Salcombe 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”.

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”.

“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.

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”.

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).

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”.

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.