A delightful evening at Barnaby's in Padstow

Haydn after a delightful meal

Given that Drew has a lot of holidays that he needs to take, having worked so hard to get the new Welsh Vaccine system in place during 2020 and 2021 we decided to treat ourselves to a few days in Padstow. Not so much a standard holiday but as an occasion to eat plenty of lovely food. Hence this blog, as we want to celebrate how lucky we are to share good food in great company without having to set up a blog for a holiday, when our normal holiday blogs are two or three weeks.

Padstow

It is 14 years since Drew and I were last in Padstow, we stayed here previously as a base for a two week holiday when we travelled across Cornwall - we plan to do less travelling this week. When we were here in those days Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant was already famous, and wonderful, and the young Paul Ainsworth was just beginning his climb to fame at the No 6, now called Paul Ainsworth at Number 6. The food in both was amazing and there were many other foody places beginning to emerge in Padstow - in the intervening years Padstow has become a gourmet's heaven. So, it was an easy choice to come here and book return visits to two of Rick's restaurants and two of Paul's restaurants combined with two newer places and one as yet unplanned meal day!

Barnaby's

Our first night, being a Friday, was to be a fish night - and that really is no penance when you are so close to the sea and so close to so many fish restaurants. 

Barnaby's is a small restaurant, with six tables and two seats at the bar, on Duke Street, the street we stayed on 14 years ago. It has a mix of meat and fish on the menu. 

Pre-starters

Amazing seaweed flavoured butter and lovely bread

There was none left over

For our pre-starters we had some delightful Mussel popcorn which was lightly spiced by the Lebanese baharat along with artichoke hummus with za'atar, served with Coombeshead sourdough and seaweed butter. The bread and seaweed butter was so delicious in itself that we might have been happy enough with just that!! However the subtle tanginess of the baharat formed a lovely compliment for the mussels and the hummus was rich in chickpea flavour with delightful pieces of Jerusalem artichoke through it and the middle eastern flavour of za'ater to enhance it. A great start.

Padron Peppers

Roasted cauliflower, harissa yoghurt, pomegranate and toasted almonds

Cockles, garlic and chilli

Our starters were just as delicious as our pre-starters with the padron peppers, one of which was highly spiced (part of the fun of eating padrons is that some are simply tasty like a green capiscum then others almost bite your head off - but you can't tell by looking). I had the spicy one this time, Drew had had one when we last had Padron Peppers at home a few weeks ago. 

The cauliflower had kept its crispness and had a deep charred flavour, it was a delight to eat the little sweet pomegranate seeds reminding me of childhood where I would get so fed up of carefully taking each seed off the stems within the fruit that I'd end up eating the bitter stems too - not a great recommendation as a way of eating them - but someone else had done the hard work here. The lightly spiced yoghurt and the toasted nuts both worked to bring out the basic delight of the cauliflower. 

The cockles were another delight. I suspect the spoon was to scoop them out of their shells, but I eat them with my hands and left the shells on my plate, so I could eat the delightful garlic and chilli sauce left in the bowel once the cockles were finished. What a treat. 

Turbot and spiced potatoes

Our main dish was a Turbot cooked in with lemon, garlic, rosemary and agridulce. Cooked on the bone, it was easy to fillet and we both enjoyed the lovely texture of this king of fishes. I don't often fillet my own fish but it was cooked so well the flesh came away from the bone easily and cleanly. I was reminded of an old Malay Chinese friend who I met when teaching in China who loved sucking the heads of fish, I never took to the idea, so by the end the only bit of the fish that wasn't stripped of all its flesh was the head. The fish was served with spiced potatoes, the soft flesh inside was a great contrast to the crispy, spicy skin - thoroughly excellent food. 

BBQ pears, ricotta and salted walnuts

Drew had dessert, the honey and torched pear went well with the soft ricotta and crunchy nuts. Drew thinks he would have that again as it was perfect for him.

We ended with an espresso each, the photo at the top of the post shows this. A wonderful dinner served gently but friendlily by both waitress with chefs just a few inches away visible in the kitchen.   

Having sat down at 6:45pm we left at 9pm very content indeed.