Where to stay and eat in Dartmouth

I’ve spent the last few days at the Dartmouth Food Festival - mainly giving talks so I didn't have much of a chance to scout around and make new discoveries but enough time to confirm my existing impression that it's a brilliant place to spend a weekend. And a great place to eat and drink.

It helped, of course that the weather was gorgeous - sunny and crisp - and that we were put up by one of the festival sponsors Coast & Country Cottages in a luxury pad that overlooked the Dart Marina (thanks, guys!). In our few idle moments we could kid ourselves we were members of the yachting set, sitting in our picture window (above) watching the ferry chug gently across the Dart. It was heaven.


We also ate a couple of great meals at local chef Mitch Tonks’ two restaurants The Seahorse and Rockfish both of which I strongly recommend. Rockfish is the newer - an upmarket but family-friendly chippy that occupies what looks like a converted beach hut on the front and just has the most brilliant fish and chips I’ve ever tasted. Super-fresh plaice (don't be put off by the picture below: the crumbs didn't look that orange), perfectly cooked chips and super-sloppy mushy peas to dunk them into. Although you could go overboard with flash seafood like lobster there are some really inexpensive options like breaded whiting for just £3 and the portions of chips were easily enough for two. We got away with a bill of £35 with wine.



The Seahorse is pricier and more upmarket with a serious wine list but it’s not remotely stuffy. Fish again is the main draw but if you’ve already OD’d on that there are other options like a rib of Devon beef to share and the wonderfully decadent wild mushroom and truffle linguini we had as a starter. They also have fixed price deals at lunchtime which are quite a bit cheaper. (£15 for 2 courses or £20 for 3.)


We also ended up one evening in the bar of a local boutique hotel called Browns (above) which has a tapas night every Friday which you can read about on my food and wine matching website here. It was a particularly friendly place and I imagine a good place to stay if you want to be more central. (The Marina is about 10 minutes walk away - though on the flat rather than up one of the precipitous hills that surround Dartmouth.)

Talking of hills I should also mention a good B & B we’ve been to a couple of times before called Mounthaven Guest House right up above the town which is very comfortable. We’ve never managed to book one of the front rooms that have an amazing view over the estuary but the owners, Rose and Shaun thoughtfully give you the best table for breakfast overlooking the same view if you've had the back room.

We’re lucky that Dartmouth is only a couple of hours from Bristol which makes it ideal for a short get-away-from-it break but now we know it so well I think we’d make the effort if we lived further afield. Although it’s a popular tourist destination it’s not overcrowded, particularly at this time of year, and it’s part of a wonderfully unspoilt bit of countryside and coastline.


(Another company that does rentals in the area is Blue Chip Holidays which sponsored the festival wine and cheese tastings I was giving along with local wine merchant Red & White.)

The Trout at Tadpole Bridge

It's funny how some areas of the country are black holes when it comes to eating out. Where I used to live in St Albans was mysteriously bereft of good restaurants and seems like the area to the south-west of Oxford is too. So we were relieved to find what looked like a decent pitstop called The Trout in the Wind-in-the Willows-esque hamlet of Tadpole Bridge, a place so obscure it wasn't even listed in the index of our massively detailed Philips Navigator road atlas. And needless to say it defeated the sat nav.

We'd have probably given up if the website hadn't revealed they had a Sausage Club on Thursdays, a sound enough reason to visit any pub. It didn't quite live up to its billing which listed a menu of six different sausages matched with different wines and beers but it was still pretty good. A choice of three sausages (Gloucestershire, pork and apple and pork and chilli) with three kinds of mash (spring onion, sundried tomato and black pudding - the latter much nicer than it sounds).


The situation is also idyllic right at the source of the Thames with a picturesque bridge (above) and a few swans sailing by. There's no sign at the end of the road (the A420 from Swindon to Oxford) which means it's not overcrowded. I suspect most of the clientele are locals. They certainly have some interesting cars.


Apparently it has a few rooms which would make it a nice getaway for a quiet weekend with a maybe a hop into Oxford for a bit of shopping. Less touristy than the Cotswolds anyway.

The discreet charm of Topsham

There aren't many places you can go to these days which are unspoiled and I almost hesitate about telling you about this one. It's a small historic town called Topsham on the mouth of the River Exe in Devon. Its character has been preserved by the fact that it's only about 4 miles from Exeter and that there are much better known (though far less salubrious) resorts nearby such as Exmouth, Dawlish and Teignmouth.

I first went there eons ago when I was at university in Exeter but must confess we never got much beyond the Bridge Inn. Nowadays I appreciate its more old-fashioned virtues - the fact that it has its own butcher, greengrocer, baker and (very good) cheese shop Country Cheeses, a three-storey antiquea centre and a disproportionate number of charity shops (Devon Air Ambulance being a particular favourite). True there are a fair amount of chi-chi boutiques and home furnishing shops but it doesn't seem to pack the place with 4 x 4s.

There isn't anywhere remarkable to eat but there is somewhere to stay - an unreconstructed inn (inn not a gastropub, note) called The Globe. You can also stay - as we did last night - in their newly renovated apartments which look over the estuary (and, it must be said, the antiques centre car park) but which would be a good hideaway if you wanted to escape from the world for a couple of days and immerse yourself in second hand books.

There's a lovely walk along the strand at the end of the town which has some enviable Dutch-style houses with gardens that run down to the water (below). I fantasise about living there but I know I'm too much of a townie to contemplate it seriously . . .