Eating and Drinking in St. Ives (Cornwall) and Penzance

[raxe]

Any great places to eat/drink near St. Ives (Cornwall) or Penzance? Open to all suggestions.

[prima]

Have any Chowhounds enjoyed recent meals in Penzance?

Are there any bakeries you'd recommend in Penzance?

[joel1]

Last year we ate twice at the Turk's Head, a pub on - I think - Chapel Street. Very good meals, and very reasonably priced, hence the queues..!

[prima]

Thanks joel1. Hope to try the Turk's Head if/when I return to Penzance.

Here are the places I ate in Cornwall:

Penzance

3 tasty breakfasts at The Bay, in the Hotel Penzance. Best tasting breakfast sausage I've had in an English breakfast. Lovely smoked haddock, too. Would return to the Bay Restaurant for their Cornish breakfast, which is a very good deal at 6.5 GBP if I recall correctly. The breakfast is included with the room for hotel guests.

My first dinner in Penzance was at the Bay Restaurant. http://www.bay-penzance.co.uk/ Modern British cuisine made with local ingredients. Tried local scallops, European sea bass, a panache of vegetables, as well as the selection of desserts, including saffron poached pear, sultana fancler, white chocolate mousse, pistachio parfait. Coffee came with a sable cookie,fudge, and a truffle.

My second dinner at Harris's Restaurant. http://www.harrissrestaurant.co.uk/ Classic British cuisine with French influences. Enjoyed the crab florentine, and the John Dory with saffron white wine cream sauce. Mixed vegetables were included with the meal. Very generous slice of treacle tart. Some small sweets were included with the coffee. Friendly service. Nice place for classic dishes and seafood.

Dinner at Saffron in Truro. http://www.saffronre...anttruro.co.uk/ Very good deal, especially if you're in time for the early bird dinner, which runs from 5-6:45 pm during the week. Delicate summer vegetable ribollita, perfectly cooked Coley with potato, kea plum parfait for around 16 GBP. Neat little place.

St. Ives
a Cornish pasty (steak) from St. Ives Bakery http://fullofcake.bl...ves-bakery.html , and a saffron bun from a small bakery near the bus station. The pasty had the nicest crust of the 3 pasties I ordered in the UK this trip.

Falmouth
Lunch of cod & chips at Harbour Lights. http://www.harbourlights.co.uk/ I didn't know fish and chips could be as tasty as what I found at Harbour Lights, and at Premier in Budleigh Salterton. Perfect cod. Friend ordered crab cakes, which seemed to have a fair amount of potato, compared to a more North American style crab cake (to which I'm more accustomed), which does not tend to include potato.

snack in Falmouth
a scoop of Roskilly's Cornish Fairing ice cream. http://www.roskillys.co.uk/My friend tried the Banoffee ice cream. Completely different texture than North American ice cream or gelato- more dense and sticky.

Loved the food we found in Penzance and other parts of Cornwall.

[cathodetube]

Am wondering why you started a new thread on this when there are other ones on St. Ives, and Cornwall.

[PhilD]

Porthminster Cafe is really good, fine meals right on the beach - it is more restaurant than cafe. Blas Burgerworks is also really good - fine Kiwi burgers with "the lot" looks expensive but big portions. We also tried Alba and it is OK but not memorable.

[zuriga1]

Thanks for mentioning the Porthminster Cafe, Phil. We passed by walking back to our car, and would definitely try this next visit. It has a great location and I'd forgotten about it.

[zuriga1]

I would go a bit further north and try some of the places in Padstow. We were there in mid-September, and had some very good meals there..

There is a fish and chips place right near the St. Ives pier/harbour and I had delicious monkfish fish and chips for lunch. Also in St. Ives, St. Andrew's Street Bistro and Alba get good ratings in the Good Food Guide. Friends recommended The Bay in Penzance, but we didn't seem to be there at the right time of day.

In Padstow, I'd recommend Margot's Bistro or Paul Ainsworth at Number 6 - both serve excellent food.

[souljacker]

I can also vouch for the quality of food at Margot's. I ate there following advice from this forum and it was an amazing meal from start to finish.