The Seahorse
Dartmouth, Devon
The Tonks flagship on Dartmouth quayside now has Mitch's son Ben at the kitchen helm, ensuring a sense of dynastic continuity as the years pass. In a high-ceilinged room adorned with numerous framed menus from gala nights of the recent and not-so-recent past, the ambience is still one of civilised enjoyment – though entrance is now from a narrow corridor at the back, which connects it to Joe's Bar, a tiny watering-hole with comfy leather seating. In culinary terms, Tonks' fish and seafood cooking still points unwaveringly to Mediterranean Europe as its magnetic pole, with simple preparations of herbs, tomatoes and garlic predominating – and the day's market catch presented simplest of all. There are Portland Pearl oysters of the freshest kind; scallops are roasted on the half-shell in white port and garlic; a bowl of nourishingly hearty shellfish bisque comes with a good blob of rip-roaring aïoli. To follow, there might be monkfish with girolles, or turbot with San Marzano tomatoes and basil, plus T-bone steaks for the meat brigade. If doubts arise, they tend to be predicated on closer examination as the dishes become more complex: our hulking sea bass took 75 minutes from ordering, had lost the 'cartoccio' paper parcel in which it had theoretically been cooked, and had neither its rosemary nor apparently its Vermentino wine – just a pool of melted butter and some roast garlic. Does this matter, if the fish is still great? It matters to the tune of £35. Desserts might encompass an ingenious chocolate and polenta soufflé, but a glass of spritzy sgroppino does just as well. Wines by the glass undersell the quality of the main list, but the Slovenian Rebula (the same grape as Friuli's aromatic Ribolla Gialla) is the pick of the fish-friendly whites.
Dining Information:
Private dining room, Separate bar, Wheelchair access
5 South Embankment, Dartmouth, Devon TQ6 9BH
01803 835147
