From Branscombe to Weymouth, both East Devon and Dorset are full of delicious
ingredients but it’s the simple, super-fresh seafood that’s hard to beat
“Now ye toil not” says a sign outside the Masons
Arms, in Branscombe (01297 680300), a classic Devon inn with views
across a National Trust vale out to sea. The sign does not apply to kitchen
staff who produce a substantial bar and restaurant menu that makes good use
of local and seasonal ingredients. I could see the sheep on the hillside
that had provided my organic lamb dish which was served with sweet potato
and a fresh pea and mint mush.
Other rewarding dishes away from the pub fare bulk included a brilliant green
spinach and Branscombe crab soup, local beef and horseradish sausages and a
cheeseboard featuring the West Country’s finest. In winter a spit-roast
takes place over an open fire in the inglenook of the bar, where you can
drink Branscombe Vale Brewery’s latest draught, a newsworthy ale called
Napoli’s on the Rocks. It is named after the ship that grounded in the bay
earlier this year (see below).
A couple of miles around the coast at Beer fresh fish could almost flap its
way from the boats of local fishermen up the slipway to the Anchor
Inn (01297 20386). We ate home-made fresh Beer crab quiche with a
mesclun leaf salad, and collops of monkfish wrapped with streaky bacon in
the pub’s front garden overlooking the cove and adjacent to a string of
allotments running up the hillside.
If you’re self catering the Wet Fish Shop beneath the slipway sells whatever
comes in from the boats each day including whole lobster at less than half
the price you’d pay in London and picnic tubs of vivid pink crab for £4.
Local B&B owner Simon Gooch recommends tabloid wrapped fish ‘n’ chips on the
beach with a bottle of chilled bubbly from the village off licence.
Shifting counties to Lyme Regis, in Dorset, we found a very cool place tucked
away in colourful Coombe Street that has the louche, urban feel of communal
feast-fests like Bill’s in Brighton or Esca in London’s Clapham. Wild
flowers and local organic broad beans and spinach adorned the entrance to
the Town Mill Bakery, a high ceilinged
space with open kitchen and shared tables where you help yourself to toast,
jam and butter.
The pizzas looked delicious – especially the Fiorentina with spinach and a
free-range egg – and the lemon polenta cake was a moist and crumbly
companion to a fresh brew of coffee. The TMB gang are off to Glastonbury to
bake this week where owner Aidan Thompson, who runs breadmaking courses at
the nearby River Cottage HQ, will launch a book about bread.
The town’s excellent Broad Street restaurant (01297 445792), which opened two
years ago in an attempt to give Dorset some of the culinary clout that Devon
and Cornwall command, used to serve the Town Mill Bakery’s honey, date and
pecan bread with Dorset Blue Vinny cheese until new chef Geoffrey
Beetlestone started baking his own bread. The restaurant also sources all
its fresh ingredients from within a 20-mile radius of Lyme Regis – “nearer
if possible and if it’s not in season we won’t use it,” adds the proprietor
Franny Owen.
The market town of Bridport has a growing reputation as a real foodie hub. The
farmers’ market on the second Saturday of the month is a showcase for some
superb local produce including Dorset blueberries and air-dried ham from
nearby Denhay Farm Farm (01308 458963)
where Amanda and George Streatfeild dry-cure hams and bacon for Duchy
Originals. They are renowned for their West Country Cheddar made with milk
from their five Friesan herds. Dorset dwellers and TV chefs Lesley Waters
and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are sure to be on hand at the food
festival, June 29-July 1.
At the boutique Bull Hotel (01308
422878), on the high street, chef Gerry Page runs a reasonably-priced
gastro-pub (starters from £4.50 and mains from £11.95) using local produce.
In keeping with the relaxed vibe of this 16th-century coaching inn, market
day brunch is served until 3pm. For supper I had pan-seared lyme bay
scallops with salsa verde, followed by wild halibut fillet with a tomato and
tarragon sauce and seasonal vegetables.
Just around the corner from the Bull is the newly restored Electric
Palace cinema which re-opened at the end of May. The foyer restaurant
with its 1920s murals is a light and quirky place to lunch offering a select
menu of carefully sourced fresh ingredients.
A mile along the River Brit to the coast again, the Riverside restaurant
(01308 422011), at West Bay, is a West Dorset institution. It has been
cooking simple bright-eyed fish with a hint of France for 40 years. The
restaurant has wooden floorboards and is surrounded by water so you have to
cross a little wooden bridge to enter. The fishy fare is oysters and simply
cooked squid, mackerel, and garlic prawns.
