Rating
In a Word
Picturesque
Type Of Cuisine
Inventive modern takes on locally sourced produce
Appeals To
With an upper region price tag, this is a hotel restaurant, catering to guests who wish to listen to the sound of waves under clear skies. Worth the drive from Falmouth, so therefore other parts of Cornwall; the food is interesting and modern and the restaurant has beautiful views. It was dark outside when we went, but the moon on the sea was stunning. Appeals to couples on a romantic holiday or up for a fine dining in Cornwall experience.
The Coastline
Apart from some places in the middle, Cornwall is essentially one big coastline. Even at Launceston, Liskeard or Bodmin, each ‘side’ of the coast is no more than about a 25 minute drive away. Portloe is proper chocolate box amazing-ness, even by my standards, and I grew up in Boscastle!
Driving down its narrow streets to park outside The Lugger, there was a rosy glow coming from the surrounding cottages, hewn from Cornish granite, and some of the clearest skies I’ve seen this side of Iceland. Falmouth may be beautiful, but its 30,000 permanent residents and transient tourist and student population kick out some light pollution, which is completely undetected at Portloe.
Jutting out over the Atlantic ocean, the restaurant positions you almost as if you could dangle your feet in the water, and for the summer months has an outdoor terrace, from which you are just metres away from the briny. I can imagine that hanging out on this terrace with a few cocktails would be a blissful summer’s evening, and may have to return to investigate!
Beam me up
Recently refurbished, this whole hotel fuses the ancient beams and granite building with contemporary design from well known brands such as Orla Kiely. The lounge waiting area is crisp and yet romantic, which is a difficult thing to achieve, and it worked really well.
The virgin edition
Due to driving, we didn’t play around with the exciting drinks menu as much as we could have done. Actually the ‘Tache had a Cornish lager, brewed by the St. Austell brewery: Korev. I was off the booze completely – probably hungover or something – and had an alcohol free beer, which was full of fruity and floral flavour. The wine list looked impressive, though, and next time we visit, hopefully we’ll stay so we can enjoy a wine flight with the meal.
Bread n butter
When we were shown to our table, we were offered three different bread rolls, with three type of homemade butter. These were pesto, curried or plain. Between the pair of us, we had fun playing around with different combinations, whilst we waited for our starters to come. I swear down I never knew curried butter was ‘a thing’ until I ate this, but it tasted great: sweet and salty with just a dusting of garam spice.
Crab soufflé
In keeping with the theme of historic meets modern, the starters included crab soufflé, scallops with pistachio and blood orange and some other seafood treats that the chef had added a contemporary twist to. The ‘tache opted for said scallops, which were delicious and sweet, although with the interesting salted praline and grapefruit. For me, scallops – seafood in general is already so delicious that it doesn’t really need much added to it, so whilst this showed a range of skill and technique, the scallops were still the real stars.
I had a crab soufflé, which was a revelation. Soft and velvety, the look was divine, and it melted in my mouth, with a delicious crab bisque around the outside. I have since tried to find a recipe online and discovered all sorts of things added, such as parmesan and anchovy, but converse to the ‘tache’s starter, this one had been kept simple, and it worked perfectly.
A sweet too far?
For our mains, we collectively ordered a surf n turf, as the ‘tache had a beef brisket,where I went for a locally sourced and seasonal hake dish. The beef fell apart on the plate and due to its slow cooking, had a really hench beefy taste. My hake itself was delicious, but what let it down for me was sitting the whole thing on quite a sweet pumpkin purée. Whilst the purée was incredibly smooth, I felt the sweetness was a little out of place with the fish, but this is personal preference.
Served with delicious seasonal veg and certainly not frugal with the portion size, the mains were really well cooked and packed full of flavour.
Tatin for now
Since it’s ‘my thing’ to have chocolate wherever we go, I of course ordered the fondant. Rich and sticky, it did what it should, and was served with local Cornish clotted cream ice cream. Despite its dark colour, there wasn’t a hint of bitterness in this chocolate at all, and it was warming to eat on a cool night.
The ‘tache loves a tarte tatin, often making them for me. This makes him quite discerning when it comes to someone else’s cooking. I crumble under the pressure of baking, or any rigid recipe, so I’d be quaking in my boots if I had to make a dessert for him. However, in this instance, he polished off the whole thing; barely letting me have a sniff, so it must have been good.
The verdict
Having recently been featured as one of the places with the best views in the world and crowned Best Seaside Hotel, we don’t think The Lugger will have any trouble being busy this summer, but there are still some rooms available and the restaurant is definitely worth driving to. If you’re interested in seeing how seafood can be presented in a new and exciting way, and if you enjoy the magic of old fishing ports, then the Lugger is certainly the one for you!
The specifics
A meal for two with wine will cost around £80-100 and yet they have some amazing deals on for rooms with dinner and breakfast, so it’s worth having a look at the website at www.luggerhotel.co.uk