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St Eia

St Ives, Cornwall

RATING: GOOD

EUROPEAN | CAFÉ

Tucked away on the Digey, one of the less choked little streets in old St Ives, St Eia is a come-hither wine shop, with a café not so much attached as inveigled topologically into it. There are no bookings; browse the bottles and wait to pounce when a seat becomes available. An all-day snack menu offers olives and salted Marcona almonds to nibble on, as well as paprika-spiced broad beans, and then plates of luscious Cornish charcuterie, piquillo peppers with Graceburn soft cheese or – the pièce de résistance at our whistlestop – a row of buttered Coombeshead sourdough soldiers, each topped with a perfect Cantabrian anchovy. Isle of Wight tomatoes are a feature too, while the season holds out. Lemon polenta cake, made in-house that morning, is moist and moreish, soft as Madeira cake and singing with lemon. Wines by the glass (from £6) reflect some of the more interesting biodynamic and organic gear with which the shelves are crowded. Only a fool would turn down a shot of Moreau-Naudet's partly barrique-aged Chablis.

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