Porthminster Beach & Restaurant

You won’t find pasties here. This is the seaside restaurant that had me reconsider Cornwall cuisine, and service, too. The waitstaff even made custom cots for the exhausted little ones dining with us this eve. After dinner I snapped a pic of the Haloumi salad w beetroot purée vinaigrette recipe in the cookbook for sale at the register. Highly recommended (if you can get a reservation).

Every time we come to St Ives we visit this place for lunch-it’s just down the steps from the train station, so easy to get too but away from most of the crowds. the dining room is quite large, but the terrace is too, so sit out if it’s a nice day. –For our most recent visit we booked online but didn’t seem to have a choice of table. We arrived to find our table inside, but luckily there was space outside so we moved. Our orders were taken quickly but drinks took a while to arrive-​they couldn’t find the wine! Nevertheless our food was very good. The vinegar was a bit too strong on my warm beef salad, but everything else was great. They do separate vegan and gluten free menus too.

A reservation was hard to get so we were happy to take a table for 5 at 6 o’clock. We were told they had another booking for 8 so we would need to be done by then. So far, so acceptable. However, on arrival at the restaurant the greeter also told us this, then the waitress who seated us and took our orders also told us twice. At this point we felt we were there under sufferance and they couldn’t wait to see the back of us but the food was lovely and brought in relatively good time, so things were moving along well. Then a different waitress came to ask us if we were interested in dessert but then stopped to ask us if we had time to eat it! This was at 7.15÷7.20 — plenty of time to eat dessert and have a coffee. We vented our feelings and told them we felt very unwelcome all evening. Apologies were made and the desserts arrived. We were finished, had paid the bill and were out of there by 7.55pm.
There was no manager to speak to, no one in authority came to smooth things over. In many restaurants a manager would have comped the wine or something to apologies but this was not the case. It was not a relaxing evening and we all felt our night out spoiled by their constant nagging. The view was lovely, the chef obviously creative — what a shame the front of house let him down like this.

Came here for a lovely romantic dinner with Erin and was not disappointed!
The stunning view out over Porthminster Beach and the bay is a delightful backdrop to first class service and a solid, yet highly original and inventive menu.
To start, Erin had a tasty crab cake with chilli sauce, and I had the perfectly fried squid with a miso dipping sauce. Then for main, she had line caught wild sea bass with a ponzu and I went for the local half lobster extravaganza which comes with a mound of fresh greens, perfect baked potatoes and a home made mayonnaise.
We left no room for dessert and left feeling sated but thankfully not overdone!

Yum… I love the goats cheese tart, the squid, the fish soup and all of the local fish dishes i have eaten here. Quality is great. I am not too keen on the crab linguini but that may just be personal preference. The view is to die for.