Tag: devon

Posted on

Dressed Crab and Grilled Sea Bream at Rockfish

In August when we had the partial solar eclipse I wrote about my visit to Brixham back in 1999 to see the total solar eclipse we had in the UK. Since that visit, I hadn’t actually been back to Brixham, though had visited many other places in that area. I made a plan to go back there, and hopefully get a nice lunch from one of the many fish restaurants that surround the harbour. Brixham has a large fishing fleet, and had the largest fish market in England.

I had looked online before I got to Brixham, and had seen Rockfish, I liked how as well as serving fish, they had a restaurant. I liked the look of the menu too, they had a nice looking set menu, which I thought I might go for.

I hadn’t booked, but they were able to find a table for me. I looked over the menu and had essentially chosen my two courses from the set menu. 

Then the waiting staff came over and asked if I wanted to hear the fresh fish they had in, I went yes. They had an amazing selection of fresh fish choices. It was a little more than the set menu, well much higher!

I thought about it and decided I would go with the fresh fish choices. For my starter I went with the dressed crab, and for my main course I chose the grilled sea bream.

The dressed crab arrived, with both brown and white crab meat, along with some slices of bread.

This was delicious, lovely fresh crab, which I really enjoyed.

For my main course I had the grilled sea bream. This was described as succulent, sweet and gloriously meaty – a highly prized whole fish with clean, white flakes. It came with a tomato sauce and unlimited fries (I could have had salad or new potatoes).

This looked amazing and was beautifully cooked. It had great flavour and I really enjoyed eating it. Obviously it was a while fish, so I did have to fillet it, to eat it. I also had to turn other to get the other fillet.

The whole meal was delicious, I was pleased that I went with the fresh fish choices, I paid more, but it was worth it.

Service was excellent, warm and welcoming.

What was interesting was that you could buy fresh fish from the fish stall at Rockfish and for £6 they would cook it for you.

This was my first visit to Brixham in twenty seven years, after such a nice meal, I think I won’t leave it so long next time.

Posted on

Hearty Farmer’s Breakfast

Recently, I pulled into Darts Farm Shop in Topsham, specifically to take advantage of their bank of Tesla chargers. I was heading off into Devon to visit some National Trust properties, but I knew if I got to Darts Farm before 8am I could get a cheaper rate on the Tesla chargers. Having plugged in with a minute or so to spare I headed into the farm shop to grab some coffee and breakfast. I had been up for a couple of hours and had only just had a coffee, before driving off from home towards Devon.

My original plan was for toast and coffee. However, thinking about the day ahead, I thought a good breakfast would be a good plan (and then I probably wouldn’t need to worry about lunch so much.

My first thought was to go for the classic farmer’s breakfast, however for £2 more I could go all hearty and get an extra rasher of bacon, another egg, and some black pudding.

So, I went with the hearty farmer’s breakfast, which was two rashers of bacon, two sausages, two fried eggs, tomato, mushrooms, black pudding & fried bread. I found it intriguing that baked beans was an extra £1.50. I actually prefer my breakfast without beans, so not a problem for me.

As I was one of the first people in the restaurant I didn’t have to wait too long for my breakfast to arrive.This was quite a substantial plate of food. 

Hearty Farmer’s Breakfast

The eggs were perfectly cooked and freshly cooked too. One of the rashers of bacon was a little overcooked for my, but what I would say about the bacon was that these were quite thick rashers. I was impressed with the black pudding which was full of flavour, but cooked really well, so was still soft. Sometimes I find black pudding can be a little dry, this wasn’t, it was still nice and soft. I really liked the sausages, maybe I was expecting full size versions, and not chipolatas, but even so they were meant and full of flavour. I liked the mushrooms as well. The fried bread was a little disappointing in that it was a little soft, not sure if that was the eggs, but it was proper bread.

This isn’t a cheap breakfast, but the quality was excellent. It was cooked nicely and the flavours were all there. I certainly would have this again the next time I visit Dart’s in the morning.

Posted on

Awful tea, just like British Rail use to make…

I had a terrible cup of tea. It was on a train and was reminiscent of the tea that British Rail use to make!

It was on the buffet car on a South Devon Railway train from Buckfastleigh to Totnes.

South Devon Railway

I always think preserved railways have a real opportunity for on-board catering, however I am virtually always usually very disappointed.

The tea was foul and served in a depressing polystyrene cup. The milk was that awful long life milk in spring loaded containers; what’s wrong with serving fresh milk?

I was so disappointed that I decided I wouldn’t eat in the station tea rooms as I expected it to be just as bad, but on reflection that may have been a bit premature, as I was told the menu looked interesting and the food looked really nice.