Outlaw’s New Road
Port Isaac, Cornwall
No. 6
* It's all change at New Road. Nathan Outlaw has reduced the number of covers and is now serving an exclusive 10-course tasting menu (£175) reflecting the best of Cornish seafood. Watch for a new review coming soon.*
Nathan Outlaw's mini-empire is a shapeshifting testament to the sense of place he has always celebrated in north Cornwall. With New Road, the intention was originally to simplify, rationalise, bring fresh focus to the seafood cookery in which he effortlessly excels. The view over the Atlantic coast from broad windows orients diners splendidly for what is to come, all the better if dramatically shifting weather systems are the order of the day. Dinner might open with a surprise offering of lobster cocktail with slices of smoked Boscastle trout and treacle soda bread, before the main menu gets into gear. Provenance is everything in each dish, right down to the names of the fishermen and the length of their boats, and the results on the plate demonstrate a respect for the prime materials rarely found in city restaurants. Raw sea bass is dressed with minted peas, broad beans and caramelised onion; scallops, gathered by a free diver off Salcombe and also served uncooked, are bedded on cod's roe and dressed in a grassy olive oil. The occasionally maligned pollock goes into a fish soup vibrant with orange and chilli, textured with threads of samphire, while mackerel is served with courgette salad and a daring but successful dressing of peanuts and walnuts. For the main event, another cut of that bass appears, this time with rainbow chard and a brace of ricotta dumplings. There isn't a dish here that fails to display the kitchen's multi-faceted understanding of the potentials of fish and seafood cookery. A final reward turns up in the form of a ragingly intense chocolate moelleux made with Madagascan cocoa, matured by Falmouth's Chocolarder. Adding a final coat of polish to the whole operation, sommelier Damon Little is a treasure, offering the same discerning advice on wines served in 175ml measures as you would only expect elsewhere by the bottle. The cocktails are pretty sensational, too.
Dining Information:
Counter seating, Credit card required
6 New Road, Port Isaac, Cornwall PL29 3SB
01208 880896
