My top 5 eats in St Ives

If I counted how many times I have holidayed in St Ives I would run out of fingers. It feels like my second home and I simply love it. But St Ives is not only great for amazing beaches and views it also has some great eateries. Here’s my top 5.

Cornish Catch

I was lucky enough to come across the Cornish Catch van on Smeaton’s Pier whilst having a wander around St Ives. I chose a crab salad with sweet chilli dressing. This was one of the best and freshest salads that I have ever eaten. Priced at £7 it was well worth the money as it was a sizeable salad and I felt suitably full once eaten. Other options on the menu were paella, noodles (with a choice of steak or fish) or salad (with a choice of steak or fish). All food is freshly prepared and locally sourced by the Cornish Catch duo. It was so good that I went back for another salad 2 days later! This is a new business in St Ives for this season and I hope that they’ll still be around when I visit next.

Philps Pasties

Everyone has their favourite pasty makers when visiting Cornwall. For me Philps has always been my favourite. Philps have a number of bakeries in and around Cornwall with the main one in Hayle. Last season Philips opened the Pasty Hatch along the harbour in St Ives which means you can still get these great pasties without having to lose your space in the town’s car park. Philps make 1000’s of fresh pasties every day so you can be guaranteed a great tasting experience.

Blas Burgers

All ingredients are locally sourced

Award winning Blas Burgers

I first visited Blas Burgers about 6 years ago. I heard that they made the most amazing gourmet burgers so had to give it a try and I was not disappointed. I now make sure that a Blas Burger is fitted in whenever I visit St Ives. The restaurant is tiny and only open from 5pm-9.30pm each day and unless you have a party of 6 or more then you cannot book, so you need to time your visit carefully. If all else fails they offer a takeaway service. All ingredients are locally sourced and sustainable. In addition to great quality meat they offer an impressive vegetarian and vegan menu. Blas Burgers is the only fast food restaurant to be featured in the Good Food Guide … need I say more?

Porthmeor Beach Café

If you are looking for a restaurant with one of the best possible views, and great food,  then look no further. Porthmeor Beach Café sits atop the amazing Porthmeor Beach. If you’re lucky, on a sunny evening the West facing restaurant will also reward you with some of the most magnificent views of the sunset that you will find in the UK.

The café offers food throughout the day. Breakfast includes traditional fry ups where you can build your breakfast from the menu, along with options such as scrambled egg on toast with crab and crème fraiche. For evening meals you can select from a wide range of tapas options or main courses. I opted for the cumin roasted cauliflower with tahini and pomegrate from the tapas menu to start, followed by lamb rump, truffled potatoes, broad beans, feta and braised cavelo nero. For pudding I had a grilled banana with salted caramel.

Ben’s Cornish Kitchen

OK, so not exactly St Ives but we try to make a detour on the way home to have lunch at this fantastic restaurant located at Marazion, Penzance (it also means that we miss the holiday traffic heading out of Cornwall). As the restaurant is small (that makes it more special), I recommend that you book which you can do online (£10 deposit). I also recommend that you make sure that you turn up hungry so that you can fit in all 3 courses. The courses are not huge, in fact they are just right, leaving you full and satisfied and not like your’ve over-eaten. All of the ingredients are freshly sourced, so you are guaranteed a pretty healthy meal. I have eaten here 3 times now and each meal was fantastic. Children are also welcome and chef will prepare a smaller portion of the mains or something slightly different depending on ingredients and how busy they are. I love eating food where you are trying flavour combinations and textures that you’ve not tried before.

Unfortunately for me the diet normally goes out of the window when in Cornwall as the food around me is so good, but hey that’s what holidays are about. One of the benefits of St Ives is that to walk most places requires you to walk up a hill with some locations being a very strenuous walk. Fortunately for me this year due to a few more healthier eating choices and exercising everyday the scales back home have been kind to me but it’s still time to get back to healthy eating and exercising this week …

Enjoy, if you are heading to St Ives any time soon.

Read about my trip to Venice earlier this year.