1. St Andrews Street Bistro
St Ives
This is a bohemian restaurant with mismatched, antique furniture and odd cutlery - people really like the laid-back feel. They serve eclectic modern-British food with Middle-Eastern influences, so, for example, you might get fillets of red mullet, crushed spuds, roast vine tomatoes and dragoncello sauce, or grilled Merguez sausages with lentils, roast pumpkin and harissa. The food is wholesome and the artisan bread is delicious. They have good vegetarian options too - curries and flatbread pizzas.
2. Alba Restaurant
St Ives
Alba is a great venue for people-watching, especially if you sit on the first floor of the old lifeboat building, where you can also look out over the water which is exactly where the fish you're eating has been caught. It has huge windows and is quite smart, and on the ground floor you can see the chefs at work. The menu is bold and ambitious and specialises in line-caught fish. They even have a sushi chef who cooks Japanese if you call in advance. But there are also things like skate tempura with pickled cucumber and miso, along with roast brill with cockles in a chardonnay broth.
3. Hotel Tresanton
St Mawes
Hotel Tresanton was made out of a cluster of houses built in the 1940s as a yachtsmen's club. It's very elegant; in the dining room there's a mosaic floor and tongue-and-groove walls, so it seems quite Mediterranean, but of course the great thrill is to sit on the terrace whenever possible, looking out to sea. It's a formal restaurant, but still manages to be lovely and relaxing. They specialise in good fish with an Italian flavour reflecting the background of the owner, Olga Polizzi. Calamari is a favourite with basil mayonnaise, lemon and rocket, but you might get a hunk of seabass or grilled rump of lamb with roast new potatoes. There's never too much choice, but that gives you confidence that everything is brilliantly fresh.
4. Sam's
Fowey
Sam's serves simple, bistro-style food, loads of fresh fish and shellfish and great homemade burgers. It is very casual and does not take bookings, but it is popular with the locals and gets packed out in the summer. It's easy to see why. One of the burgers is called a 'Scooby burger', because it's stacked very high with pineapple, egg, salad and so on, then has a skewer through it - like a snack in the cartoon. If they do scallops, they'll be simply pan-fried in garlic butter and sent out with salad and some crunchy French stick. It's just what people like. But if you can't get in, Sam's Other Place is further along the street at number 41. You can always go there for takeaway fish and chips, then have a sundae in the ice-cream parlour on the ground floor, or book to eat upstairs where the food is similar, with some different fish dishes.
5. Mill House Inn
Tintagel
This is a former 18th-century corn mill now run as a traditional inn and it's really peaceful, set in gardens surrounded by woodland. The focus is on locally sourced fish, meat and produce served in a smart but welcoming restaurant. Cornish field mushrooms might come stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes and glazed with a local, award-winning cheese; local haddock on a prawn risotto with lemon parsley oil and so on. Prices are very reasonable and there is a children's menu, which helps to make families feel welcome. The bar is cosy and serves local beers and ales.
St Andrews Street Bistro, 16 St Andrews Street, St Ives, 01736 797074
Alba Restaurant, The Old Lifeboat House, The Wharf, St Ives, 01736 797222
Hotel Tresanton, St Mawes, 01326 270055
Sam's, 20 Fore Street, Fowey, 01726 832273; Sam's Other Place, 01726 833636
The Mill House Inn, Trebarwith, Tintagel, 01840 770200
