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prima
Jul 6, 2011 03:38 PM
I'm thinking about visiting St.Ives, and came across this thread. Have any new restaurants opened up in St. Ives since this thread was posted? Have any of you visited the restaurants mentioned in this thread recently?
Thanks for any of your comments.
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re: prima
zuriga1
Jul 6, 2011 10:35 PM
I had a very good monkfish fish and chips at a place just at the pier... this was last September, but that was our only meal as we were staying in Padstow. The beach cafe mentioned above looked very nice and was very crowded as we walked past, so I'm sure it's still around and serving good food. I've heard that St. Andrew's Bistro is also good as is Alba.
If youhave time, do try some of the places in Padstow for a meal. Number 6 and Marge's are both excellent.
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re: zuriga1
PhilD
Jul 7, 2011 03:40 AM
I think you mean "Margo's" in Padstow - best to get there soon as Adrian has the place on the market and will be hanging up his apron when he sells. It is one to book well in advance as it is very, very popular - probably the toughest table to get in Padstow including Rick Steins empire.
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re: zuriga1
PhilD
Jul 7, 2011 03:50 PM
He is still open and going strong - but here is the note on his blog:http://margotspadstow.blogspot.com/20...
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re: prima
Hi Prima, I can't believe it was two years ago that we last went to the Portminster Cafe, but looking at their website - it's clearly the same owners/chef/staff - it's got the same sensibility, so I'd bet that you'd have as incredible an experience as we did. Here's a sample menu:
http://www.porthminstercafe.co.uk/dinner-menu-porthminster-stives.htm
It was probably the best place we've EVER been - truly - and we keep saying we've got to back (we live in London and haven't had a chance to be back at St Ives since - but we plan to.
)It was all thanks to PhilD's post, by the way - so thank you!
If you'd like to see some shots I took of our dinner there:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?se...If you do go - please put your review on this thread so we can read it! Thanks.
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PhilD
May 27, 2008 09:57 AM
We headed to St Ives in Cornwall for the weekend armed with some restaurant recommendations which all turned out to be pretty good - thanks to all who suggested ideas.
First stop was lunch on Saturday and we headed to “Blas Burgerworks” (The Warren, St Ives), we nearly passed on this when we got to the door as it seemed very expensive with basic burgers starting at £6.50, to £9.50 for a Kiwi Burger (beetroot, cheese, pineapple, egg, salad, and mayo), and chips at £2.50 extra and a side salad at £3.00. However, we were hungry after a long drive, and it looked good, a small funky “eco -restaurant” with a good big professional grill. I had the “Beet Burger” at £8.50, which is a fresh cornish beef patti, cooked nice and crispy on the outside and rare and pink in the inside, the quality of the bun was good and nicely toasted. On top of the burger there was a big mound of cruncy watercress, lots of beetroot and a large dollop of creamy garlic mayonnaise. My partner chose the BLT, all good ingredients and very generous portions at £5.50. Overall verdict - burger bliss. I was nearly tempted to order a second burger as it was so good. The portion size, quality of ingredients and standard of cooking make it good value for money. This is really an excellent place and I highly recommend it.
Saturday night was “Alba” (The old Lifeboat House, The Wharf), St Ives on the sea front. This is quite an upmarket restaurant, with sleek furnishings. It has great big picture windows giving a good view over the harbour. Comfortable seats, well set table, with quality linen. It has a good menu with a balance between fish and meat.
We started with a amuse bouche of apple and celery soup, and a basket of two breads, one wholemeal the other with sun dried tomato - good bread but a slightly under flavoured soup. My first course of cornish asparagus, with poached egg and dijon mustard sauce, was well cooked but slightly under seasoned. My partner had a very solid game terrine, which we believed was mainly rabbit, garnished with sultanas that had been soaked in armagnac, nice but overall lacking punch. My main was a well cooked duck breast (good and pink) with puy lentils, a dense quenelle of apple sauce, and a date(?) chutney, again under seasoned so lacking punch. My partner had a nage of John Dory with mussels and scallops, on a bed of spring vegetables which she thought was very good. Total bill was £63.85 including a £18.50 bottle of good Aussie Shiraz, but not including service. The service was really nice, friendly, chatty, and professional. Overall a good local restaurant, the food is fine but a little pedestrian - nothing really wrong, but equally nothing outstanding. The location, decor, and service make it a nice venue for night out rather than simply a quick meal.
Sunday dawned with rain and strong winds so we abandoned sightseeing and booked lunch at The Gurnards Head (Treen, near Zenner). First ipressioin was that this is a standard gastro pub, rustic bar area, and tarted up restaurant area with modern “magazine” decor (coloured feature walls etc). The greeting was good, and service is friendly and efficient. I started with a pint of Betty Stoggs a good medium strength beer from Skinners Brewary which really hit the spot. Into the restaurant to peruse the menu, and a slight disappointment, only three choices per course and one of them was the roast beef Sunday lunch. I like a roast as much as the next person, but I am always disappointed when I see it on the menu. I wouldn’t mind a roast as an addition to the normal menu, but what usually happens is that they serve a roast with a couple of token alternatives. I find this frustrating because I like to explore good eating pubs on a Sunday and and like to sample the menu their reputation is based on. Instead I get a convienient short cut for the kitchen, pre cooked food quickly plated up, which no doubt adds significantly to the profit margin for minimal effort.
I chose a Pork Terrine to start, served with cornichons and a good home made chutney. This was served with first class home-made “oat” bread, and good butter. For main course my partner had the beef, which was local and very good (again nice and pink). Vegetables though were not great, some soggy, others half cooked. My first choice was Mullet but that had sold out so they substituted mackerel, served with new potatoes and a very good fennel and orange salad. The food bill was £39.95 for one starter and two mains, which isn’t bad (the beer was extra). Overall an OK pub meal, I have had quite a few worse, but also quite a few better. I had also read that the pub was one of the new breed that “foraged” in the hedgrows for interesting and different ingredients. The only evidence of this we noticed was a large clover(?) in the garnish of the pate, and some nastersium leaves(?) in the fennel salad - maybe there is more evidence of this in the normal menu, rather than the limited Sunday lunch one. Overall it is worth a visit if you are staying close by, but not worth a significant detour.
For Sunday dinner we had booked the Porthminster cafe (Porthminster Beach, St Ives), this Cafe was recommended by many people so we had high hopes. It is a great location, literally on the beach. There is an indoors restaurant and a great deck with windbreaks, a retractable roof, and patio heaters. The decor is modern “beach shack”, with lots of blues and whites, and with quality aluminium chairs/tables on the deck. This is a good sign as I always try to avoid places with cheap plastic outside furniture as I find it is usualy illustrative of the overall quality of a restaurant.
But first a word of warning: the tables with the best views can be booked, and apparently the best ones right in the windows book a few months in advance. So if you want the best view specify when you book (although all the tables are pretty good). We sat on the deck, and even though it was a bit breezy it was fine - they do give you rugs if you feel the cold.
The menu has a lot of fish, with a few meat dishes, all the dishes are interesting and it was tricky to make a choice, in fact my partner chose three entrees to get a better spread. She kicked off with three very large oysters (No. 1’s), very fresh not to salty and nice and fatty. Next she had a bowl of mussels cooked with chorizo, again very well executed. My starter was a crab salad with glass noodles and lots of asian flavours (Vietnamese and/or Thai), it was very fresh and not to strong to overpower the crab meat. For main course I had Plaice, with small crab cakes, and a salad, again really good flavours and a very good dish. My partner chose the Chilli Squid with salad, it was nice but lacked the chilli punch you would expect with this dish. One flaw with the meal was that they used the same salad for all three dishes, it was a great salad but it became repetitive. We then shared a cheese plate which had three cheeses in perfect condition - Yarg, a cornish blue, and a local brie like soft cheese - served with a variety of lavosh’s. We followed this with a Tamerillo desert plate - tamerillo jelly with space dust, a tamerillo ice-cream, a raspberry shortbread, a creme brulee, and a poached tamerillo - the plates were licked clean which says it all..!
The bill was £113 for two (without service) but we did have some good wine including a Kiwi Pinot which made up at £47 of the bill, so the food was only £66. It is a fantastic location, the service is great, and the food matches perfectly, simple, very well cooked, but with interesting combinations and twists (it reminded me of modern Australian cooking, and we were told many of the chefs were Aussies).
St Ives is a good destination for food; four contrasting restaurants and all good in their own way - although on my next visit I will spend all my time eating Blas burgers for lunch and enjoying a long relaxing dinner on the deck of the Porthminster Beach Cafe. Heaven....!
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re: PhilD
Hi PhilD,
Nearly a year later, I wanted to thank you for this entry. My husband & I went to St Ives - rented a great cottage right on the water in town - for my birthday weekend last September. We have the best little holiday perhaps ever, outside of a tropical climate (I live to swim) and the Portminster Cafe - which he booked with a beach view table - was a meal we're still talking about. We can't wait to go back & are very grateful. It was truly heaven! If anyone wants to see photos, I've got a public link to a facebook album devoted to the cafe (10 shots) here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid...
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