Saturday 18 June 2011

Restaurants in Penzance

The Bay Restaurant at Hotel Penzance

Pollack with baby shrimps
The dessert!

This is an inviting room with views over the rooftops of Penzance to the harbour below.
We had an a la carte dinner twice on a Sunday and Monday night....Monday nights out of season are a no go for restaurants in the town as most are closed.
The first thing that has to be said is the bread is the best I have ever tasted in a restaurant- particularly the onion bread which this diner could have happily eaten all night.
To start we had Steamed Fowey mussels in a puy lentil white wine and garlic cream sauce and  Pan fries south coast scallops served with potato and vanilla cream and spring onions. Both dishes well presented and cooked. As a main we had Roast fillet of Pollack with baby brown shrimps cucumber and watercress and Pan fried duck breast with smoked fennel, polenta cake and preserved orange jus. Again both dishes were well presented and cooked although the polenta was dissappointing and rather dry.
For dessert we had white chocolate mousse and a selection of cornish cheeses.
To drink a glass of Cornish white wine and a french Merlot.
Portions are a little on the nouvelle cuisine side and the cheese incurred an extra cost to the set price meal which did not impress me.Service is a little on the slow side and I had to waive my arms to attract attention from the staff.
On the second night we sampled the Lobster menu and had steamed lobster tossed in basil pesto with linguini pasta and home dried tomatoes served with a green salad. This was superb but the experience was marred by both slow service and a rather rowdy group of medical professionals who decided to stand around our table while we ate. Eventually the restaurant manager managed to get this group seated but it did spoil the evening.
On a more positive note the breakfasts at the hotel are superb and freshly cooked which I prefer to the serve yourself buffet arrangement at some hotels.
Would I recommend the Bay?? Overall yes but dont expect much change from £100 for a dinner for two.

 Harris's Restaurant

This is a charming and well run restaurant in Penzance.The Harris's have been here for quite sometime and clearly care for the well being of their customers.
Roger is the star chef in the kitchen and delivers well cooked food at a very reasonable price. Mrs Harris is a superb host and keeps a watchful eye over her diners and her young waitress Roxie delivers great service.
To start we had Duck terrrine with Grand Marnier and orange and Grilled scallops on salad leaves with a fresh herb dressing. Both dishes were of excellent quality and generously portioned.
For main courses we had Noisettes of Cornish Lamb and a Seafood Platter which consisted of smoked salmon , white crab meat and prawns.The lamb arrived with a selection of vegetables which were cooked al dente and delicious. The seafood was clearly caught that day and well presented.
Desserts were amazing consisting of Fresh strawberries and raspberries  with white chocolate ice cream in a biscuit basket and a superb lemon mousse.Home ground fresh coffe and chocolates finished off a great meal and evening.
To my mind this is the best restaurant in Penzance and the bill will not break the bank.
The restaurant has a great reputation which it fully deserves.

Untitled
Whereas Mr. Pring was having a great time in the best fine dining restaurants in Penzance I decided to go to try the new sensation, Untitled next to the enchanting Abbey Hotel and very close to trendy Chapel St.
Untitled tapas room and Untitled tapas mix


Untitled have a fine dining menu and a tapas one which you can enjoy in two separates rooms. Both very well decorated and worth to spend a good time. I went for the tapas menu in the cosy downstairs room, unfortunately it  didn´t work for me, many people told us about that place and the only true  thing is that the restaurant is nice, service didn’t exist that day with only one person on duty perhaps because they didn’t expect people on a rainy Tuesday lunchtime ? Anyway when I am having tapas I don’t care too much about the service but I really care about the flavour beside the meatballs that were executed very well in a rich sauce and the Imam Bayaldi the rest of the menu is Italian tapas mixed with Arabian influences wasn’t my taste and the ricotta spinach croquets were impossible to finish. Another failure was the wine tapas menu; I can’t find a wine that wasn’t too strong or too weak for having with tapas. Anyway next time I think the experience will be much better beside my disappointments I think Untitled has a fantastic location and has plenty of room for improvement.




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