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.

“Great food cooked interestingly with great local ingredients” keeps reporters coming back to this “dog-friendly” pub in a stone building dating back to circa 1460 (and whose rangy garden overlooks the local church). Given the “‘back lane’ location” off the usual Cornish tourist trail, it’s a surprisingly “busy place” – its popularity certainly not hurt by the good-value set-lunch deals.

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.

About to enter its 15th year of operation, Fred & Donna Beedles’s well-established venue is a favourite for some diners and “always delivers quality and exceptional value”. It’s a low-key place, in a parade of shops off the road down into the harbour.

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.

“The food is as good as Outlaw’s New Road but half the price!” according to fans of Nathan Outlaw’s “intimate and cosy venue situated right on the harbour”, which many diners feel “is our favourite of the two excellent restaurants in the Outlaw stable”. Being only “tiny” if anything boosts its “lovely and intimate atmosphere”, “staff are highly trained, but friendly and attentive” and it delivers “incredible value for the price” (“of the mainly small plates there wasn’t one we didn’t like” and results are “superb”). “I was lucky enough to be in Cornwall when this place opened. It has never dipped in what it does. Nathan = brilliant!”

“Always, always perfection… fish and seafood never tasted this good: Nathan Outlaw shows utter mastery of his beloved ingredients” at his stunning harbourside HQ, which continues to inspire dizzying levels of customer satisfaction in our annual diners’ poll: a high volume of reviews (it’s one of the top-50 most commented-on venues outside London) contains barely a word of disappointment. Most especially, it’s “a go-to place for outstanding seafood and fish” – the cuisine “is simple, it’s clean, it’s elegant, it’s just right, it has that wow factor!…”; and as an overall operation it is also an outstanding all-rounder with “stunning service, stunning views and a stunningly well priced (but short) wine list”. (“Several visits each year and this place never fails to deliver. Each time we go we feel that we’ve eaten the best meal they’ve ever given us. The staff are pretty awesome too, providing a great balance between perfect service and a gentle, warm approach”).

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!”

It’s impossible to assess “Rick Stein’s original restaurant in the seaside town of Padstow” without viewing it through the lens of his TV fame and its place in UK food history, having opened in 1975 and having helped put ‘Padstein’ on the map as a major foodie destination. Nowadays run primarily by Rick’s ex-wife Jill and her sons, this sizable, relatively straightforward dining room near the water remains one of the top-40 most commented-on places outside London in our annual diners’ poll. Numerous diners who comment are long-term visitors, and though the verdict still tends to the positive their collective opinion waned a little this year. To its most ardent supporters it remains “as good as ever”: a “stunning restaurant in a beautiful harbour setting with an incredibly large menu mixing inventive dishes alongside all the classic fish and seafood dishes”: “the food he does best, fish in attractive ways, served without fuss and delicious”; and it “couldn’t be fresher”. Fairly, even some fans acknowledge that “these days, there are many more quality options in the town and surrounds”, but they feel “it still represents excellent value for the standard of a meal”. Inevitably, as is the case every year, there are some detractors who feel that “standards have declined since Rick handed over the reins but the prices have increased”. This year, though, saw a more marked deterioration in the mark for service in particular and more significant disappointments in general (“after 22 years visiting this restaurant, I‘m compelled to express dismay at its descent in my estimation. The mojo of the place has fallen, although we’ve given it several chances in the last year or so. I’m tempted to post a crying face emoji at this point, but maybe that would be just a little too tacky!”). Still, overall the winning view remains that it’s “always a treat coming to Padstow and sampling the freshest of fish at the Seafood Restaurant for that special occasion”.

“Reliably good food with some interesting touches” is on the menu at this hotel bistro in an old stone building in the heart of the town from the Rick Stein group, with what is perhaps a surprisingly large proportion of non-fish dishes. It’s also generally “good value”.

Paul Ainsworth’s casual and reliably buzzy venture is still “great” by most accounts, turning out small plates, heftier fare plus popular Neapolitan-style pizzas as part of its homage to the Mediterranean. For the odd sceptic still not convinced by its 2020 bistro reinvention, however, there’s a sense that these days it’s rather “trading on a name”.

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.

“High-quality cooking, a buzzy atmosphere and reasonable prices” characterise locally born chef Benjamin Palmer’s six-year-old outfit “right by the harbourside”. Fresh fish and seafood dominate the menu, but there are beef and veggie options to satisfy fish phobes.