Kingsbridge Restaurant Guide

This local business started processing crab in 2008 and opened this simple café in 2014. “Outside is challenging in the autumn and winter, but even then, they have wonderful blankets that you can use to savour the great seafood they serve. Absolutely love it”.

“Shack is the right word for this ultra-casual restaurant specialising in delicious oysters but also serving freshly caught fish” – one reporter summarises the limitations (but mostly charms) of this former oyster farm, where you can now dine inside by the fire or on the outdoor terrace.

2022 Review: This “lovely beach hut” (park up at Milton or Thurlestone Sands) with a blackboard menu offers “atmospheric outdoor dining with a good range of fresh seafood”, and “the views are beautiful too”. Top Tip: “dirty chips were so good we had to order extra portions”.

2022 Review: On the River Dart, this location has a fine culinary history, having been run by figures as diverse as Joyce Molyneux (one of the first women in the UK to receive a Michelin star) and TV chef John Burton-Race. It’s now under former MasterChef: The Professionals finalist Elly Wentworth, and fans “think it will settle down into a very good restaurant” indeed, with reports of some “very memorable” food (running from “stunning” Sunday roasts to a six-course tasting menu).

The harbourside flagship of Mitch Tonks’s West Country group is a “great all-rounder”, majoring in “superb fish and seafood”. The Italian-influenced cooking is “delicious and unfussy”, the wine list “interesting at all price points” – “and to cap it all, diners are made to feel really welcome. It’s hard to find this level of hospitality nowadays”. Top Menu Tip – “the focaccia and anchoiade is legendary”.

The original and “still the best of the Rockfish chain”, founded by Mitch Tonks in 2010 and now with 10 satellite venues around the southwest coast, as well as its own boat and supply chain in Brixham. It’s an “upmarket fish ’n’ chip restaurant” with prices to match – and the “daily choice is always worth having”.

This “amazing organic pub-with-rooms, serving great food with a conscience and really lovely wine list” is “different from the usual”. It’s owned and run by Geetie Singh-Watson, a self-proclaimed feminist and ethical publican who moved to Devon after meeting her husband, Riverford founder Guy Watson, on Soil Association business. She sold her London flat to finance the rescue of the run-down pub, which is “becoming an established favourite for Totnes residents and visitors, so it’s wise to book”.

The “really imaginative, fresh and creative food served by engaged and enthusiastic staff” in the canteen at this organic veg box company’s HQ is “top, top grub – enough to turn the staunchest of meat-eaters into a temporary veggie!” – although some meat is served, albeit in a supporting role. Long-term admirers, though, regret that “the buffet of puds is no more, so you have to choose just one pud off the menu. I understand why COVID had this impact, but I do hope it isn’t permanent”.

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.

“The menu has become a little more sophisticated with the new chef, and prices have increased” accordingly, say fans of this much-loved joint above the lido. Given that “this tiny restaurant is best at simply prepared fish fresh from that morning’s auction at Brixham” (where owners the Perkes are wholesalers), the changes are not always supported, but even the odd critic “would still return for the freshest fish and that view to die for across the bay” to Torquay. In 2022, that view got even better, with a new rooftop terrace area where they grill the catch outdoors and bring it directly to table.