Outlaw's New Road
Port Isaac, Cornwall
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While Nathan Outlaw's Fish Kitchen is deeply embedded in the tight little streets of Port Isaac, New Road sits proud at the top of the approach. Its windows have salty sea vistas, and a gull's-eye view of the car park from the front tables, but the ambience is pleasingly informal. The tablecloths are gone these days, and the number of courses on the taster has grown from nine to eleven, but when regulars are on first-name terms with the staff, it's clear that the titular chef inspires as much tenacious loyalty as he ever did. These are seafood dishes that respect their prime materials, both gastronomically and ecologically, and don't hide their light under a bushel of extraneous accompaniments. The sweet scallops with smoked roe mayo are free-dived off Salcombe by Jamie Kirkcaldy, who can hold his breath for five minutes – longer than it might take you to eat them. They are anointed with judicious applications of lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Simples. Smart acidity is often the key to successful fish dishes, and so it is with the cured horse mackerel that comes layered with crumbled pistachio and basil oil, while its cooked counterpart is sharpened with a green sauce of tarragon and mint. As the menu progresses, dishes become gradually, subtly richer – witness the velvet crab potion that sauces a serving of sea bass (partnered by springy-textured Cheddar and rosemary bread for mopping up the gorgeous liquor) or the regal piece of turbot that appears in a late-summer vegetable nage, the whole lifted with pink peppercorns and cumin. A gooey chocolate ganache bar with biscuit base is enough to win over any choco-sceptic – especially as it comes with whopping raspberries doused in elderflower syrup and minted yoghurt sorbet. Drink pairings are admirably ingenious, from a palate-priming Japanese shochu with the treacle bread to a rare Portuguese Viognier and a daring punt on a silky-light Morgon with that turbot. It's a more compact list than New Road used to offer, but that's no bad thing, and most selections are available by the glass.
