It was a seriously windy, yet sunny day when we visited Slapton. We haven't been down that way for a couple of years, but it's a wonderful sweep of sand and an incredibly historic site in terms of what happened during Exercise Tiger in the 2nd World War. There are also great bird watching opportunities at the Slapton Ley end (the largest freshwater lake in the SW!) Even as amateurs, we spotted quite a few interesting ones (er...their names escape me!) over the course of fifteen minutes.
At the far western end of the beach is the small village of Torcross. I had asked the gurus of Twitter where to have lunch in that neck of the woods and the resounding answer was to try the fish and chips at the Start Bay Inn, Torcross.
We visited the Sherman tank memorial and then crossed the road to the pub. You can't make reservations, the tables are quite crammed in and this Sunday lunchtime it was packed and noisy, but felt very friendly and full of good cheer. Plenty of locals on all sides. All four of us ordered the fish and chips. Three of us ordered the 'small' for £5.70 and greedy husband ordered the 'medium' haddock which was about £1 more. And mushy peas all round.
We were delighted that the 'small' was tremendous value and actually cheaper than a lot of fish and chip take aways. The chips were 'fine' - sorry that might be a bit mean. There was nothing wrong with them, but my heart always belongs to proper home made irregular sized slightly overcooked and preferably crinkle cut chips like my Dad makes. But these were standard pub-type chips that most people seem to be happy with. The mushy peas were OK- I doubt if they were home made, but they were good accompaniments. As for the fish: the haddock was fantastic. Really super fresh white fish, perfectly cooked in a delectably light batter. The batter was perfectly crispy, tasty and light. We were in fish and chip heaven.
My verdict: certainly the best fried fish I've had in Devon, they could do with stocking Heinz ketchup on the tables (rather than those plastic catering packs of vinegary sauce), and if they could rope in my father to make the chips, then it'd be perfect.
Update, Aug 2015 - Finn McCools on Teignmouth sea front do very good fish and chips - you have the option of taking them away and sitting on the sea front or dining in (good for rubbish weather).
At the far western end of the beach is the small village of Torcross. I had asked the gurus of Twitter where to have lunch in that neck of the woods and the resounding answer was to try the fish and chips at the Start Bay Inn, Torcross.
We visited the Sherman tank memorial and then crossed the road to the pub. You can't make reservations, the tables are quite crammed in and this Sunday lunchtime it was packed and noisy, but felt very friendly and full of good cheer. Plenty of locals on all sides. All four of us ordered the fish and chips. Three of us ordered the 'small' for £5.70 and greedy husband ordered the 'medium' haddock which was about £1 more. And mushy peas all round.
We were delighted that the 'small' was tremendous value and actually cheaper than a lot of fish and chip take aways. The chips were 'fine' - sorry that might be a bit mean. There was nothing wrong with them, but my heart always belongs to proper home made irregular sized slightly overcooked and preferably crinkle cut chips like my Dad makes. But these were standard pub-type chips that most people seem to be happy with. The mushy peas were OK- I doubt if they were home made, but they were good accompaniments. As for the fish: the haddock was fantastic. Really super fresh white fish, perfectly cooked in a delectably light batter. The batter was perfectly crispy, tasty and light. We were in fish and chip heaven.
My verdict: certainly the best fried fish I've had in Devon, they could do with stocking Heinz ketchup on the tables (rather than those plastic catering packs of vinegary sauce), and if they could rope in my father to make the chips, then it'd be perfect.
Update, Aug 2015 - Finn McCools on Teignmouth sea front do very good fish and chips - you have the option of taking them away and sitting on the sea front or dining in (good for rubbish weather).
5 comments:
Oooh, this looks great. Definitely adding it to my list of 'places to visit in Devon' in summer.
Glad to see mushy peas. Fish and chips isn't the same with un-mushed peas.
Hope you're well.
All the best,
Jen
I love it here, I went for the Large Cod a few years ago, and it was enormous!
Got to go back over the summer, thanks for reminding me.
Cheers
Marcus
Thanks Jenny and Marcus. I'm sure you'll enjoy it - try to get there before the school hols start!
We tried to go there round about Easter time but they don't allow dogs and we had just done big long dog walk so - we went up the road instead. Had a lovely lunch there but can't remember what the restaurant was called!
Oh, that's a shame. I guess it wasn't the right weather to sit outside either. Was it the Stokeley Barton farm shop place up the road? We popped in there to have a look and it had only been open a couple of days but it looked very nice.
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