The Old Forge Lelant

The Watermill

➤ The Watermill Old Coach Road, St Ives I-TR27 6LQ, United Kingdom

Carta • Pub • Pizza • British • European

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"We visited this restaurant yesterday after having to wait an hour at another pub because the chef never showed up! At this place, they welcomed us right away and told us there would be a 30-minute wait, but we didn’t have to wait at all! The food was fresh and delicious, and it stayed hot throughout our meal. The waitstaff were young, but they were very well-trained and exceptionally polite. We would definitely like to return; a huge round of applause for the entire team that worked together to deliver such perfect dishes. Thank you!"

Salt

➤ G/F, White's Warehouse, 25 Foundry Square, Hayle, England, TR27 4HH, United Kingdom

Carta • Grill • Vegan • British • Vegetarian

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"There was only one vegan option on the menu at this restaurant. However, I was disappointed to find out that the salad dressing included in that option was not vegan due to the presence of honey. When I requested an oil and vinegar dressing instead, I was only given a small container of oil. Despite this setback, I enjoyed the beetroot chickpea falafels I ordered. The food was delicious overall, with the exception of the salad dressing issue."

Porthminster Beach Cafe

➤ Porthminster Beach, TR26 2EB, St. Ives, United Kingdom

Carta • Fusion • Seafood • European • International

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"Even in chilly and blustery late March, St Ives is a popular place. While the sun was out, the shops and bars on the waterfront were seemingly never short of customers, and the chocolate-box narrow streets and whitewashed cottages behind teemed with day trippers and young families. Heaven knows how difficult it is to get a reservation in the Porthminster Beach Café in season, for even now, from the moment they open for lunch until late into the evening, it seems every table is taken. And beautiful though lunch in the daytime would have been, above the stunning aquamarine waters of Porthminster Bay, we had somehow, by sheer fluke, snagged a table for early evening on Tuesday.From the outside, the building is a pretty beach house, one of quite a few along the same stretch of coastline. Inside, however, the décor is standard contemporary restaurant, spot-lighting, welcoming beach wood floors and comfortable furniture. The welcome from the staff, too, was superb they'd even laid on a birthday card having learned from the hotel that it was one of our party's birthday. An easy thing to do, perhaps, but these little details make all the difference. We began with a local oyster each (they were from Fowey, just up the coast), dressed simply with lemon juice. Lovely in fact they disappeared so quickly I didn't manage to get a photo taken in time, but here they are after we'd finished with them:My starter was some local St Ives beef, served with a kind of coleslaw and a parmesan crisp. The beef was excellent a great, deep flavour and seasoned very well, a perfect example of intelligent local sourcing. And I always think anything crispy goes well with beef I'm a sucker for strong texture contrasts. The only slightly off note were a row of weird dried olives which tasted of cardboard and didn't really add much. But other than that, a great start.Things continued to improve with the arrival of bream fillets (my second portion in two days) and razor clams. Quite aside from being a stunningly presented plate of food, each element of the dish was cooked to a very high standard. The bream was delicately filleted and cooked expertly, the vanilla froth matched the fish very well, and a row of shredded razor clam meat added another texture layer. Top stuff. Similar noises were made around the table, the organic salmon and langoustines being another highlight.For dessert, I was served a pretty selection of five different sweets a crème brûlée, a dab of homemade fig jam, a raspberry shortbread, a superb fruit sorbet and a playful shot of fruit jelly topped with popping candy. A riot of texture contrasts and displaying a range of cooking techniques, only the questionable seasonality of raspberries detracted from what was otherwise an entertaining and delicious way to end the meal.So, as it turned out, Porthminster Beach Café is wildly popular for a very good reason it's a damn fine restaurant. Not only does it have the advantage of probably the best location for any restaurant I've visited outside the Costa Brava, but the food is intelligent and superbly executed and considering they could probably charge double these prices and still have them queuing in the street, very reasonably priced indeed. Residents of St. Ives will no doubt be completely unsurprised by this glowing review, but for anyone who has yet to visit this devastatingly pretty part of the world, Porthminster Beach Café should be top of your list."

Cornish Arms

➤ 86 Commercial Road, Cornwall,Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom

Carta • Pub • Pizza • Steak • British

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"All the girls were miserable, no one asked how our meal was the answer would have been…awful, £16.50 for a child’s size roast with lamb full of gristle, a piece of hard grilled cauliflower, three lousy potatoes and some sort of brown tasteless water full of oil they call gravy… after paying for the meal we left and still said thank you to the staff and not one of the 5 waitresses who were stood staring into thin air even bothered to reply or even acknowledges us leaving. Terrible food, terrible service will not be returning."

The Bean Inn Vegetarian

➤ Coast Rd, Carbis Bay, TR26 2RT, St. Ives, United Kingdom

Carta • Pizza • Vegan • Cheese • British

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"Stayed near The Bean Inn and went for dinner on a saturday evening. Anything on the menu can be made vegan easily and the waitress completely understood about being vegan so we were in safe hands. We had 3 courses, I had a salad to start that they swapped vegan cheese for which was lush, then a veg stew with dumplings and the best bit, a cornish teacake bread and butter pudding with custard, amazing! Very reasonably priced, relaxed atmos and great service, would definitely come again."