A spectacular lunch at The Reef Knot Restaurant in The Idle Rocks Hotel, St Mawes

The Idle Rocks Hotel & Restaurant is a Michelin Key-awarded hotel, perched right on the harbour in St Mawes and when the sun is out, the restaurant’s location is about as idyllic as it gets.

The Reef Knot, the Relais & Chateaux hotel’s flagship restaurant, is the jewel in the crown and has built its reputation around Cornish seafood and locally sourced produce. Chef Guy Owen’s menus focus heavily on seasonal ingredients, with much of the fish landed locally and served within sight of where it was caught.

We had lunch on the south-facing terrace and were lucky enough to talk to the Chef himself, Guy Owen, who trained under Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s and worked in notable Michelin-starred kitchens such as La Trompette.  His cooking style focuses on sea-to-table dining, highlighting daily catches from local day-boats and ingredients from the Roseland Peninsula.

The menu offered a few sharing platters of chicken and cote-de-boeuf, but really you’re here to enjoy the large variety of seafood dishes that were not only beautifully presented, but had exquisitely delicate and balanced flavours with plenty of attention to detail. This was fine-dining and coastal luxury at it’s best.

We chose a selection of snacks and starters, including the Pretzel Bread, the Tuna Tartare, Beef Fillet Tartare, Roast Cornish Scallops and Charred Sardines – all of which were delicious.  We also had some Rock Oysters (which my friends said were delicious – I hate oysters).

For our main course, we all chose the Tranche of Turbot which was in a wonderfully fragrant curry sauce – to be honest, we should have all gone for different things, but when they told us Turbot was considered the “King of the Sea”, none of us could resist, and it certainly lived up to it’s name.

Here’s an overview of what the food on our table looked like, where you can see me enjoying the delicious Pretzel bread, amongst other things:-

We went for the Affogato’s for dessert – a wonderful way to really savour the Cornish vanilla ice cream:-

For me, the biggest selling point was the overall experience.  It felt very special to be sitting enjoying, not only the spectacular views and food, but also to be in the company of some of my oldest friends.  Even more of a bonus was that they happen to own The Rathfinny Wine Estate and so naturally we chose their Rathfinny 2020 Classic Cuvée which paired perfectly with all the flavours.

Here’s me with Sarah:-

Here’s Sarah Driver with the excellent team who served us:-

It was a quintessentially Cornish treat and I can’t wait to go back!