Lostwithiel Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “A small and intimate restaurant” – opposite an old church in Cornwall’s antiques capital – Graham Cuthbertson’s wood-panelled spot “serves great modern European and local dishes and the dining room is really comfortable”. “I went there with all my family and they were really accommodating with young children”.

2023 Review: “A gorgeous spot to eat tasty food while watching the sea”, this former Victorian lifeboat station has been transformed under Sam Sixton, who launched his local dining empire at the age of 17, back in 1988 (his son Noah is now part of the team). The “casual” menu runs from “wonderful fresh fish and seafood” to “tasty pizzas with both traditional and unusual toppings”.

2023 Review: Associated with London foodie hits Primeur and Westerns Laundry, this three-year-old favourite, which occupies a former bank, continues to inspire high ratings for its food. It’s a seasonal operation, which closes each year between late Autumn and mid Spring.

2021 Review: “At last a decent… well, actually quite a bit more than decent, Thai restaurant in North Cornwall!” – this “pretty tightly packed” café “lives up to its name, but this just adds to the fun” and its spicy scoff comes highly recommended.

“This beautifully situated Cornish pub” off the Padstow tourist trail has a pleasant location in a fifteenth-century stone building replete with a garden overlooking the local church; solid marks if little feedback this year for its open-fire cooking, and especially “good-value set lunches”.

2021 Review: “Windows overlooking the vineyard” afford views onto this peacefully located spot – run by Andy Appleton (a graduate of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall) although the “huge barn” it occupies can feel a tad “quiet” at less busy times. Numerous “excellent” meals are reported last year from its Med-slanted modern British menu.

Limited but still all-round enthusiastic feedback this year for Fred & Donna Beedles’s low-key operation, in a parade of shops away from the harbour. The menu is a two-course or three-course à la carte, whose seeming straightforwardness belies the skill of the cuisine.

The dining room at this smart century-old hotel has long been one of Cornwall’s prime culinary destinations, but the volume and tenor of feedback was more muted this year, so we’ve left it un-rated for the time being. There’s a choice of tasting menus in six or nine courses, and less of a focus on seafood than in the Nathan Outlaw era of a few years back. Karrek is apparently Cornish for Rock.

2023 Review: “A quirky hotel and restaurant serving excellent local fish” – this whitewashed, seventeenth-century hotel in a coastal bay is “always outstanding”. Chef James Lean (appointed in 2015) oversees a menu that’s naturally fish-focused. “Friendly service and great Cornish ales” complete the picture.

2021 Review: Still a “lovely, relaxing” location, with views across the Camel estuary, but feedback at this hotel dining room has become very mixed since the departure of chef James Nathan and his illustrious predecessor, Nathan Outlaw (and the ownership of the hotel itself changed in January 2019, which “may not have helped”). Whatever the cause, while it does still have some fans, some regulars feel it’s “just not in the same class” as it was formerly.

“So small… how do they produce such great food from that tiny kitchen? Incredible!” – Nathan Outlaw’s “tiny, so quite cosy” No 2. venue sits on the quayside of this picturesque fishing village and is “just the best place” on account of food that’s “beautifully prepared and full of flavour”: “a wonderful combination of tapas-style eating and Michelin-starred cooking”.

“Against a backdrop of wild sea views we enjoyed small plate after small plate of stunning seafood, each one different” – Nathan Outlaw’s harbourside HQ inspired a dazzling level of satisfaction this year, with all of the numerous reports we received on it acclaiming it as an “outstanding” performer and very arguably “the best seafood and fish restaurant in the UK”. “You know everything is fresh and sourced locally and this shines through with everything they serve” in dish after “fabulously creative” dish, “beautifully presented on magnificent ceramics”. Its “impeccable but super-friendly Cornish service tops off” the “exceptional” standards.

2022 Review: “Well worth a visit if in the Padstein area” when you're in the market for “great fish ’n’ chips”; “other Rick Stein eateries are available but this one has views over the estuary” – although they come with the caveat that your reveries “can be interrupted by tourists peering through the window to see what is on your plate!”

“Continues to impress after 25 years or more since our first visit” – the Stein family’s harbourside HQ continues to deliver the goods for the very many people who report on it in our annual diners’ poll. Opened in 1975, it is nowadays run primarily by Rick’s ex-wife Jill and her sons, and achieves the hard task of living up to the world fame of TV chef Rick (who nowadays spends a good chunk of his year living down under in Aus’). If you were to quibble, you would say the food is “lovely but not brilliant” or that it’s “not cheap by any means”, but to an impressive extent serious disappointments are completely absent in feedback this year: “you get the excellent seafood that you would expect with a good mix mix of interesting dishes alongside more plainly cooked options that allow you to fully appreciate the quality of the fish”. “Well worth the trip to Cornwall: the freshest seafood served with care and love!”

One of the lesser-known venues in the local Stein empire, set in an old stone building in the heart of Padstow, this low key bistro serves “excellent” and “reliable meals that never disappoint” – “we usually enjoy fish”. Importantly for some visitors, there’s “a small indoor dog-friendly space”.

Paul Ainsworth’s casual spot is a “surprising crowd-pleaser”, turning out “perfect arancini”, “brilliant salty house fries” and “excellent pizza with blistered crust” (“other dishes are available, but I’ve never got past the pizza”). While the odd skeptic who hasn’t visited since its 2020 bistro relaunch rues the disappearance of the “formerly excellent pasta dishes”, the vast majority love the “amazing” small-plates menu and, for dessert, “the brown butter soft-serve ice cream with your own toppings to add is SO Paul Ainsworth – fun!”.

2023 Review: Down by the quayside, this cute pub is tipped for “fish that’s obviously as fresh as you can get, and an excellent seafood platter” from amongst its other more typically pub grub offerings.

“Excellent fresh fish” landed from day boats on the quay opposite is the mainstay of the menu at the restaurant chef-patron Benjamin Palmer opened in his hometown six years ago. “The Sunday lunch is perfect, too – so tasty”.

Opening 4 June in 16th-century listed Carvynick House, in woodland between Newquay and Truro, a pub and restaurant from Adam Handling, of Frog in London and Ugly Butterfly in St Ives. Expect 'sustainable local luxury', using Cornish ingredients – including produce grown in its own garden.