Visited for my Birthday. My Partner had his usual Sausage's and mash and said they were the best he has ever had. Anywhere! Quite something then! Our starters were both superb, the Asparagus with Poached Egg quite lovely as was his Welsh Rarebit. Really impressed and glad the so called "Michelin Chef" has now left as it got to much of a reputation for Gastropub and prices to match. Wonderful that St Kew is back to is fabulous best. Can't wait to go again now it's all back to being a good "Pub" again!
The Truffler
Fans of the very talented Michelin starred chef, Mr Paul Ripley, will be pleased to learn that after a battering in the stormy gastronomic waters of salty St Merryn he has beached, gently, in the prettiest of Cornish villages – St Kew. Here in a romantic 16th century inn of the same name he has set up his cooking pots to deliver joy and jubilation to all who wash up in this sleepy outpost of northern most Kernow. On a strong recommendation from one who knows we took a long Sunday morning taxi ride from Tintagel to see what was cooking. Dropped at the door we discovered the kind of idyllic pub that is fast disappearing from these shores. Here, tucked behind a waving crowd of colourful cosmos, in the most delightful of villages, is the best pub venue in south-west Britain. This is the English pub stripped of 20th century pretension – it’s like stepping back in time- and then you notice the pretty waitresses whipping in and out to serve on the guests in the garden opposite. The tiny pub restaurant is sparse, bordering on Spartan – stripped pine table tops and white-washed walls, nothing here to distract from the business in hand. This is as non-Michelin as you can get – this is a canapé free, foam free territory, stripped of all ponce and nonce to deliver the very simple, honest essence of good cooking. Service is relaxed to the point of insouciance. The brief menu, cockily confident, four starters, four mains and four puddings and the prices were too good to be true. One course £10.50, two courses £15 or three courses £19.50 – what can you deliver for that you might wonder. We chose creamed leeks, smoked haddock with pickled walnuts and chicken and duck liver terrine. Both dishes could have graced any Michelin restaurant table– simply delicious and oozing craftsmanship and precision. We enjoyed a large glass each of Sauvignon Blanc Montauberon. The headline acts were top side of Cornish beef and roast chicken. Top side of beef, usually to be avoided can be tough and tasteless – not at the St Kew Inn, here one large generous tranche of unctuous rose-tinted, melt-in-the-mouth beef came with heady-scented, home-made, creamy, aromatic horse radish sauce – simply sensational – crispy Yorkshire pudding and beautifully cooked fresh vegetables. Sounds ordinary – well it usually is – but here you are reminded what great cooks can do with great ingredients. This is cooking stripped to its essentials worthy of the best tables in the land. I opted for roast chicken, so this is what it should taste like, proper sage and onion stuffing and beautiful bread sauce. roast potatoes, buttered carrots. Basic and boring do I hear you say – not here. Arrogant simplicity, bold unadorned flavours aided and abetted by two delicious glasses of Rolling Shiraz that did exactly what it said on the tin, delivered fine cool elegance and peppered black fruit. This aside, if this wonderful establishment has a weakness it is the overall predictability of the wine list but for this kind of cooking I can forgive that and a lot, lot more… This is Paul Ripley at his best and if you can eat better Pub food than this in England, at prices to match, book me a table. I live in deepest, well-heeled Cheshire and we have nothing to match. We finished with a cheese board and a raspberry trifle. Heading back to Tintagel, purring like a pair of Cheshire cats, in a taxi which cost us more than lunch for two including wine, we unanimously agreed that this lunch in all its glorious simplicity will prove one of the highlights of 2010. Paul Ripley take a bow.
