Friday, 23 May 2014

A beautiful weekend in St Ives

FOR those of you who haven’t been to St Ives, I would thoroughly recommend a visit.
For me, it has it all- great places to eat (a must!), narrow cobbled streets with quirky shops, beautiful beaches, great coastal walks, not to mention the Cornish pasties and clotted cream icecream.
It has a great atmosphere with bustling crowds and lots going on.
Tom and I stayed in The Sail Lofts apartments, which I would thoroughly recommend. They are beautifully designed spaces with loads of room and somewhere you can spend a lot of time whiling away the hours.
On the first night we ate at the amazing Porthminster Beach Cafe. It is absolutely stunning as it sits just under Porthminster Point and you can look out across the bay towards the lighthouse. It really made me feel as if I was on holiday.
The staff were great and it was really busy.
I went for the special of sea bream with tempura scallops in a crab bisque. It was incredible- the sea bream was soft and tender and the scallops were to die for- the perfect constituency in a crispy coating. Tom went for the monkfish curry, which was also superb- fragrant, creamy and well presented.
For dessert we shared a chocolate crème brulee, which rather unusually was served in a slab. It was so rich and delicious, and a great end to the meal. If you go to St Ives, coming here is a must.
The next day we sampled the local pasties and then for dinner we just couldn’t decide as there are so many places to go to. In the end we opted for onshore, on the harbour front.
It was ok- it was a bit quiet at first and the waiter seemed fond of seating the few people who were there very close together.
But besides that, the food was good. I had the seafood linguini (£13.95). It was a mix of king prawns, mussels, scallops and fresh squid in a cream sauce. The sauce was great and the pasta well cooked. My only criticism was the squid was a bit tough, although strangely it tasted great. Tom went for the sharing platter (£11.95) which was a mix of olives, sunblushed tomatoes, roasted red peppers,  halloumi cheese, Parma ham, sliced chorizo, sliced salami and flatbread. All the products were fresh and a good quality.
The next day we were a little fed up of eating out so went for the fish and chips and pizza combo! But there are so many other places to eat out and a huge selection.
St Ives is a beautiful place to spend a weekend away and worth the long car journey.  

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