Rick Stein's restaurant in Padstow

[Charlene Leonard]

A group of friends and I are going down to Cornwall mid August and are staying somewhere near St.Ives and we were thinking of going to The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow.  I have just had a look at the website and the prices are really high.  Starters are between £10-17.50 and mains about £26.  Has anyone been there and does it justify the high prices or is it just full of tourists who know no better?  There are a few other restaurants he owns in Padstow aswell but don't know much about them...

[cabrales]

Charlene -- As you may know, fellow member basildog has a restaurant in Padstow too. See "Food 101" under "United Kingdom and Ireland".  

[Matthew Grant]

I visited the Seafood restaurant for lunch during the winter months last year. Although high the food is good, the best things are simply done. Langoustines with mayonnaise were good and Dover sole with parsley butter was cooked to perfection.

Rachel ate Red mullet with a chilli sauce (if I remember correctly) which was very nice and I can't remember for the life of me what the other dish she had was.

I doubt that you will get fresher fish than this, although the high prices could be hard to justify when you consider that the fish market is less than 10 seconds walk away and Rick probably misses out the middle-man but I left with a smile on my face.

We wished we had stayed the night as there were good deals midweek for a room including dinner which was only a few pounds more than our lunch. I'm not sure whether they do these deals during the summer months. I would also recommend booking well in advance, Padstow was quite busy when we were there in November (?).

[AdamLawrence]

I was briefly in the Padstow area over Easter, though didn't visit any restaurants. Had a look at the menu in the door of the Seafood Restaurant, and it struck me as absolutely outrageously expensive. As Matthew says, most of the preparations are pretty straightforward: you are, I suspect paying for two things - quality of materials and the name of the owner. I don't mind the former but can live without the latter. The set lunch is £33.50 and set dinner is £39, so a bit cheaper than the carte, but still pricey. Personally, I'd go to Basildog's place and splurge on wine.

The menus for RS's other places (St Petroc's is his 'second' resto, and a small hotel) are also on the website. Frankly they ain't cheap either. I did have a very good smoked haddock Cornish pasty (bizarre but tasty) from his deli though. And bought some beautiful black bream - which I baked with fennel herb, lemon and olive oil back at our cottage - from the fishmonger next door.

St Ives is quite a hike from Padstow. It will take you at least an hour to get from one to t'other. Still, unless you stay the night I suppose the need for someone to drive home might help keep the wine bill down

I gather Steins books up incredibly early so would advise you to reserve soon if you really want to go.

[Basildog]

Adam.why did you not say hello when you were down at Easter? I feel snubbed, hurt and rejected......Next time round , make yourself known!

And my reccomend RIPLEY'S  in St Merryn (2 miles out of Padstow)

[AdamLawrence]

Basildog, I...I...I'm sorry.....   I'm afraid that's what happens when a) you're only in the area briefly and b) you're the only driver in a party of four. Me, I'd have been quite happy to mooch into Padstow every day we were there (we were staying near Blisland) but the others.... damn them...

they wanted to go to Eden, to Heligan, to St Ives.  

Humbug

Adam

[Charlene Leonard]

Actually I think I got the location wrong, we are definitely staying nearer Padstow than St.Ives.  Basildog, where exactly is your restaurant?

[Basildog]

My place is Margot's in Duke Street Padstow.Adam you are forgiven.

[tony h]

Has anyone been or know anything about RS's cookery school?  Is it worthwhile or just an expensive scam?

[Tonyfinch]

Rick Stein seems like a decent enough chap and I respect his enthusiasm for and commitment to fish and seafood. However surely those prices reflect his status as a celebrity chef and show more than anything that to really get ahead of the game,a talent for self publicity and keeping yourself in the public eye is all important.

At least Stein and Gary Rhodes do it via their passion for food,rather than throwing temper tantrums ,chucking people out of their establishments,bullying hapless underlings or branding plongeurs with brulee caremelizers(or whatever).

However were I to go to Padstow I would not eat at Stein's because I sense it must have already succumbed to the pressure to move into the realm of tourist trap which inevitably results from such unrelenting demand.

I agree with Adam and I'd spend my time(and money) at Basildog's place.

[AdamLawrence]

The thing about Padstow is that you're not without choice. There are, I think, seven restaurants listed in the Good Food Guide in Padstow, and that's not including the place just outside the town mentioned above by Basildog. Three of the seven are Stein places, Basildog is there, and there are others. So it's not like you need only eat at the Seafood Restaurant, although it's obviously the town's flagship.

Adam

[Jinmyo]

I did have a very good smoked haddock Cornish pasty (bizarre but tasty) from his deli though.

Oooh.

[Basildog]

Just to keep you up to speed with the throbbing restaurant scene in Padstow, Brocks is no longer open, but will reopen with new owners (no idea when). And do book well in advance for the Summer as all the quality places will be full.We will never have enough places to forfill the demand in the summer

[John Whiting]

I feel sorry for those serious British chefs/restaurateurs who realize that, given Britain's superficial food culture, their careers at the zenith are likely to be as lucrative but also as brief as that of a professional boxer. Accordingly they put as high a price tag on their celebrity as they think the market will bear. Any successful British chef who undercharges must be a saint, a naif or an ignoramus.

[macrosan]

Any successful British chef who undercharges must be a saint, a naif or an ignoramus.

...or maybe just bad at sums, John  

I agree with you on this, not just in respect of British chefs, but in fact all types of celebrity. I have no qualms about the charges made by Pavarotti, or Russell Crowe, or John  Major (for his speaking engagements). I believe that people are entitled to charge whatever they want for anything. The market will determine whether or not they want to pay the price, and I'm entirely happy with that arrangement.

[Basildog]

Put me down as all 3 John

[Andy Lynes]

I ate at the Seafood on 10 July 1996. Thats a long time ago, but for what it's worth, I had a really superb hot shellfish starter, the like of which you will not find anywhere else in the UK, a main of grilled turbot with montpellier butter, fondue of leeks and spring cabbage, which was spanking fresh and lovely and all that but not a patch on the roasted tranche of turbot I had enjoyed at Aldards in Norwich around the same time. Dessert was a deeply ordinary chocolate tart with some dried fruits.

We paid around £95.00 for two with some modest wine and coffees. It was one of the most expensive meals we'd had at that time and given the surroundings, which were nothing special, I came away disappointed. Since then , the restaurant has had a serious makeover and has lost it's British seaside feel and gone rather upmarket to match it's prices. I know this because we went back to Padstow a year or so ago for a day trip whilst holidaying in Devon and peered through the window. Prices are breathtaking and they can do nothing about their view over the carpark, but it is an event restaurant. It's down to if you want to pay the prices or not.

[bakerwhirly]

:smile:Moved to Cornwall in Dec from London and the only thing I miss is excellence in dining out.....admittedly haven't had bags of time to go discovering but did end up in Seafood Rest one wet Sunday in Jan for blowout! Superb in every way and yes pricey but I was after that type of fix. First class fish soup followed by seabass in vanilla, creme brulee to finish. Would avoid in summer I think, bound to be hectic harry!

[RickBehl]

Also had a fantastic (though expensive) meal there last year.

The best soup I have ever tasted (oriental broth of assorted fish/shellfish) and a superb grill whole dover sole with sea salt and lime. Stick to the simple things as they are best. We also had a monkfish vindaloo which was dissapointing.

Rick

[Matthew Grant]

This is an interesting topic. For people that have eaten there the food comes away virtually unscathed. The only criticism seems to be the price. Made me think about how much we are willing to pay for good food? If I enjoy a meal immensely I tend not to think about the price too much, if the food turns out to be a little "ordinary" (as at SOS last weekend) then it becomes an issue. For me although I realised the prices were high at RS it was never really an issue due to the high quality of the food.

If food of this quality was being served in London would we or, should we, pay more for it?

[AdamLawrence]

With all due respect Matthew, I think it is always a matter of degree. You say 'If I enjoy a meal immensely, I tend not to think about the price'. Now, would that be so however expensive the meal was? I don't have a problem paying big money for great food, but it is ALWAYS a cost/benefit calculation. I paid £285 for dinner for two at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons a while back, and felt I'd got superb VFM, but I don't think I could say 'That was a wonderful meal, I wouldn't have noticed if it had cost £500'.

Those who've eaten at Stein's seem generally to be saying 'Go for the simple dishes, they are the best'. Now, I think that, for many people (for good or ill) paying huge prices for simple food sticks in the craw. Complex, cheffy food, on the other hand - well, it's easy to see where your money is going. Maybe we should be more prepared to pay top whack for first-rate ingredients, simply prepared, but... Basildog, I presume, buys his fish from the same boats that Rick S does. Why the hugeous price differential?

The London comparison I think is a red herring. I don't live in London, I don't eat in London all that often, and I do wince at London restaurant pricing, but I recognise the reasons why prices are high, and one of the reasons is costs. Stein's costs must be lower than (say) Ramsay's by a factor of plenty.

[John Whiting]

Those who've eaten at Stein's seem generally to be saying 'Go for the simple dishes, they are the best'.

People say that when they eat chez moi, and my prices are a hell of a lot lower than Rick's!  

[Matthew Grant]

With all due respect Matthew, I think it is always a matter of degree. You say 'If I enjoy a meal immensely, I tend not to think about the price'. Now, would that be so however expensive the meal was?

I've been mis-quoted!

You've inferred that I don't think about the price of the meal at all. What I in fact said was "If I enjoy a meal immensely, I tend not to think about the price too much".

"Immensely" may have been the wrong word, perhaps I should have said a "fantastic meal"

You've struck the nail on the head in your post - at what point does the cost/benefit reach a happy medium reach its peak?  

On a thread about Smithfields we spoke about the second floor at Smiths, here the food was almost universally disliked but we forgave it because it was cheap. Steins is liked by everyone but too expensive - where is the happy medium?

I didn't mean to suggest that RS should be able to charge as much as a restaurant in London, I was merely curious to find out whether people would be prepared to pay these sort of prices for this quality of food in London.

[John Whiting]

Considering the fact that (1) British salaries are lower than on the continent, (2) the price of a decent restaurant meal is higher, and (3) lack of public discrimination makes it possible for a bad expensive restaurant to survive, I find it amazing that British gastronomes with modest incomes eat out at all, apart from the ethnic sanctuaries.

Now, here's an extreme exercise -- I don't suggest doing it, but only want to point out that it's possible. Where in London could you pay a total of 88 pounds and get a meal, including wine and service, which matched the quality and interest of the surprise menu at l'Astrance? You can do it by *leaving* London -- take the 8:30 a.m. bus from Victoria to Paris, which gets in at 5:30 p.m., have dinner at l'Astrance, and return on the overnight bus back to Victoria which leaves at 11:30 p.m. Return fare is 33 pounds, plus 50 pounds for the l'Astrance dinner, comes to 88 pounds (plus the small local transport costs at either end). Or pay a bit more and go by EasyJet.

[Charlene Leonard]

Basildog - do you have room for 8 small ones on 10th August? after reading this I've decided I'd love to try your place out.  We are staying at Port Isaac which doesn't look too far away.  

p.s do you know when your website will be working?