Surfing at Bantham - We're Here for the Beach

Long may this 'Indian Summer' continue.  I'm back in bare feet and sandals.

This was the view of Burgh Island from Bantham beach two weekends ago.  We went along with our two kids, two nephews and bumped into quite a few other familiar faces.  The summer crowds are long gone, and the waves were perfect for surfers and body boarders alike - the locals were making the most of it. 

Bantham is pretty basic - a large car park full of VW Campers and surfboards on roof racks, a toilet or two, no cafes or ice cream stalls - and that's what makes it special.  People's attitude is: we're here for the beach.

This is a great time of year to be in Devon.

Polpeor Cafe, The Lizard, Doughnut with Clotted Cream

This is my guilitiest pleasure in the whole world.  The Most Southerly Cafe in England is Polpeor Cafe, perched on the clifftop at the point of The Lizard in Cornwall.  They serve all sorts of wicked goodies, including the Cornish Heava Cake (full of fruit and doughy).  My sinful indulgence is the freshly fried doughnuts served hot with strawberry jam and a huge dollop of clotters on the top.  This is the most calorific food imaginable and should really only be consumed by Michael Phelps and marathon runners.  And me.

This is their knickerbocker glory, conjured up by visiting fairies:

The views from this cafe are awesome.  Sitting here is a real spiritual tonic - you feel renewed by the sea air and the expanse of ocean - it's also quite exciting feeling that at any point you might be the MOST southerly person on the English mainland.  The dramatic cliffs slope down to white-flecked turquoize waters (if you're lucky enough to be there on a sunny day).  From the cafe seating area you can sight the rare chough (similar to a crow, with a red beak and feet) that first started renesting within a few hundred yards of the cafe a couple of years ago.  There are currently thought to be eight of them.  Twitchers with binoculars abound.  Seals are frequent visitors to the waters below and we have spotted them several times while tucking into doughnuts and knickerbocker glories.  One day when we got down to the beach after a trip to the cafe, the seal approached us like a friendly dog - he was as curious about us as we were about him - sadly, no pictures!

As We Were Dining In St Ives....

...we had to go to Porthminster Beach Cafe, or Porthminster Restaurant as it's now known.  We only phoned them the evening before to make a table reservation (which given the popularity of the restaurant was a bit foolish).  They only had outside tables remaining.  The weather forecast was poor, but they reassured me that there was a retractable roof and outside heating if it happened to rain.  Hmmm, we thought, that's fine, but we're parking at J and J's house in Carbis Bay and after a 3/4 mile walk in the rain, we may not be entirely happy to be eating outside.  We are also aware that the restaurant has the reputation for being a bit on the pricey side: we wanted to enjoy our treat, not feel miserable and cold. 

Well, as it happened, the wonderfully fickle English weather turned out to be like this:

An absolutely stunning day of sunshine and blue sky.  Along with the beach cafe at Byron Bay, Australia, I would be happy to eat at the Porthminster every day of the year.  Unfortunately we weren't beachside as we had made a late table reservation, but  the view of the sea is still wonderful. It's a cliche, but the quality of the light really is different in St Ives.  The staff are all young, trendy and sporting ridiculous-for-May tans.  They're also welcoming and friendly which doesn't always go hand in hand with the previous description.  

I tried a glass of Polgoon Raspberry Aval as an aperitif.  Looked very pretty - it's a Cornish 'champagne-style' cider infused with raspberries.  I think they throw in the 'champagne-style' so they can double the price of it, however it was very pink and summery.  I prefer this to English wine - our cider is better than our wine is ever going to be.

 So after our 3/4 mile coastal path walk and quick construction of sandcastles on the beach, we all chose......fish and chips!  They really were the business.  The children were delighted with the food and declared it the 'best fish and chips ever'.  The chips are mixed with fried garlic cloves, chopped rosemary and plenty of flakes of sea salt.  The fish is perfectly offset by the crispest and lightest batter I've ever experienced.  Served with a wedge of lemon, freshly made tartare sauce and a shot glass of white balsamic vinegar.  (Would be quite funny if you tried to down that in one.)   Looking at these pictures is making my mouth water all over again.

Posh fish and chips.

We went and raided the fudge shops of St Ives for dessert.  Porthminster has a local reputation for being expensive, but I disagree.  For two fish and chips, two child sized fish and chips, one glass of Polgoon, one Peroni, a tea, coffee, salad and bread, the bill came to £50.  I would rather eat here once a year than have a years worth of average or substandard fish and chips that many places provide.

The only problem: we didn't meet a man with seven wives, kids, sacks, cats, kits which left us all a tad disappointed...

Old-Fashioned (in a good way) Beach Cafe

Harbour Lights Cafe, Coverack in Cornwall is a lovely spot. Indoors there are pine tables that seat around 30, but you have to sit outside and gaze at the sea. This cafe has been freshly done up in simple seaside colours, white, pine, duck egg blue with 1960s mismatching crockery.

They provide simple cafe fare and a specials board - I've previously had the freshly picked crab sandwich and it was excellent. But today we were here for 'tea' so we had milkshakes and scones alongside a magic pot of tea. One of those amazing pots of tea that looks weeny but provides enough for three cupfuls.

The chocolate milkshake was garnished with a fresh strawberry and obviously had plenty of ice cream whizzed into it. The scone was homemade and served with decent raspberry jam.

The service was smiley and friendly - this is how a seaside cafe should be. It has a feeling of being a well-run family business that tries hard and charges modest prices and wants its customers to enjoy their brief sit in the salty sea air. Price: £7.40 for two teas, one milkshake and a scone with jam. Good, old-fashioned price too!

The Lifeboat House Restaurant, Coverack, The Lizard

We were recently in Cornwall and spent a week on The Lizard, the peninsula that juts out at the bottom of the South West of England that actually forms the most southerly point of England. Coverack is a lovely village there - I am exceptionally fond of it, but have never tried the restaurant at the end of the harbour. Fishing still occurs here, so the fish really doesn't have to travel very far - up the slipway to the restaurant, The Lifeboat House. In summary: exceptional views, great food and amazing service.
Even with an overcast sky, this place is picturesque:

We could only be fitted in for lunch at about 1:45pm as they had had the entire cast of a documentary in full period costume in for lunch. I did a double take as we passed ladies and children in old Cornish costume (looked rather like grey blankets edged with lace) and in the absence of filming equipment, we did wonder initially if they belonged to some local sect or whether they always dressed like this. Wish I'd taken some pictures, but at this stage I didn't know they were actors! They certainly gave the village an out-of-time aura.

The panoramic window displays a stunning view of waves, cliffs and bobbing lobster pots. Only one house was visible in the distance. We could see cormorants and gulls and earlier my mother saw a turnstone. This is the view from the restaurant - the sky was fairly overcast - on sunny days, the sea is turquoise:
They had four options for fresh fish on the board - choose your own sauce - today's special was 'Coconut and Beetroot'. We didn't fancy a full blown 'meal' so our amiable host suggested a whole load of tapas style platters and asked if we had a preference more for meat or seafood. My parents are a bit iffy with seafood, so we said to go easy on that. Shame on us being in a fish restaurant!

The children had vast 'child portions' of crisply battered fish and chips (the fries were soft and fluffy on the inside) served with homemade mushy peas. Wasn't too keen on the ketchup sachets. The homemade bread rolls with cheddar and chives were lovely:

The owner-waiter was friendly, chatty, down-to-earth and humorous - keen to extol the virtues of the Cornish food. He even asked if wished to have the music on or off. And this was the seafood salad -
Unfortunately my photos of the meats and cheeses were slightly blurred, so I'm not going to post them. It was so good to go somewhere where they tailored the food to the customers' desires - 'Tell us what you fancy' - reminded me of visiting an Enoteca (wine bar) in Italy, where they ask what kind of thing you feel like eating and then just start producing lovely homemade dishes.

The deep fried bread crumbed herby chicken nuggets were pretty good (liked the fennel seeds), the platter of meats was hard to get wrong, but it was just what we fancied, the three Cornish cheeses were lovely and these were accompanied with two dishes of olives, a bowl of new potatoes with roasted squash, all washed down with a decent glass of white Sauvignon (me) and a pint of the local Doom Bar (other half).

My (extremely minor) gripes would be - the sachets of ketchup - the restaurant's too good for that, and I'm not keen on the carpet on the floor. It's probably for warmth, but I feel like it doesn't go with the vibe of the place. The single yellow roses (with matching yellow paper serviettes) on the tables made me cry out for daffodils - there were fields of Cornish daffodils on the way down here.

Only two of the six of us managed pudding. Apple crumble and lemon cheesecake were both good but the homemade chocolate fudge served with our coffee was what we all made 'Mmmmmm' noises over!

And the bill? No price was quoted beforehand and as we'd just agreed to have non-menu platters, they could have charged the earth....but £5 for the children's Fish and Chips and £9.50 each for the adults' platters seemed very reasonable.

A memorable and enjoyable lunch in an exceptional location.