Porthmeor Beach Cafe – A good meal in St Ives and say NO to fish & chips

Porthmeor Beach Cafe – A good meal in St Ives and say NO to fish & chips

At first I wanted to call this article ‘Eating in St Ives’ following the footsteps of my ‘Eating in…’ articles from Andalucia.

But then I remembered than I only had one proper meal there and two small disappointments in the form of fish and chips.

So what I will do is write something bigger about the place I ate in then draw a few conclusions about the places where I ate fish and chips.

Also I will try to keep the post as short as possible because just this morning I realized that I have to write about 44 posts only about my last two trips and I also have things from behind that are waiting to be written or published.

So how did I end up eating at Porthmeor Beach Cafe?

Well, after a full day of driving and visiting Mawgan Porth and the Bedruthan Steps I finally reached my accommodation in St Ives. And from the footsteps of that place I could see the beach. Just 200 meters in a straight line.

So I knew, even though I didn’t have anything to eat all day, that first I must watch the sunset on that beach.

So after stepping down to the beach and taking some of the pictures that I enjoyed the most from my entire holiday I looked a couple of meters away and saw this place.

I was in a bit of luck because in the evenings you do require a reservation to eat but I was alone and I just wanted a quick bite to eat so a table was found for me until the reservations arrived.

I really enjoyed the look of the cafe. First of all there is something magical about a place on the beach. Be it a house or be it a restaurant it truly has something extra.

The setting is very nice and it is composed of two parts. One part outdoors which I think it is great in the summer time and one part behind glass so you can see everything outside.

Since it was evening and the wind was present I chose to eat inside. Well not exactly chose… I was led inside to a free table.

The staff is great. Young, smiling, very polite, made me feel welcome from the start.

Since I was hungry I chose a main, two tapas and one beer and it all costed me 25.95 pounds.

Frankly I found the price to be extremely good considering the location, view, how nice the place looks and not last the quality of the food.

The food was great. And I’m not saying that just because I was hungry but I really mean it. I don’t know how I ended up with no meat on my plate but I truly think it was a great dinner and I can still remember thinking how I could feel each ingredient and how they all added to a great combination.

I really can’t find anything negative to say about this place and I am sure of the fact that if I were to visit St Ives again I would definitely eat here again.

Being most of the time out, visiting Cornwall I did not have the chance or desire to exactly sit and read about restaurant reviews on the internet so I could test them.

What I did was grabbing some fish and chips on the late evenings when I got into town after a full day of walking and driving.

So i ate one time at The Beach where some fish and chips and a crab sandwich costed me 16 pounds and one time at the Balancing Eel where some fish and chips costed me 6.75 pounds.

Now, I don’t want to sound offensive or anything but really, eating fish and chips sucks.

I am sorry if there are people who like it but for me that combo of fried fish and chips with a thick crust just makes me sick.

I tried eating some crust the first time but quickly used the fork to push all the crust aside and eat only the cod inside.

The problem is that many people think that England has bad food and while this was true for many years and I find myself guilty for saying this also, I must confess that this trip opened my eyes to new things.

England has lots of great food. From fresh fish and seafood to cheese, meats, butter, pies, you really can find something good in many places.

So what I suggest you to do is to really try the fresh caught fish. Be it mackerel, be it cod or maybe eating fresh crabs but stay away from fish and chips.

You really can’t go wrong with a British sweet pie with some Cornish butter.

Or why not try a crab soup or a fresh crab sandwich.

There are plenty of options available which are tastier and healthier than fish and chips.

I did made this mistake twice but I did not repeat it until the end of my trip.

No matter how hungry I was and how many fish and chips places I met on the way I kept going until I found a real restaurant.

So if you are ever in St Ives and want to try something really good, in a great setting, give this place a try.

Have a seat near the glass wall or outside and just enjoy the waves crashing on the beach.

If you are lucky you will be here at sunset when everything glows and the setting is just lovely.