Salcombe, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

Specialising as the name suggests in local crab (even the chips can be upgraded to ‘crabby fries’ with a sprinkle of crabmeat and parmesan), this wooden café has perched on the harbour for eleven years now “next to where the fishing boats land their catch, so everything’s as fresh as it gets”. Daily Mail critic Tom Parker Bowles gobbled ‘crab and more crab’ in his rave June 2025 review.

You need to plan your route according to the tide if you visit this thirty-year-old venture on a site that used to host an oyster farm. Nowadays you dine either indoors or at plastic tables below an awning. Oysters are of course at the heart of the menu, but there’s also locally sourced crab and lobster as well as a BBQ catch of the day. (In fact there are also burgers, hot dogs, BBQ tofu, you name it).

“Such a great find on the embankment at Dartmouth”: Mitch Tonks’s “elegant”, Italian-inspired bistro flagship, latterly under head chef son Ben — and replete with new roof terrace for cocktails. “Just the sort of restaurant you want to find while on holiday but rarely do”, it attracts reams of praise for its “fantastic fish”, sourced from Brixham market a few miles away, while the attractive room exudes “a real buzz”.

2023 Review: “Worth a detour. Have been coming since they opened under new ownership in 2019 and it’s only grown in strength despite the pandemic. Absolute gem!” – limited but very enthusiastic feedback on this 14-bedroom hotel on the South West Coast path, with commanding views of the sea and looking over Hope Cove beach (which is yards away). The food is brasserie-style fare (sirloin, red mullet, confit duck…) and good value.