High tide

This must rate as one of the most remote restaurants in England. It must also be the nearest to New York! It’s only reachable by a shuttle boat service from St Mary’s (there are dinner specials at about 6pm, collecting you again at 9 – 9.30pm). The NZ chef was at the famous Turk’s Head pub on St Agnes, but has now set up on his own, with a superbly simple but effective décor, and wonderful views out to Bishop’s Rock lighthouse. There’s seating for about 20, so it’s intimate, and the walls are decorated with paintings by the chef’s artist wife, in an assured TinTin cartoon style, featuring local landscapes. During the day it morphs into the Coastguard Café, with outside seating, but it’s the dinners that are the real lure. We had a whole local lemon sole with lemon and caper butter, and wild Cornish venison with sweet potato rosti. The venison was the best I’ve ever tasted — meltingly tender and full of flavour. The Cornish blue cheese and red wine poached pear with homemade crackers was a treat too. There’s ‘world lounge’ musak. Dinner for 2 was £44 with wine & coffee. Overall, this is a magical eating experience, and it’s a tribute to the chef-​patron that he can pull this off in such a remote spot.