Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Guildford
Hardens guides have spent 32 years compiling reviews of the best Guildford restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 27 restaurants in Guildford and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Guildford restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Guildford Restaurants
1. The Idle Rocks
British, Modern restaurant in St Mawes
Harbourside - TR2
“A really special place to eat in summer or winter with views out over the bustling harbour of St Mawes” – this 18-bedroom Relais & Châteaux hotel is perched near the sea, and its restaurant occupies a “light and attractive dining room” that’s warmly reviewed in all feedback. “A limited seasonal menu doesn’t detract: each course is beautifully presented by cheerful staff; and the fish is fresh and guaranteed to make you want to come back time and again”. If you want to push the boat out, there’s also a seven-course ‘signature’ option.
2. Driftwood Hotel
International restaurant in Rosevine
On the Roseland Peninsula, this clifftop boutique hotel occupies a fine-looking Georgian building in a glorious position, a short walk from the beach. Aaron McNamara succeeded Olly Pierrepoint as head chef in May 2022, just as our survey was concluding. We have rated the restaurant assuming a continuation of his predecessor’s high standard of cooking, which fans say was “simply fabulous! The tasting menu with superbly chosen wine flight is a journey you just don’t want to end!”.
3. The Shore
Fish & seafood restaurant in Penzance
13-14 Alverton Street - TR18
Bruce Rennie provides the one-man kitchen team at his very personal 14-seater, where you must book in advance, and a reservation is – according to his website – like “booking a ticket at a (very small and personal) theatre with a supper club vibe”. All who comment “love the whole concept of this place”: “Bruce is a wizard with fish which is landed just down the road in Newlyn – lots of Asian flavours make for really imaginative tasting menu offerings”.
4. Ugly Butterfly
British, Modern restaurant in St Ives
Carbis Bay Estate - TR26
Celeb chef Adam Handling arrived in Cornwall in August 2021 with this 65-cover all-day dining experience set in a new, luxury beachside estate on the fringes of St Ives. Fans say it’s a “simply stunning location” with ocean views through the floor-to-ceiling windows and an open kitchen (although the impression is a fraction modern and “soulless” to some tastes). Adam is known for his sustainable focus and this continues in the tasting-menu format (5-courses for £100, 7-courses for £125). Some reporters’ best meals of the year won it generally high marks, but there were some more middling reports and complaints regarding pricing (“not a nightmare evening, but who has persuaded them they are special?”). Perhaps change will be afoot, as in July 2022 (post-survey) a new head chef, Connor Blades, was appointed..
5. Porthminster Café
Mediterranean restaurant in St Ives
Porthminster Beach - TR26
“Great for lunch on a breezy summer’s day” – this “special” venue in a “fabulous beach location” with a “beautiful view” has earned a reputation as one of the most notable in St Ives over more than 25 years. Its mainly seafood menu, with Asian and Mediterranean influences, is “well executed with some long-established favourites”. The same team own the Porthmeor Beach Café, below Tate St Ives.
6. Porthminster Kitchen
British, Modern restaurant in St Ives
Wharf Rd - TR26
“It’s slightly easier to get a table here than at its sibling, the Porthminster Cafe”. But, nevertheless, this is a “nice little place in this tourist town” – “pleasant outside on a good day” and with “good basic food”.
7. Porthmeor Beach Cafe
Spanish restaurant in St Ives
Porthmeor Beach - TR26
2022 Review: “Great views from the beachside terrace and an interesting fishy menu” have made this tapas-style venture “a definite must-go”, especially when visiting the nearby Tate. (As of 2019, they also run seasonal spin-off West Beach Bakery, on the western side of Porthmeor Beach, and serving up “great pizzas”, deli-style lunches and “even better views” than the original… and it's “less busy” too).
8. Victoria Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Perranuthnoe
“Simply all that you could desire of a gastropub” – this attractive twelfth-century inn welcomes everyone from walkers from the nearby SW Coast Path near St Michael’s Mount to dog walkers with its enjoyable bistro-style food – “good Sunday lunch” in particular.
9. No. 27 The Terrace
restaurant in St Ives
The Terrace - TR26
2022 Review: Ben Prior relocated to St Ives after 10 years in Marazion at the highly rated Ben’s Cornish Kitchen (RIP), and in May 2021 he helped re-open the dining room at this small hotel overlooking Porthminster Beach (at whose cafe he’s now head chef) having installed Grant Nethercote as head chef. Reports please!
10. One Fish Street
Fish & seafood restaurant in Saint Ives
1 Fish Street - TR26
“The food is not only picture perfect but tastebud-wateringly delicious” at this “small and lively” owner-operated venue, which “has it all, not just for Instagram but for the discerning diner from age 4 to 100” (down to the “wonderful crockery, glassware and cutlery”). It serves an “excellent fish-based tasting menu” of “amazing quality and innovation, with pedigree and traceability on all food sourcing”.
11. Source Kitchen
Fish & seafood restaurant in St Ives
6 The Digey - TR26
2022 Review: A tranquil café on a pretty street that’s beloved by Rick Stein, who featured it in one of his many TV shows. Snack on home-baked cakes and biscuits, enjoy “lots of fish dishes” (including some “unusual options”) for lunch, or – by night – “amazing small plates served up from the small open kitchen” (you can sit at the bar for a particularly “great view” of the chefs at work).
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