The St Enodoc Hotel in Rock is a perfectly pleasant and comfortable place to spend a few days while in Cornwall, but to drive by it, it is indistinguishable from many others like it along the coast road. But within the hotel, something very special is happening in the kitchens for the St Enodoc is the home of Nathan Outlaw's two restaurants: the more casual Seafood & Grill is open all day while Restaurant Nathan Outlaw is fine dining and has been named the Best Seafood Restaurant in the UK by the Good Food Guide. At the start of this year it was awarded 2 Michelin stars.

Nathan himself is a huge talent and was awarded his first Michelin star aged just 25 for his first restaurant The Black Pig, also in Rock but now closed. Restaurant Nathan Outlaw opened in February 2010, instantly ranked 5th in the Good Food Guide in 2011 and retained that place in the recently published 2012 Guide. With Nathan born in 1978, it also means that he achieved all this including the second star before his 33rd birthday - seriously impressive.

It hasn't gone to his head however and Nathan is still in the kitchen each and every service, and we were super impressed with his commitment to his diners when we heard that during the previous week, he left half way through his meal at The French Laundry at Harrods so he could return to Cornwall and make the evening service at the Restaurant. 

We were lucky enough to meet Nathan on our visit and really enjoyed our opportunity to hear more about his food and his restaurant. The kitchen is tiny and seems filled when occupied by just Nathan, his head chef Thomas Carr and two apprentice chefs. It reminded us of the set up at Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham, another unassuming but brilliant two star. 

The dining room is comfortable rather than grand and seats around 20 people. The menu here is a seafood tasting menu only, four fish courses and two desserts. There's an amuse to start of cured mackerel on a smoked mackerel and horseradish roll that is delicious. Running front of house through the night is Stephanie who brought a sparkle to the dining room to give the restaurant a relaxed and lively feel, never hushed and stuffy.

What was also a very nice touch is that Beverage Manager Damon, who paired wines absolutely superbly throughout the meal provided us a drink amuse with a mini glass of Krug champagne which was such a wonderful thing to do.

The first of the menu courses is Scallops with a scallop tartare. As you would imagine from a restaurant based on the Cornish coast and with the reputation it has, all the ingredients are of the finest quality and the cooked perfectly; there was not to our mind a flaw with the cooking at any point during the meal. The scallop delivered real flavours and the tartare with cucumber gave a welcome freshness to the starter. Oyster leaf dresses the scallop.

Next we have John Dory with Girolles, Pine Nuts and Red Wine Dressing. It's a nice progression, taking the flavours up a notch. The John Dory comes both pan fried and in lightly curried batter. Also on the plate are fried tomatoes, rocket and more so that every mouthful is varied and interesting. It's a delight.

It's the next dish though which is the star of the show today for us, a truly brilliant creation which we loved and will be for us ever associated with our trip to Restaurant Nathan Outlaw: Wreck Fish with Bacon, Egg & Ketchup. The description undersells the dish which is of course a highly original take on the English breakfast. Wreckfish as the name explicitly says are deep water marine fish that inhabit caves and shipwrecks. The ketchup here is one third sardine, two thirds tomato and has an incredible kick to it but really binds the plate together well. 

There's hogs pudding on a potato terrine that is boudin blanc like and provides the sausage to the breakfast while the egg was a thing of beauty. The sauce around the outside is made from tamarind pods so providing a HP Sauce addition to the dish to really make it an all round breakfast plate. This is a dish of absolute beauty and a dish that we couldn't stop talking about for days after.

It almost makes us feel sorry for the final fish course that has to follow it. The Brill with Crab & Porthilly Sauce really was excellent however, the crab sauce unbelievably good. Porthilly is a coastal settlement four miles from Rock and the source of the crabs; there's celeriac, courgettes and prawns there also. A roasted garlic brioche with mussel butter is served on the side if you want to mop up the sauce. It's another exquisite dish.

Two desserts follow. First, Blackberry Jelly, Vanilla Cream, Fig & Port Sorbet. Second, Cheese Carrot Cake, Orange Curd & Frozen Yoghurt. The sorbet and vanilla cream is very refreshing and ideal after the deep rich Crab & Porthilly sauce. The cheese carrot cake is wonderfully creamy with good texture. There is a fantastic English cheese course option also but we were too full to try it but the selection looked to be first class.

This was an excellent meal, original, creative and technically brilliant. The setting also seems right, the UK's best fish restaurant should have a view of fishing boats out the window. It's another showcase for British food that highlights both the brilliant talent of Nathan and his team, but also of British ingredients. And for people who might be sceptical about four courses of seafood with no meat options, it also highlights the variety of what can be achieved and how satisfying as a meal it can be. Menu construction is excellent with the dishes working together as a whole, not just at the individual level.

We loved our meal at Restaurant Nathan Outlaw. Nathan has put together a great team both in the kitchen and front of house, and Stephanie and Damon really enhanced our enjoyment of the night through their knowledge, care and personal interaction with us. 

If you want to know how good seafood can be, a trip to restaurant Nathan Outlaw is an absolute must.


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Sometimes, when eating lobster, you want silver service, a fawning maitre d' and the best that Burgundy has to offer. At other times, you want the Lobster Shack: a small harbour-side trailer serving seafood landed daily by the local fisherman , presented in a cardboard box with plastic cutlery. If you can't bag one of the four wobbly tables adjacent to the trailer, there's also benches along the harbour wall but either way, the seafood is delightful and we can't help but feel this is amongst the cheapest high quality seafood outlets we've ever come across if you take it for what it is. 

We have of course shamelessly for our title borrowed lyrics from the B52's Love Shack, but there is lots to love about the Lobster Shack so it seems about right. The only thing is though, it's not 15 miles to The Lobster Shack but closer to 30 if you're staying in Edinburgh for The Lobster Shack is located in North Berwick necessitating a 30 minute train ride or car journey of similar duration, but as a day out, we looked forward to our visit to North Berwick and meal there as much as anywhere on our planned gastro tour.

We've dined at The Company Shed in West Mercia which serves the local catch in a shed (the restaurant name is not a joke in that sense) with PVC wipe clean table cloths and bring your own everything, and which specialises of course in Colchester oysters amongst other local things. But perhaps surprisingly, the Shed's lobsters are imported from North America which leads one to feel a little cheated. At the Shack, you have no such worries, you can see the lobster pots from your seat and everything you eat has been landed that day from local boats. With the offerings on a chalk board, you order, get a number and when ready, they shout out your number for you to then collect your food.

Most 'mains' come in a box with hand cut chips and a salad garnish, and that's basically it. We chose a whole lobster, a box of langoustines and a sea bass fillet. We also had a seafood chowder and a lemonade to drink. The cost of this feast? £41. Surely that places it amongst Britain's best value fresh and tasty seafood?

The lobster, as you would hope from a venue called The Lobster Shack was perfectly cooked such that plastic knives and forks presented no obstacle in extracting the lobster meat from the cracked shell. The Shack shames most places that serve lobster at many times the price. And the langoustine too, it all just seemed... right. We both felt that we could eat this all day, exactly in this setting (as long as it doesn't rain of course). There's a quaint timelessness to it all also, sitting harbor side eating the day's catch is never simply a period piece or fashion.

And as if the brilliant food in itself wasn't enough to set the Shack apart from anything else, while we are eating our meal at the wobbly harbor side table, the staff came round to ask if everything is okay with the food and bringing us fingerbowls to clean up. As the B52 song goes, 'just a funky old shack and I gotta get back', The Lobster Shack washes most seafood restaurants into the sea on quality of produce and indeed attitude. North Berwick is a lovely day out from Scotland's capital and can offer truly great fresh seafood for even the most discerning foodie... as long as you don't mind eating out of a cardboard box. We loved the shack (baby).

During winter, opening times vary and you are advised to check their website for details.


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Scotland is of course a country rich in first class ingredients, especially when it comes to seafood. Accordingly, one might believe that the country would be kicking with top end sea food establishments and yet that hasn't really been the case. Sure, great seafood is used by the great restaurants across Scotland such as Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles and Restaurant Martin Wishart, yet where is the better of J Sheekey in Edinburgh, Scotland's culinary capital? The city deserved more.

In 2009, Chef Roy Brett who has a background with Rick Stein and Mark Hix amongst others set about changing that with Ondine. By virtue of the accolades already bestowed upon the restaurant, we might already say he has achieved some of his goals, winning the Good Food Guide's Scottish restaurant of the Year 2011 and the Scottish Restaurant Awards Seafood Restaurant of the Year also. As huge fans of Scottish seafood, Ondine then was simply a must visit restaurant.

Located just off the Royal Mile, next door to the fantastic Missoni Hotel that was our base for our stay in Edinburgh, it's a discrete entrance to Ondine that takes you upstairs to the first floor restaurant. On entering, you first see a private dining room, then the kitchen, followed by the horse shoe bar at which point you glance down to a break in the bar to a fantastic display of oysters, waiting, tempting, calling. Three types are on offer today, Carlingford (County Lough), Donegal (County Donegal) and Loch Fyne (Argyll). The display immediately puts you in the mood for the menu.

The greeting on the door is friendly and indeed staff throughout the night looked after us well, fully understanding the needs of diners who take a hands on approach to seafood with fresh napkins, fingerbowls and even fresh place mats as needed. Our waiter Craig who principally took care of our table was friendly, efficient and knowledgeable, everything you want in front of house, something made all together easier we're sure by the fact that he's working in an establishment where uncomprimising quality stands behind him.

The menu offers difficulties: there's too much we want. It's not helped by seeing some plates come out of the kitchen, not least the Fruits of the Sea Over Crushed Ice that is as visually impressive as any of its kind with its vertical towers of razorclams, crab and lobster claws; it cries out to be ordered. But then there's a hot version too; we finally settle on a strategy.

First, half a dozen oysters, two of each of the above named. Second, a shared roasted shellfish platter, and third, a main course of fish. With lobster included in the platter, the Lobster Thermidor as main seemed overkill (especially in light of the following day's planned excursion to The Lobster Shack in North Berwick).

The oysters were of course fantastic and (as Londoners) a nice change from the Colchester variety predominently delivered in London. Wonderfully different in that respect, the Donegal for example were so much more meaty and milky, it seemed like an oyster mini masterclass. The oyster's came with a mignonette and chorizo, a wonderful start.

To share, we opted for the Roast shellfish platter in garlic and herb butter. The platter (potentially for one person!) contains as well as mussels, clams and razor clams, oysters, scallops, langoustines, half a crab and half a lobster. It's a magnificent offering. The cooking was for the most part perfect, demonstrated not least by the delightfully tender razor clams (to go with the precisely cooked regular clams and mussels). The lobster was the single disappointment seeming to us over cooked possibly we speculate as a result of sitting at the bottom of the platter so continuing to cook after the seafood is plated and served. Regardless, this was a mighty impressive display of seafood.  

Main courses, if you're so inclined, offer steak (tartare or sirloin or fillet) but we're here of course for the seafood. There's an extensive crustaceans list but after the sea fruits platter, we choose the sea bream curry and the grilled lemon sole with brown shrimps and capers. Both are excellent.

The sole was served on the bone (you are however given the choice), and that gave it great depth of flavour, though arriving at the table, the head and the small skirt of bones around the outside had been removed making it simplicity itself to pull from the bone forkfuls of this divine fish. What a fantastic main and on this occasion, lemon sole felt nothing like a poor cousin to the many times more expensive Dover sole. This was for me as good as fish gets.

The sea bream curry was also perfectly on the mark. Reading the menu, it's a dish that sounds great but carries risks that it could go badly wrong. Not to be the case here however, everything on the dish came together beautifully well.

As is usually the case, so full from the splendid food so far, our shared dessert of chocolate mousse and candied hazelnuts was an entirely unnecessary order. While enjoyed, after fish this good, can only ever be a cameo role for the mousse.  

Two nights later, we were fortunate enough to bump into Ondine's proprietor Roy at Castle Terrace where he and his wife were enjoying a rare night off and an even rarer treat of a meal cooked by someone else. Despite that, Roy was more than happy to engage and enthuse about Ondine in a passionate but humble way. It was nice to see him acknowledging the help he received all along the way  from mentors, staff and suppliers that has allowed Ondine to become the success it already undoubtedly is. We took too his very serious commitment to the environment and ethical fishing where Ondine is acknowledged as leading by example. 

Ondine, as far as we can tell, plays to a pretty full house the majority of the time and that's totally deserved. The setting is comfortable, the service excellent, and the seafood as good as it gets in the capital city. Ondine might be winning awards for the best seafood in Scotland right now, but on the basis of our experience, it rivals any of the major seafood restaurants in the UK.



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