St Kew Inn
Bodmin, Cornwall
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* Craig Fox has taken over as head chef, replacing Andrew Tuck who is moving to the Harbour House, Flushing. Watch for a new review coming soon.*
The stone-built St Kew, dotted with hanging baskets, and with an expansive trestle-tabled garden full of mature trees behind, dates from the reign of Edward IV, and aims to cover as many of the requirements of a village pub as possible. There are four dining areas, all imbued with an infectious air of country-inn conviviality, and the kitchen also works to the principle of broad choice. In between the mussels and chips, beer-battered haddock and short-rib cheeseburgers with beef-fat onions, there are more speculative options for the adventurous: bone marrow served with 'nduja muffins; pickled gurnard with rhubarb, smoked hazelnuts and wild chervil; an apple-roasted pork chop ('the best I've ever eaten'), with charred cavolo nero and chimichurri. Charring and smoking are quite the thing, even extending to a house speciality of smoked ice cream glopped with PX sherry. Burnt cream, the Anglicised version of crème brûlée, comes with a Cornish fairing (a sweet-spiced buttery biscuit). Local beers and ciders are the jewels in the crown of a drinks list that also takes in some well-chosen mainstream wines.
