommerin and his daughter Georgia are essentially the whole kitchen team, and sometimes bring out dishes from their no-choice, eight-course surprise menu (the printed version is presented at the end of the meal), though there’s an excellent, warmly assured front-of-house presence, too. Sommerin has always impressed, but it’s clear that he has raised the bar considerably here. There’s magic in every detail, from the dazzling amuse- bouches – a gougère made with Parmesan ‘light, crisp, and intense’, and an eggshell filled with silken parsnip espuma topped with a golden, crispy shard of chicken skin – right down to the dense, crusty wholemeal and laverbread loaf made with local beer and served with cultured seaweed butter. Some highlights at inspection included Jersey Royals cooked in home-smoked butter to intensify their flavour, served with tarragon emulsion and a dressing of smoked butter-rendered pork, snappy pork crackling and Parmesan and sage crumb, and a signature dish of perfect liquid pea ravioli with crispy sage and serrano ham, finished with Parmesan emulsion – a creation that ‘totally deserves its star spot’. A main act of corn-fed chicken breast accompanied by potato and olive oil purée, Carmarthen ham, broad beans, globe artichoke and Madeira sauce was equally flawless, while desserts took a playful tack with treats including honey and chamomile custard with strawberry sorbet, tarragon and delectable warm doughnuts. But for sheer theatre, nothing could trump the passion fruit ice cream on a stick – dipped in liquid nitrogen, then dunked in chocolate at the table and finally sprinkled with granola and topped with thick, sticky toffee sauce. The wine list is lengthy, global and full of interest, with high-end selections by the glass as well as more accessible options.
Location
Facebook
Instagram
X