We've been eating at The Riverside At West Bay since the 1970s when it looked like this.
It looks like this now. The food has changed, under the same ownership, as much as the building has. The first picture is my starter of fresh king scallops. Perfectly cooked and presented.
My main course was Catch of the Day served with a lovely soupy, garlicky sauce. I ate it all and then used my spoon and good bread to wipe my plate clean.
I couldn't decide on the desert so I had a medley as in the above photograph. Service was friendly and relaxed and the view overlooking Lyme Bay added to the eating experience.
At the end of the evening Arthur Watson, the owner, asked if we had enjoyed our evening. I was emboldened with good food and good wine and suggested to him that he would have been far better as a presenter of seafood on the television than Rick Stein and Arthur replied 'Maybe, but I am ten years older than he is'.
But you are better looking, have a far more interesting voice and wittier than he is. Shame the TV Celebrity Chef thing just missed you Arthur. I loved what Floyd said about Chefs. That we all misunderstand the language. If we cook in a kitchen we are a cook. If we run a Restaurant kitchen, then we are a Chef de Cuisine. Although I believe the popular phrase now is Executive Chef.
I was married to a Chef and we once holidayed in Brittany and ate every evening for a week in a small family restaurant with three generations running the kitchen and front of house. The food was historic and on our last evening I approached the Grandmother who kept a watchful eye on everything, and told her in my basic French that my husband was a Chef.
'Chef de que?' she asked.
'Chef de Cuisine' I replied.
Floyd was right wasn't he?
4 comments:
It seems like Lyme is the place to go for good food - I would like to try The Riverside and the new Hix place, plus Wild Garlic which isn't too far away.
Yes Gail - there's much good cooking around here and the three you mention have all had a great deal of national coverage. There are many other good cooks around who don't get that.
There's also a lot of very bad cooking too. But because the well known places charge quite high prices for their food the bad places use this pricing as their benchmark and charge the same. Very naughty although they use the same ingredients and think that'll do. Nope.
Buggles. I don't know how I missed this. I love the Riverside and should go there more often. I interviewed Arthur (again) on Thursday. Gail, when we have our new extension done, you must come down and stay and we can all go out to dinner.
Nothing better than walking or cycling over the fields to The Bay on a sunny midweek lunchtime and sitting outside at The Riverside with a bowl of Moules, bread, chips and mayo and watching the boats, people and the gulls.
I love Arthur.
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