The Top 44 Places to Eat Near The Rocket Store
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Rank 1. The Rocket Store
Seafood
A former coastguard shed on Boscastle's harbour, this tiny seafood spot still has the bones of a working building and a blackboard menu that changes with whatever came off the boats that morning. The family runs a farm in the hills above town, so the fish gets genuinely local company on the plate. It's compact, pretty, and exactly what you'd hope to stumble onto after a walk along the coast path.
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Rank 2. Outlaw's Fish Kitchen
Seafood
A 15th-century fisherman's cottage right on the Port Isaac harbourside, with the kind of low ceilings and wonky walls that remind you the building was never meant for this much attention. The Michelin-starred seafood restaurant runs a daily set menu shaped by season and weather, so what arrives depends partly on what the sea gave up that morning. The cooking stays simple enough to let the fish carry everything, with the odd pickled note or jalapeño heat to keep it lively.
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Rank 3. Paul Ainsworth at No.6
Modern British
A Georgian townhouse on Padstow's most restaurant-dense street, where Paul Ainsworth runs a Michelin-starred fine dining room that leans into fun without winking too hard about it. Cornish produce anchors the cooking, classical technique holds it together, and the kitchen finds room for touches like a pre-dessert course named "Yesterday's Scone." The town already had Rick Stein; Ainsworth is the reason people now have to make two reservations.
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Rank 4. St Kew Inn
British Pub
Flagstone floors, wooden beams, beer poured from casks behind the bar: this old Cornish pub in the village of St Kew has been perfecting the gastropub formula before anyone called it that. The menu leans into local seafood and countryside produce, and the garden earns its keep on a warm afternoon. It sits close enough to the north Cornwall coast to double as a very reasonable excuse to extend a coastal walk by two hours.
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Rank 5. The Mariners
British Pub
A ferry ride from Padstow drops you in Rock, where this large, buzzy gastropub sits right on the estuary with terrace views over the Camel. Part of Paul Ainsworth's Cornish stable, it leans into hearty, no-nonsense British cooking: shepherd's pie and fish and chips alongside whatever the day boats brought in. The crowd arrives sunburned and hungry, which is more or less exactly the clientele the place was built for.
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Rank 6. Rick Stein's Café
Asian-influenced Seafood
From the outside it reads as a narrow terraced house; inside, it opens into a nautically themed bistro hung with bright Cornish artwork. This is the casual, affordable end of Rick Stein's Padstow empire, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a menu that pairs local seafood with flavors picked up on his Asian travels. A small enclosed terrace sits out back for when Cornwall cooperates with the weather.
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A working farm in Cornwall where the kitchen cures, pickles, and grills over a central wood fire using animals raised on the same 66 acres outside the window. The dining room leans into it: animal skins on the chairs, antique cutlery, handmade pottery. The sourdough alone justifies the drive out here. A young team runs the floor without fuss, and there are rooms if you'd rather not navigate country lanes in the dark.
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Rank 8. FOUR BOYS
Seafood
A relaxed coastal café on the Cornish waterfront where the menu runs on local seafood and homemade pasta, the two things you'd actually want anyway. The family operation keeps things informal without getting sloppy, and the terrace catches enough of a view that you'll order another glass of wine before you've noticed. Farfalle with crab is the move, the chilli landing just where it should.
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Rank 9. Caffè Rojano
Italian
A dish called the Whoopsy Splunker tells you everything about the mood here. Paul Ainsworth's Italian brasserie in Padstow keeps things loose and lively, with pizzas and pastas doing the heavy lifting alongside the odd Cornish-Mediterranean crossover, like cod dropped into a pancetta and chorizo Tuscan bean stew. The glass-enclosed terrace fills with sunburned holidaymakers happy to be somewhere this relaxed.
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Rank 10. The Seafood Restaurant
Seafood
A large pewter-topped bar dominates the room at Rick Stein's seafood restaurant on the Padstow waterfront, and the oyster menu alone could keep you busy. The cooking moves between pared-back simplicity, market fish treated with almost aggressive restraint, and dishes pulled from Stein's travels, a Singaporean chilli crab here, an Indonesian curry there. An old-school institution that still draws the crowds Cornwall throws at it.
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Rank 11. Prawn on the Lawn
Seafood
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Rank 12. Fern
Modern British
A converted barn on a working farm in deepest Cornwall, where the menu changes with whatever the land is producing that week. The dining room is unhurried by design, the kind of place that makes you slow down whether you planned to or not. Modern British cooking with a produce-led ethos, so expect the plate to look as considered as the sourcing. On-site cottages mean you can stay and do the whole thing properly.
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Rank 13. Barnaby's
Middle Eastern
A working vineyard and orchard is an unusual setting for Middle Eastern-inflected small plates, but here we are. Barnaby's started as a pop-up and stayed, which means the room still has that improvised energy without the chaos. The fixed small-plates menu leans on quality Cornish produce sharpened with North African spicing, and the terrace is made for opening with a glass of the estate's own wine and an oyster or two.
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Rank 14. The Cornish Arms
British Pub
A traditional high-street pub in Tavistock where proper pints and carefully cooked food share equal billing, The Cornish Arms holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a spot on the Top 50 Gastropubs list. The kitchen leans into local produce without making a fuss about it, turning out dishes that look simple until you notice how much thought went into them. Locals and tourists seem equally at home, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
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Rank 15. Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling
Modern British
The terrace looks straight out over Fistral Beach, which makes ordering feel slightly beside the point, though Adam Handling's Michelin-starred modern British kitchen will quickly refocus your attention. You choose between a tasting menu and an à la carte that runs to three or four courses, the cooking clean and precise rather than showy. Surfers in the middle distance, cocktail in hand before you sit down: Cornwall has done worse settings.
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Rank 16. The Tartan Fox
Contemporary British Pub
A haggis Scotch egg on a Cornish pub menu is either very confused or very deliberate, and at The Tartan Fox it's very deliberate. Adam Handling's gastropub sits inside a stone country inn tucked into a forest on a caravan park outside Summercourt, which is a more charming setting than that sentence suggests. The kitchen leans on local Cornish producers while threading in Scottish touches throughout a generous, changing menu. The cheese doughnuts have become something of a signature.
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Rank 17. Zacry's
Seafood
A separate building on the sea wall means the Atlantic is basically your table setting at this relaxed seafood restaurant attached to the Watergate Bay Hotel. The open kitchen turns out a short, focused menu that leans hard into whatever the Cornish coast is offering, and a window seat on a clear evening makes the food almost beside the point, though the cooking makes sure it isn't.
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Rank 18. North Street Kitchen
Seafood
A converted boathouse on the Fowey waterfront where the menu changes with whatever came off the boats that morning. It's a casual, no-frills seafood spot with an open kitchen and a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and in summer the queue outside is part of the ritual. Fowey oysters and brown crab rarebit keep showing up for good reason. The cooking is straightforward by design, which takes more confidence than it sounds.
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Rank 19. The Farmers Arms
Modern British
A restored Grade II-listed pub in a tucked-away Devon village, with open fires, exposed beams, and just enough contemporary polish to keep it from feeling like a museum piece. The kitchen runs on produce from the team's own farm, hogget included, and the menus shift with the seasons. There's a tasting menu if you want the full arc, or Sunday roast if you don't. Stylish rooms are scattered around the village for those who misjudge the wine.
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Rank 20. Sardine Factory
Seafood
A converted sardine factory right on the Looe quayside, with harbour views across to East Looe and a menu that leans hard into Cornish day-boat fish. It's a relaxed seafood restaurant, and the cooking is straightforward in the way that only works when the fish is this fresh. The sardines are the obvious order, given the building's past life. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks with the pricing.
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Rank 21. Edie's
Modern British
Brightly colored chairs against whitewashed brick, shelves stuffed with cookbooks, and an open kitchen keeping the whole room buzzing. This relaxed Modern British restaurant on the Cornish coast is a family operation: Nigel cooks, Kelly runs the floor, and their daughter Edie lends the place its name. The food is unfussy but clearly well-practiced, built on flavor combinations that actually make sense together rather than showing off.
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Rank 22. Narla
Modern British
The open kitchen runs hot and the room follows its lead, with a clean-lined dining room that sits comfortably between relaxed and considered. This modern bistro in Fowey's harbour town leans into Cornish produce, pairing roasted duck with miso cauliflower and local kea plum in a way that politely refuses to be predictable. Lunch deals, vegan menus, and a Sunday roast cover all the bases without the place feeling like it's trying to please everyone at once.
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Rank 23. Counter Culture
Basque Spanish
A pintxos bar and a casual restaurant sharing one Newquay address, Counter Culture holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for cooking that lands somewhere between the Basque coast and Cornwall. Drop into the bar without a booking for cocktails and snacks, or sit down for the fuller menu, where the kitchen runs local seafood and produce through a Spanish filter with real conviction. The wine list is considered, and the crema catalana travels well.
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Rank 24. Yamas
Greek
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Rank 25. The Dartmoor Inn
British
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Rank 26. The Barley Sheaf
Modern British
A stone pub in Gorran Churchtown that has been keeping its pine furniture and whitewashed walls looking suspiciously well-maintained. The menu runs from Scotch eggs and sirloin with chips through to more ambitious plates, most of it sourced from the Roseland Peninsula nearby. The room is bigger than the facade suggests, with a proper bar, a dining area, and space upstairs, and the service is the kind that makes you feel like you're not being a bother.
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Àcleaf sits under the wooden beams of a former minstrels' gallery inside a hall that traces its roots to the Domesday Book, which is a lot of history to eat dinner in. This Michelin-starred fine dining room keeps the cooking restrained and precise, leaning on prime seasonal ingredients worked through a modern, internationally minded lens. The room is cosy and intimate, which softens the formality just enough to make the whole thing feel like a discovery rather than an occasion.
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Rank 28. Fletcher's Restaurant
Modern British
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Rank 30. Petty Fours
Modern British
Chess piece artwork on the walls is a quiet nod to the Petty brothers' love of board games, and the name itself is a pun the kitchen has to live up to. This linen-tables restaurant sits in the shadow of Truro Cathedral and runs a tasting menu where the team puts real effort into every course. A well-priced lunch carte keeps it from being an occasion-only destination.
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The winding lane through the Devon moors ends at a grand Edwardian mansion, and the dining room inside holds a Michelin star. This is country house cooking in the full sense: white tablecloths, produce foraged or grown on the grounds, and classically structured dishes that treat the ingredients as the point. Comfortable, unhurried, and unapologetically formal, it's the kind of place that makes driving down a very narrow road feel like a reasonable life decision.
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Rank 32. Chagford Inn
Modern British Pub
A Georgian inn just off the market square in a small Dartmoor town, the Chagford Inn does the gastropub thing without making a fuss about it. Local farmers, coastal fishermen, and garden growers supply an ever-changing menu, and the kitchen butchers, bakes, and pastas in-house. The room is modern-rustic and comfortable, the kind of place where the food is serious but nobody's asking you to be.
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Rank 33. The Standard Inn
Wood-fired Seafood Pub
A wood-fired pub on the Roseland Peninsula from the team behind The Hidden Hut, which means the menu changes with whatever the day boats bring in and the kitchen runs on fire rather than fashion. Seafood anchors the thing, with meat and vegetables given the same careful treatment. It's a proper pub, generous and unfussy, rooted enough in its landscape that the cooking would feel wrong anywhere else.
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Rank 34. Restaurant Roku
Modern Japanese
The name means "six" in Japanese, the address is number six, and the tasting menu runs six courses that change every six weeks. Restaurant Roku is a small modern Japanese dinner spot in Croyde, where the chef weaves Japanese flavors through a European framework, think tuna crudo with togarashi or shiso turning up in the pre-dessert. A three-course à la carte exists, but the tasting menu is clearly where the kitchen's attention lives.
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Rank 35. Reef Knot
Seafood
The terrace runs the full length of the hotel, which means almost every seat at this waterfront restaurant in St Mawes looks straight out over the bay. Reef Knot keeps things bright and unfussy, and the kitchen leans hard into Cornish seafood, rock oysters and roasted skate wing among them. The "Mum's Bouillabaisse" is borrowed from the chef's mother, which is either charming or a lot of pressure, depending on how you look at it.
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A former village post office, the Pyne Arms sits deep in Devon's Exmoor National Park and has landed on the Top 50 Gastropubs list. It's a proper pub with rooms, the kind where the kitchen traces ingredients to within a few dozen miles and means it. Expect seasonal menus, Sunday roasts, good local ales, and an extensive gin list, all served in a building that looks like it has seen a few centuries pass without much fuss.
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Rank 37. Harbour House
Modern British
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Rank 39. Emilia
Northern Italian
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Rank 40. CULTURE
Modern British
A converted quayside warehouse in Falmouth where the open kitchen takes the center of the room and every dish on the set menu is named after a local farmer or place that inspired it. The chef grew up in Cape Town, so a South African note turns up occasionally among the foraged and hyper-local Cornish ingredients. The pared-back interior feels elemental rather than austere, and the glass-walled wine cellar is worth a look.
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A cosy 18-seat restaurant tucked inside a rustic barn on a sprawling 500-acre Devon farm, The Refectory keeps its menu close to home, drawing on the estate's own Longhorn cattle, Manx Loaghtan sheep, and whatever the nearby coastline sends over. The setting does a lot of the work, with an ivy-covered manor house next door making the whole thing feel less like dinner and more like a country weekend someone else organized.
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Rank 42. Restaurant Meudon
Cornish Seafood
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Rank 43. The Antidote
Modern British
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Rank 44. Seacliff
Modern British
A hotel dining room perched above the Devon coast, Seacliff earns its keep with a terrace that looks straight out over the bay. The kitchen leans hard on local seafood, turning quality seasonal catch into colorful, composed Modern British plates. Service is the warm, unhurried kind you hope for in a place this size. A tasting menu with wine pairings is there if the occasion calls for it.