A la Colthard/ Cornish Restaurant update
I have been uniformly impresseed by the service , price and freshness of food at all the Cornish restaurants we have visited on the trip.
HAVENERS
This used to be called Food for Thought but the owner had his collar felt for unlawful abstraction of gas. It’s now owned by St Austell Brewery and called Haveners, Cornish for Harbour Master House, which they might have explained. It occupies the same attractive position on the quayside in Fowey with outdoors and indoors dining and rooms on top. That a brewery has diversified into a small boutique hotel and restaurant is indicative of increasing entrepreneurial ambitions in the county. I had a chilled cucumber soup for some reason described as gazpacho and a bowl of fresh plump mussels. Our young but inexperienced waitress confessed in serving the mussels, plate for shells and bread in one go “I’ve never done this before” as if it was her first time!!! We were all charmed by her especially as nothing finished on my lap. With drinks beforehand and a glasses of wine it worked out at £40 per head .
This is situated on the way to Falmouth. I have a horror of golfing hotels such as this will be stuffy with a dress code. There was one but happily this only was implemented in the evening.
In the conservatory I had the most delicious oysters, Pacific type as the Wright Brothers who supply much of London no longer grow them in the Helford River below us. This was followed by an equally fresh grilled John Dory. I was beginning to acquire a taste for fresh fish. Against, the bill with wine was £ 40 per head.
I cannot in all honesty review this spa hotel as due to a booking error we finished up in its sister Hotel at Bedruthan. It certainly looked super cool with valet parking. This caused me much hilarity, but not to Bob who had been accused of trespassing on the estate he was staying earlier in the day when the valet thought Bob’s car was not a sleek Mercedes E class but a VW camper van parked on the road. The Bedruthan was definitely more downmarket than The Scarlet but I enjoyed my crab salad in their Wild Cafe .
This was our best meal to date, so much so that we returned the following day. It’s a small boutique hotel on the Main Street of Fowey with a jetty overlooking the harbour. The couple behind us complimented the waitress on the best fish and chips they have ever tasted. I agreed. The batter was not too greasy and the fresh succulently fresh. My only criticism was to charge £11 for a glass of Torrentes a decent but not that illustrious wine was gunning it. Over charging on wine by the glass is a bug bear of mine as I doubt if the whole bottle would have cost more than £4 wholesale. On returning I had a perfectly drinkable Verdejo at half the price.
This is an old favourite where we normally take our last supper. Ownership has changed but not the chef Jordan. The new owners were in the care business and very friendly. Too friendly as I don’t care to be interrupted by a waitress when conversation is in full force. The sauce on my hake was rather rich and too creamy. I yearned for some of the more simple fish dishes tasted during the week.
With wine, we never spent more than £50 per head and my conclusion is Cornish restaurants offer value, fresh produce and friendly service, normally local girls.
I would not have minded a Ross Poldark look alike for a sommelier but you can’t have everything in life, can you!!?