Pilchards at Port Gaverne in Cornwall, Isles of Scilly

We were looking forward to a dining experience here with beach front location and views. Booked via email but no reply so thought we would visit on the off chance. Sadly the establishment was closed in mid October.

I'd received a confirmation email for our dinner booking with friends on 10/10 and we turned up looking forward to a delicious meal, only to find the Cafe locked with a hand written notice stuck to the door saying it was shut until 2024. I get that they need to close if business is too light, but we are in the 21st century - they could have emailed me in advance! Their email / phone is temporarily suspended, so conveniently no way to contact them. If we did a no-show at the hight of the season, we'd probably incur a cancellation fee. So found their lack of courtesy shoddy and disappointing.

Fusion food at its best. Unusual combinations that really worked. Fries were amazing! We had enough of the crowds in Port Isaac so walked to the next bay and had a lovely, peaceful lunch.

Best Restaurant (with very strong competition) on the North Cornish coast, great staff, great location fantastic food.

Dont be put off by a few bad reviews. We were a little worried after reading them. No need. The food was lovely and the staff friendly. My only comment was a few more dishes to give a wider choice. Really nice evening so thank you. Would def go again if over this way

Ate here a couple of times on holiday in Port Issac. Lovely outside deck area overlooking the bay with outside heaters. Amazing food, great staff, definitely a recommendation from me.

We very nearly cancelled our table for today after reading the reviews on here, but having been before and enjoyed it we decided to go. The staff were attentive and polite, they explained the menu to us, that should we go for the small plates they recommended 4 to share with 2 sides, but we went for the monkfish to share which comes with 2 sides and wow did we make the right choice, the flavours were out of this world, it was cooked to perfection and very well presented. Please don't go by negative comments, go try and be amazed!

Excellent service, great food, amazing view. Staff were great with the children and dogs. Loved the fellow northerner making it easy taking our order. Pleasure

We had booked a table many months ago, based on last year’s reviews. We ordered two small dishes to start - soft shell crab and Thai prawns and mussels. The crab was better than the prawns. We ordered sharing monkfish for a main course. Unfortunately this arrived when my husband was still eating his starter. There was simply not room on our small table for the food served. The monkfish was lovely but unfortunately went cold before we finished it. We spoke to the manager to express our dissatisfaction and the wine was removed from the bill. The remaining bill of £133 was very high for the food and drink consumed. The evening was so disappointing - this was a very long booked and anticipated only evening meal during a week in Port Gaverne. No compensation will make up for a ruined evening.

Nice view of the bay. Just stopped for afternoon tea.

Came for dinner with my family, lovely setting but very inflated prices (also for the drinks). The food was tasty but not as good as when when we visited two years ago. Service not overly friendly, desserts where a huge disappointment especially eton mess which was basically an enormous glass of mr. Whippy style ice cream with with a drizzle of strawberry sauce and three strawberries on top at £10 that’s not what I was expecting.

We had a lovely meal here. We sat outside under a heated gazebo overlooking the water. The menu has Japanese flavours and it was all delicious. The service was friendly and helpful. The prices are high for the portion sizes but everything was of a very high quality and had great flavour.

While our booking was upheld, the service was rude and being seated by the door, we witnessed many curt exchanges with other unhappy customers. The food is over complicated and overpriced with nothing to be remembered except some fairly crispy and very salty chips. This would have been much better if they simply cooked simple, honest, fresh seafood at a reasonable price.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t a seafood restaurant, nor is it a tapas restaurant. It’s a pretentious and unfriendly place that sells over-complicated vaguely East Asian dishes which are vastly overpriced for what they are sold as. The taste was mediocre and the service was simply rude, there were many unhappy customers trying quite reasonably to have their needs met, only to be told whatever their problems were, were their own fault. I would recommend they leave their ingredients in their natural form and prepare them simply, because what they’re doing isn’t making them better.

As long standing visitors to Cornwall, we never fail to stop at Pilchards for lunch or dinner. Even if we are not staying in the area, we always make a detour to enjoy their wonderful food and ambiance. Well what a shock we got on our visit earlier this week! It was 12.30pm and at first we thought it was closed, then we noticed another couple having a coffee. Admittedly, the weather wasn’t the best, but in previous years there could have been a force9 gale and you’d still struggle to find a table during the day or night if you’d not made a reservation. We sat outside to take in the beautiful view - even in the grey skies it looks amazing. A very uninspired waitress came over and gave us the menus, didn’t say much and just put them on the table. Menu was different from last time we came but nonetheless we were still looking forward to a treat. There wasn’t a huge choice, again that was fine. We ordered three small plates- squid, a chickpea onion bahji, a prawn and mussel Thai green curry and a portion of fries. Drinks were a bottle of water and pint of Korev. Food arrived and plates were tiny (saucer size, not even side plates). Fries were in a small bowl- a bit like a cup. Good job we weren’t too hungry! My husband had the squid and said it was ok albeit a bit over cooked and chewy. Bahji was not warmed through fully and mushy in the middle - undercooked. Thai prawn and mussel curry was inedible! It resembled a bright green oil slick with two prawns on the top and few tiny mussels mixed in. There was no Thai inspired taste. It had a real bitter taste - like green vegetables blended up into a thick smoothie and drizzled with oil. I picked out the prawns and mussels but the sauce was luke warm and inedible. I mentioned this to the waitress when she collected the plates. Not because we wanted it taking off the bill (which it wasn’t), but to give the chef some genuine feedback. If I were a chef and it came back virtually untouched, I’d want to know why! She mumbled something about sorry you didn’t like it and walked off. The bill was £60 for what was less than £10 worth of food if you were to make it. Now, I know that isn’t how to look at it- and I wouldn’t have done if the service and ambiance had been top notch and I didn’t have the knowledge of how fantastic it used to be! I asked if it had changed hands and was told it was still owned by the Port Gaverne Hotel. We were shocked, because for it to become so bad, they must have worked really hard at bringing it down! After we left I checked Trip Advisor and saw some mixed reviews of late. This says it all really as some of them were long standing customers like myself and were cancelling future reservations. I imagine if they don’t do something quickly to revert back, it won’t be long before it loses its excellent reputation, if it hasn’t done so already. It needs a new menu - don’t try to be a Michelin Star restaurant - there’s one in Port Isaac already! Plus that would need an experienced chef which Pilchards doesn’t appear to have. Just go back to serving fantastic fresh food and freshly caught fish. Not precooked or frozen. It needs to review its extortionate prices or produce quality food to reflect them. Finally, employ staff who look like they want to be there and ready to engage with the customers!

Wonderful. Probably the best meal that we've ever had. Lobster sharer and Monkfish sharer more than enough between four of us.

Super ! Truly surprisingly and exciting flavors, almost too many but not quite. The quality and level of cooking are very high indeed. Staff super friendly in a very relaxed atmosphere. Happened here by chance while in a walk and had read or known nothing about them beforehand so it was a lovely surprise. Would recommend to anyone tired of pasties and chips and in need of bolder and sharper flavors with an Asian bend.

Food was overpriced and extremely small portions. Fusion concept of food did not work and we felt they ruined good ingredients. Left still feeling hungry and ripped off. Had to go to Port Gaverne hotel next door for a cheese board and drinks. Hotel opposite is much better experience and hard to believe it is owned by the same people. Waste of a gorgeous location and a lot of money.

First of all, this restaurant is in Port Gaverne, a short walk from Port Isaac. There are inside and outside seating areas but as you are right by the sea, we opted for the outside. The service was excellent, friendly and efficient- nothing was too much trouble and although we arrived close to when the kitchen was stopping post lunch, they were at pains to make sure we could order more food as needed. The menu operates on a tapas basis and we tried about 10 dishes between 5 of us. We went for a variety of seafood dishes but they typically were all seasoned or accompanied by some really interesting sauces - a sort of Asian fusion approach. My personal favourite was the lobster but my family loved the prawn dish. This area of Cornwall is blessed with some excellent restaurants, particularly for seafood lovers but here the food is excellent and a little different. Perfect on a sunny day.

We have been bringing the kids here for years - a special meal out in a fantastic spot. But sadly, this year may be our last. As recently as 2 years ago you could get 'tapas' style small plates from £6 - £9 each, this year we were a little shocked to find the cheapest plate (a modest serving of cured mackerel) priced at £13, with most small plates at the £17 mark. In the past we have also enjoyed the large plates, most of which were priced from £16 - £18. Currently, they are priced at £70, £75 and £130 - perhaps the portions are larger than previous years, we did not order any. The food is of course delicious, but on the whole, the small plates did not feel quite as varied nor satisfying compared to previous menus. The BBQ puffed bread was dry, the sticky ginger crab was disappointing compared to other fresher crab dishes, the Octopus not as memorable as previous years. It would have been nice to have been offered the option of some bread or rice to go with all the Panang Curry sauce leftover. The pork belly (the only meat option on the menu other than the £130 surf and turf) was possibly the dish that disappointed the most. We tried all of the small plates and enjoyed the Prawn Panang, Red Mullet Tartare and the Cauliflower Kung Pao. £270 for a family of 6 with a few soft drinks and no desserts. With Nathan Outlaw's up the road perhaps they feel the need to set the menu and prices in order to compete. But may well price out some families from enjoying this special spot.

We stopped by for a drink, and ended up ordering 3 small plates, super tasty food of great quality, and the service was excellent as we sat outside and had an attentive waitress. Only downside is that the price point was we felt very high. (Also note there is very limited parking, although we had no trouble walking from Port Isaac)

We have been coming to Pilchards regularly since it opened, but never again. We booked for 8.30pm. As it is (very fast) tapas style service, we wanted to order some dishes and then order more later if needed. However, we were told that the kitchen closes at 9pm, so all our main course tapas dishes would need to be ordered before then. Why take bookings for 8.30pm (or 8.45) then?? When we queried this, the waitress said others had asked too, but that was just the rule. Piece of advice - maybe listen to your customers? We did manage to order a few more small plates just after 9, but they were all on the table within another 5 minutes, meaning that we had finished eating by around 9.15pm. We ordered desserts, which we are eating at 9.30pm, only an hour after sitting down, accompanied by the smell of cleaning fluid as the staff cleaned the restaurant around us (we were the last people in there). The food was OK, but not as good as it used to be and certainly not justified by the extortionate prices - we ended up paying well over £300 for 6 of us (with two bottles of wine and one beer) for an extremely frustrating and disappointing experience. The restaurant needs to realise that people spending this amount of money do not want to be rushed, and want to be made to feel welcome. It was quite the opposite - it felt like a money grabbing exercise by people who don't really care. And, as I said above, we will not be back. Shame.

Have eaten in Pilchards Cafe for many years and never been disappointed... until this year Prices have rocketed and portion size reduced. Couldn't believe the bill they presented me with. Extortionate. And we left hungry. Cancelled the tables we had booked for the rest of the fortnight. The other families we usually meet there also did the same. The ambience has died as virtually nobody is dining there. In previous years booking was essential - now just turn up as there are plenty of tables. Not surprising really when they charge £7 for a beer and £85 for a small Monkfish as a sharing dish. Insulting.

Stopped on rainy day as just left port Isaac and turned the corner into port Gaverne only to come across this lovely little ‘cafe’ serving amazing seafood small plates (meats also available) Staff were all lovely and food was amazing. Go if you visit, we’ll...

Excellent food and staff. Very dog friendly. Now with a more Asian Fusion venue choice. Lobster was super.

I love this place, the food here is exceptional, along with the service

Food was absolutely delicious but portions were little bit small. Even though it is fine dining restaurant portions could be larger a bit to enjoy the food.

The food is good. We paid over €100 for two people for very, very small portions. Not recommended for lunch ;( Wouldn't come again.

We stopped for a drink one afternoon and could have stayed all day. Great drinks menu including brilliant cocktails. Will be back for food another time as the menu looks amazing.

Beautifully set in Port Gaverne, surprisingly delicate cooking. Could compete very well with good restaurants at home in Perú

Visited twice during our stay in Port Isaac and food and service was top notch on both occasions. Prices were in the “special treat” range for us - but happy to pay for two very memorable visits.

I been going to Port Gaverne for a number of years and have eaten and had drinks at Pilchards quite happily until this year. Dropping in for a drink I was alarmed to be charged £7 for an ordinary bottle of cider. Someone is taking...

Excellent very tasty food. Delicious small plates and puds. Viognier was decent. Well done guys, enjoyable evening and a happy well fed family.

Had the best time at the pilchards cafe, food was amazing and not to mention the service we had from one of staff members Steph. Very clean, very friendly and will be sure to go back again.

Great little cafe in the town port Issac right near the beach’s there was even gluten free options which is rare to find sometimes and the food was amazing

Wow. We’ve been coming to Pilchards for years but when we dined with them in May they have really really upped their standards - it was absolutely delicious! It was so fabulous to see all of the Cornish produce (mainly seafood) with an Asian twist, everything just SANG! Can’t wait to go back!

Picture perfect location - sea view of Port Gaverne. Super friendly staff and mouth watering menu. Opted for the lobster with black garlic purée and kimchi mayonnaise followed by soft shell crab and chickpea bhaji - gorgeous. Finished with an amaretto affogato and Eton mess....

We booked for a late lunch, booking essential for inside tables. We chose several of the small plate dishes with a side of fries & bread to mop up the sauces! The two prawn dishes were my favourite, but all were very good. Good drinks...

OMG, the food is divine, cooked well and presented beautifully. The service is second to none and the view is breathtaking from the dining area.

Stopped for drinks while walking around Port Gaverne, a lovely little place with a fantastic beer garden!

Great food, particularly seafood, friendly and efficient service, and beautiful location. Not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Overall, would thoroughly recommend

Beautifully located with a motivated young team. Fresh products in a more “classic” preparation. The marinated mackerel is sensational. Very fair prices for food and wine.

Fantastic food fantastic service lovely view couldn’t love this place more definitely a favourite of mine in the area can’t wait to go back

Food was good, mega tourist trap with the prices.

Tapas bar with some Korean flavour and great view into the small bay. Muscles were served with some delicious green curry sauce and the octopus dish was rich and full of taste. We shared a stuffed baked Turbot which is a massive and tasty fish, accompanied with perfect fries and a lovely made bok choi. Lovely place

Lovely food overlooking Port Gaverne Bay.

A lovely spot with friendly staff and a nice vibe, however the prices are definitely verging on unreasonable. The food was very tasty (bbq honey & ginger bread was fab) but I have had better elsewhere for a lot less money. As a local there in half term, I couldn’t help but feel I’d fallen into a bit of a tourist price trap. I get the whole ‘small plate’ tapas vibe, but that only really works when the plates aren’t a minimum of £10 each… and each plate only has enough for one person. They recommended we get 3 plates each, but that would be £26-£30 pp without drinks or desserts. In summary, it was very nice but the prices need to be rethought I think, as I wouldn’t go back or recommend it to anyone for that reason alone.

Amazing lunch with my boy today. Food was excellent and service was amazing. We will definitely be coming back.

One of my favourite places to eat. Beautiful setting with amazing sunsets. Food is just amazing. Tapas style. BBQ puff bread 👌🏻 Asian slaw, prawn panang curry plus beef, chicken and a gorgeous cod special. Highly recommend 😊

Sooooo good! Thanks for great service and top food!

We stumbled upon this hidden gem down in Port Gaverne during our stay in Port Isaac and we are truly blown away by the quality of food and service. The small plates were delicious with a lot of Asian-inspired flavors, as well as the king...

This place used to be amazing with great food at reasonable price. Now it is £16 for a tiny plate of food and £6 on top for a side. I was really embrassed to have taken my friends there thinking it would be as it used to be. Felt like a tourist trap and annoyed at myself for getting caught.

An absolute gem in a picturesque and peaceful setting. One of Cornwall’s finest, a must visit. Friendly service, great decor, amazing food, great music. We were totally impressed. Reasonably priced for the quality and quantity. Worked our way through most of the tapas items (recommended is 2-3 items per person, with a couple of ‘for the table’ items to start, desert, plus cocktails! All excellent! Will visit again next time we’re in town. Worth a detour from your planned route for a visit. We think the menu changes from time to time (which is great!) but note that the menu you read on a booking site might not reflect what will probably be most up-to-date on their website. Tip: arrive early if you can, both to secure a parking spot nearby (very limited!, or to park up the hill in the public car parks and take the short walk downhill. If you do end up being early (or leave needing a little walk!) take the time to have a walk up along the coastal cliffs, views are outstanding.

Had a lovely evening at pilchards with my family and dog. We ordered all the small plates to share so there was lots of variety. One of our party wasn’t keen on fish but he still found lots he could enjoy. Fabulous food and service...

Best restaurant in Cornwall at the moment. Lovely people too. Even let us borrow a desert spoon.

I was contacted by the restaurant, having made an online booking for 9 people with a request from a rather unpleasant chap called Paul. He was rude and very dismissive of me and sent me a text to pay a deposit, even though the online...

Great flavours, interesting, tasty food at a decent price. Service was excellent, very friendly and very prompt. Food took no time at all. Many thanks for a lovely lunchtime treat

Utterly fabulous! Great service, gorgeous food, sustainable and just wonderful 🥰🥰😍😍

Stopped here for lunch as it's dog friendly. Lunch menu is a tapas style selection, really good, staff friendly and helpful. Pictures are the Knickerbocker glory and the Frangipane tart with figs

Wonderful food at a fair price and with great service - how could anyone ever give this place a poor review ?

Bad attitude towards the customers. Left didn't eat there.

Best meal out we've had for a long time, and 1st time we've had tapas.... Beautiful fresh tasting food.. staff were extremely helpful, friendly and polite. We will definitely come again when we're in the area again.

This is in a great location, easier if you can walk down from car park as parking around the cafe is extremely limited. View out to the harbour area is very pretty and cafe is nicely decorated and had good shade on a hot day....

You simply must go to this fantastic gem. The service was friendly and helpful and the food was absolutely delicious. Everything we tried was exceptionally good including the cocktails, gin and wine. Thank you so much team Pilchards - we will definitely be back.

Lunch was gorgeous but we had a shock when the bill arrived. My partner ordered the catch of the day which was £75. He should have enquired how much but we also felt the server should gave mentioned the exorbitant price of £75. How can a piece of fish cost so much???

They market themselves as modern tapas but I wasn’t impressed. Tapas has a huge selection, pilchards doesn’t have much more than a dozen. My octopus was burnt with an overpowering sauce, the prawns were simply bbq whole with the digestive tract in place & full,...

Noticed this place recommended in the Michelin guide, and experience was far greater than I could’ve ever imagined. The food was simply spectacular, and incredibly tasty and presented so well. The staff were incredibly friendly and not to mention the amazing view of the harbour and the sea. It’s rare that I find a place that I am lost for words in terms of how good it was. Absolutely will be coming back out again when we visit next time. Also the price is really extremely reasonable. We have about eight dishes, and glasses of wine, and desert and it came to around £100. Would have happily paid more for the same quality of food. A real hidden gem

Food is ok but I really don’t know how a restaurant with a Michelin plaque outside gets away with serving a different bottle of wine to the one listed on the menu - I normally only expect substitutions when I do online grocery shopping!

Very good 'small plate' menu, well cooked and nicely served. Great position and views over the slipway. Parking difficult when busy. Use the car park at the top of the, very steep, hill.

Fabulous meal. Clearly have a very talented chef and team. Lots of delicious small plates, creative flavours and super friendly staff. Small menu but all so good- will be back!

Make sure you have a reservation!! If you don’t, you won’t be eating here! They have strict guidelines about when and to whom the serve, so be aware, and plan accordingly. The views are spectacular of the sea, and they are strategically located, so plan to pay a premium for seating. If you want a more impressive fish finger sandwich, go next door to the hotel pub!!

We love coming here every year with our kids and it never disappoints. Tapas which we love as we could share a few small plates between us and every dish left our mouth wanting more . Crab , prawns , short rib crumpet and mackerel...

Lovely informative staff 👍 and was very nice.

Wonderful.. especially when the sun is out.. best visited just before sunset..

Pilchards cafe /restaurant made my holiday ! We booked in at the early part of the holiday and fell in love with it. The food was delicious - really really tasty. The chefs are talented and under rated compared to other "famous" places in the...

We tried to visit Pilchards on not one, but two occasions but were basically ignored both times. Once for dinner, which we had booked. We stood at the entrance where it told us to wait to be seated, and stood for around 10 minutes. We...

We only wanted a quick light lunch. It's not cheap but it's fantastic food .

Amazing food, reasonably priced for what you get. Very chilled atmosphere and friendly staff. Nice views overlooking Port Gaverne. Would definitely visit again!!

To busy to park. So who knows. Looked nice.

This place is my absolute favourite restaurant, we come a couple of times a year. This time they excelled… the octopus in carrot chilli purée was an absolute dream, the John Dory just exquisite, crab and fennel was so fresh etc etc etc all washed...

Amazing food, stunning views and friendly staff all add up to a really enjoyable experience here. It’s a regular lunch spot for us when we’re on holiday and it never disappoints. It catered really well to vegans and gluten-free as well. Can’t recommend this place highly enough!

The Kitchen prepared the freshest most delicious crab salad I have had anywhere. Outstanding in every way. Service was impeccable, and quick even though they were extremely busy. Pilchards certainly deserves their coveted Michelin recognition. Well done to this professional seamless team. Special thanks to...

The location is amazing! Unfortunately we didn’t get a warm or friendly reception-not sure if this was because we just wanted drinks? Such a shame as we won’t return for drinks or food.

I have eaten here twice now and the food had been great both times. The service is hood too, the staff are really helpful. Dogs are very welcome inside or outside.

Great location but no draught beer and bottled very overpriced

After kayaking we decided to have lunch in this hidden little gem and WOW! The food is exceptional and cooked to perfection. Between the 4 of us we ordered John Dory by far the best fish I’ve tasted in a very long time. We also...

Called today waited to be seated only wanted drinks shown to a table sat waited i could clearly see 5 staff 1 young lady looked at us looked away didn't acknowledge us so we got up and left won't be visiting again

Fabulous food , friendly helpful staff. Will definitely return.

Someone here can cook really well!! No standard dishes but some really good dishes with special ingredients/combinations and spices. I had the beetroot from grill. Looks and tastes great. Even the side salad was perfect in every detail. Great... would love to come back... great to see so much love for cooking and the details.

Food was tasty and well-presented but very expensive with small portions from a very fishy menu. The staff work very hard to deliver a so called Tapas style experience but this is an excuse for poorly timed preparation. The main dish was cold by the...

We were placed at a table but waited for more than 10 minutes. Nobody came to serve us although only 5 other table were taken and it wasnt busy at all. Such a shame as location/view is great.

This cafe say’s that it welcomes children, however there are no childrens options at all and when asked what was available we were told that you had to order an adult plate which cost £15 per person with no child subsidy. Better to go up...

Fantastic location and live music on Sunday afternoons creates a good atmosphere. Variable staff - some super friendly and helpful, several made us feel like we were a bit of an inconvenience. Very limited choice if you have dietary requirement (nut allergy). The food was tasty - bit overpriced - but well cooked.

What a lovely restaurant on the coast of Cornwall! Not only was the ambiance perfect, but the food was equally enchanting. Flavorful, creative, fresh and so delicious we could have eaten our way through the menu. The chef and staff were outstanding!

A tapas style eating experience which allows you to try many flavours rather than sticking to the traditional 3 course set up. When on holiday why not do it differently to the norm. The food is excellent. Try the blackened cod, the scallops and the...

Stopped here for coffee, what a beautiful place!

Expensive but good food, except for the black cod.

Better off going to the local chippy or the BP garage. Great location but no parking .Food sounded good but didn't match expectation or reputation . £ 150 for 4 people - just 1 course and drinks . £9 for a G&T. Avoid unless you're...

Chance booking after coast walk. Really different food that was well executed. Fantastic happy and efficient staff despite a busy Sunday lunch service. Not cheap but worth it as very different to usual holiday fare. We would definitely go back. And they love dogs!

We had lunch here by chance and the food was amazing. The crab and black cod were divine. Service was excellent. It’s not cheap food but the quality perfectly reflects the price. Well worth a visit.