The Watch House, St Mawes, Cornwall

I recently discovered St Mawes on a holiday to the Roseland Peninsula of Cornwall and quite simply fell in love. This small town, stacked neatly around a perfectly beautiful harbour at the mouth of the River Fal is also the delightful home of The Watch House.

Perched on the edge of the harbour, as its name would suggest, this relaxed eatery runs over two floors of an imposing whitewashed old building. On the ground floor is a booth-flanked dining area that, when full, has quite a buzz about it. It's dog friendly downstairs too so, if you have a pooch in tow, it's worth remembering. Upstairs is a slightly more formal, but similarly buzzing restaurant.

The menu, as you'd expect, is centered around the fantastic seafood on offer from nature's larder just across the road. And, as they also run a takeaway chippy, you get proper chip shop chips with everything. Result!

On our visit, we opted for a tasty sourdough baguette to start – tempted by the generous serving of local salted butter from Rodda's Dairy that came with it (the same guys who make the infamous clotted cream). So naughty.

We then moved on to the Roasted Shellfish and Moules Frites; the first served with garlic, parsley, chilli and lemon, the latter in a classic marinières sauce. Nom, nom, nom, is quite simply all I have to say about both dishes. The scallops, tiger prawns, mussels, crab claws were roasted to perfection and packed a tasty chilli kick and the creamy mussels and (chunky chip shop) chips – soaked in vinegar of course – were supremely satisfying.  Both perfect with a glass of chilled picpoul de pinet. All in all, a fantastic stop for lunch or dinner.

Price point: cheap as chips – still OK – getting pricier – pricey – super fancy, but worth it!
http://www.watchhousestmawes.co.uk/— @TheWatchHouse on Facebook – @The_Watch_House on Twitter.