The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 6 plus 5 letter word SAVING GRACE
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
S
A
V
I
N
G
G
R
A
C
E
More clues leading to the result SAVING GRACE
- Discount kindness as a redeeming feature
- Prayer after preventing goal — redeeming feature?
- Returning favour to Ms Darling perhaps, as compensation
- Compensating quality of South Africa’s very popular horse competition
- Economy good with people showing a redeeming quality
- Financial prudence shown by good people a consoling factor
- Economy: German nation’s redeeming feature
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Compensating quality" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case compensating quality = saving grace.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.