Restaurant Reviews

Introduction
Penryn House Restaurant
Contact details

There are many places to eat in Polperro, inevitably some are better than others, though you would be unlucky to experience a really bad meal. Prices, of course, vary greatly, from bargain basement to London chic. One of the newer restaurants in Polperro suggested we start a restaurant review feature on this website and - being a bit partial to eating - we thought it was a good idea. No doubt they wouldn't have suggested it if they weren't confident they would do well - and they have. It remains to be seen whether other Polperro eateries are willing to be put to the test.

No. 1 - Penryn House Restaurant

The Restaurant

Penryn House Hotel, Polperro The Penryn House Hotel is ideally located for its residents - just a short walk from the harbour busy with tourists in the holiday season, but only a short distance to 'escape' from the village for the excursions that any visitor is bound to want to make. And, to cap it all, a decent sized car park so that all residents at the hotel can park actually at the hotel - parking is nearly as rare as gold dust in Polperro!

But happy as owners Chris and Anna Pidcock must be with the location of their hotel, they must sometimes wish that their restaurant was located somewhere else - it's all too tempting for pedestrians on their way from the main village car park to the harbour to press on and to decide to eat down at the harbour. And it's understandable that people who are not staying in the village may be put off from making an evening journey to eat at the restaurant, thinking that Polperro village is difficult to get into, that you can't take your car into the village, that you have to pay to park in the main car park and then take a walk to reach the restaurant and back again afterwards ( these preconceptions are not entirely correct - except in the high season you are likely to be able to park in the hotel's own car park - check when you telephone to reserve a table).

The lounge Unfortunately this means that both these categories of potential clients miss a treat, because there is little doubt that the Penryn House Restaurant is one of the best and most pleasant eating places in the area, and by no means the most expensive.

Now in their third season at the Penryn House, Chris and Anna are well on the way to completing their efforts to create a comfortable and unpretentious 12 room boutique hotel in the impressive victorian house set imposingly just slightly above the mainly pedestrianised road down to the harbour. From its windows one can truly appreciate just how steep-sided is the valley of the river Pol. On the ground floor, the restaurant has a pleasant bistro style and connects to a comfortable pleasant lounge by the bar which serves both - a sensible and convenient layout. Having had the opportunity of sampling both the ambience and the fare it is no surprise to learn that the restaurant and its food is drawing back many repeat customers - many of them hotel guests.
Anna & Chris Pidcock, owners of the Penryn House Restaurant
Anna Pidcock presides 'front of house' and clearly enjoys interaction with her clients - her claim that Penryn House is an unpretentious restaurant for 'Foodies' was substantiated by our experience. Husband and Chef Chris is an ex-Forte chef, who rose to become Catering Manager of all the Forte Heritage and Post House Hotels - he has long had a passion, now fulfilled, to run his own restaurant.

The menu on Thursday 6 May 2004 was, we were told, typical - the menu is not completely different every day but continually evolves whilst keeping some continuity - especially useful to residents who are quite likely to want to try a mouth-watering choice tonight which they couldn't do last night because they had chosen something else!

Unfortunately you can't experience Chris Pidcock's cooking at lunchtimes as the restaurant opens only in the evenings (closed Sundays) - but, of course, as a husband and wife run operation it is essential that Chris and Anna have some time to draw breath and to escape their business - a brave and sensible decision which too many small businesses fail to make.

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The Review
There were 5 starters on the menu, varying from £3.50 for cream of cauliflower and wild garlic soup with parmesan croutons (my wife Linda's choice) and smoked cornish mackerel pate with gooseberry and coriander chutney with toasted ciabatta bread (my choice) at £4 and serrano ham, fresh asparagus and rocket at £5. The starters were beautifully presented and we were offered an interesting selection of breads with them. It would be very difficult to find any faults with the excellent starters we chose.

Your webmaster prepares to tuck in - it's a serious business this restaurant reviewing! There were 6 choices of main course, all simply and accurately described without any of the verbal gymnastics that restaurants so frequently deploy - duck breast (£13), fillet of turbot (£13), treacle and honey glazed baked ham hock £10), grilled cornish 8 oz rib eye steak or 7 oz fillet steak (£10.50/£14), grilled corn fed chicken breast (£10.50) and, for vegetarians, grilled aubergine and houmous stack (£9). Such a brief listing omits, of course, the sauces, seasonings and accompaniments - my wife's duck breast had a delicious local blackberry and maple sauce, olive oil and rosemary roasted new potatoes and seasonal vegetables - duck being one of her favourite dishes she was likely to be picky if it wasn't up to scratch - but it was. I chose the last remaining 'special' of the evening - a whole sole - and excellent it was too. The restaurant buy their fish locally as far as possible - my sole had swum a little further - from Newlyn.

Desserts ranged from Rocombe Farm organic ice cream at £3.30 (choice of 2 from a yummy selection of flavours) - my wife's choice - creme brulee at £4.30, Eton 'Mess' at £4.70, cherry brandy trifle at £4.20, several other delicious sounding choices in similar price brackets and, my choice, new season rhubarb rice pudding at £4.50 - a good choice, though as a desserts junkie, I would have been happy to go through the menu.

The meal was rounded off with a musetti paradiso cafetiere of coffee - at £1.55 a head better value even than Little Chef - and decent coffee too.

The wine list has 8 reds, 8 whites, 1 rose, 1 dessert wine and 2 champagnes/sparkling wines, clearly carefully chosen from around the globe. Several of the wines are available by the very generous glass (at £2.75) as well as at £10.95 per bottle and most of the other wines were in the teens, with only one Bordeaux (Chateau Cissac 1995) in the twenties and only the Laurent Perrier champagne in the thirties. As an English wine afficionado, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a good Cornish wine from a local vineyard such as Camel Valley on the list - the restaurant has, generally, a commendable 'buy local' policy - perhaps they've just overlooked the fact that there are good local wines?

For two, expect to stump up £50 or a little more if you have all 3 courses and a bottle of wine between you. Not the cheapest in Polperro and not the dearest. But I'd be surprised if you came away feeling that you hadn't got value for money and even more surprised if you hadn't enjoyed both the food and your evening.

Part of the restaurant So, would we recommend Penryn House restaurant? Without doubt - and we will go there again - hopefully many times if Chris and Anna keep up the standard they have set and don't get worn down by the tough task of running both a hotel and a restaurant. The menu is interesting and the food lives up to it. The ambience is pleasant without being formal or posh. We visited the Penryn House restaurant on a Thursday evening in early May and business was clearly fairly quiet - two nights earlier we had dined at The Plough Inn at Duloe which had been full almost to overflowing. The Plough, incidentally, under its present ownership, is a must-visit pub restaurant - one can't help thinking that if the Penryn House restaurant was located just a little inland from Polperro Village, it too would be over-flowing even in early May. But what most people don't realise is that, especially off-season, you can park straight outside - and you can also wander down to the harbour to work up your appetite beforehand if you want to, so you do full justice to Chris Pidcock's cooking.

We picked freely from the menu and "special" of the day - we weren't directed towards any particular dishes and I'm sure that had we made different choices we would have had equally excellent meals.

The verdict - 9 out of 10. It would have been quite easy to have awarded 10 out of 10 but that wouldn't have allowed for the possibility that another Polperro restaurant might be even better. So for now we'll stick with 9

The Penryn House restaurant is open every evening (except Sundays) from 7 p.m. The restaurant is NOT open at lunchtimes.

Reservations: telephone 01503 272 157

Smoking Policy: Like most restaurants these days, the Penryn House has a clear policy on smoking. Smoking is not permitted in the restaurant but it is allowed in the lounge (Smoking is not allowed in any of the hotel bedrooms).

This is the first restaurant review undertaken by this website - thank you to Anna and Chris Pidcock for suggesting it. We realise that we were lucky with our first assignment - not all establishments might expect to end up with such a glowing report. Do any other Polperro eateries want to risk being reviewed on these pages? If so contact 'mail' at polperro.org or telephone 01503 272 273

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