Best Cornwall hotels for food lovers

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Best Cornwall hotels for food lovers

Trevose Harbour House, St Ives

• Doubles from £165, check availability at booking.com, mrandmrssmith.com or expedia.co.uk

The best bed and breakfast in St Ives... Breakfast is an art form at Trevose Harbour House, in the higgledy-piggledy artistic hub that is St Ives (home of the Tate Modern and the Barbara Hepworth Museum). A jaunty boutique B&B, with six nautical-themed rooms, a smattering of Ercol and harbour views, the focus is firmly on local and organic.

Start with a smoothie 'shot of the day' then choose from their version of the continental or a hot dish. The continental is a smorgasbord of homemade bircher muesli, granola parfait, organic yoghurt, fresh fruit, seasonal fruit compote, homemade organic multigrain granola, freshly baked pain au chocolat, pain aux raisins and local organic bread smeared with homemade jams. Along with the full English, cooked options include a hot croissant filled with runny Cornish brie, ham and tomato.

Doubles from £165, check availability at booking.com, mrandmrssmith.com or expedia.co.uk

Artist Residence, Penzance

• Doubles from £140, check availability at booking.com, mrandmrssmith.com or expedia.co.uk

A coolly colourful 17-bedroom hotel in Penzance’s old quarter with a relaxed vibe (checked blankets, yellow Roberts radios, contemporary artworks) and a retro-chic restaurant and bar, The Cornish Barn.

The menu in the restaurant includes meat and fish from its in-house smokehouse, or tuck into tapas-style dishes of deep-fried squid with chilli, lime and salt, and parsnip rösti with caramelised shallots and goat’s cheese. Dessert is rum-infused crème brûlée, hazelnut brittle and homemade banana ice cream.

Doubles from £140, check availability at booking.com, mrandmrssmith.com or expedia.co.uk

Havener's Bar & Grill, Fowey

• Doubles from £273, check availability at booking.com

Fowey is a pretty, buzzy harbour town in the south of Cornwall. Set in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, the town has a rich maritime history and, in season, the harbour is still filled with yachts (there’s also a Royal Regatta each summer). Narrow cobbled streets wind uphill from the quayside and there is a lively independent shopping, eating and drinking scene. Sitting in a prime position right on the quayside is Havener’s Bar and Grill, a restaurant with five stylish bedrooms and an apartment above it. The restaurant itself has a hearty menu with lots of pub classics, traditional desserts and extremely generous portions. There's a well-priced wine list and selection of Cornish beers.

We stayed in the Havener’s self-contained, two-bedroom Waterside Apartment (also dog-friendly). It comes with a huge wrap-around balcony overlooking the river and estuary with plenty of room for a table, chairs and loungers. The spacious rooms are cozily furnished and there is the same river view from the large lounge and dining room windows so you can happily read, eat, drink and doze in or out of the sun. The kitchen is really well equipped, too, so impromptu meals are easy to put together.

Doubles from £273, check availability at booking.com

The Greenbank, Falmouth

• Doubles from £143, check availability at booking.com

Perched on Falmouth’s waterside, with its own private pontoon, The Greenbank is a little piece of Cornish history in itself, originally serving as a lodging house for sea captains during the town’s maritime heyday before becoming a full-blown hotel (20th century guests included Florence Nightingale and Wind in the Willows author, Kenneth Grahame, whose most famous book is thought to have been based on letters he wrote while staying there).

Super-comfy king size beds, crisp sheets, fluffy robes and a white-tiled bathroom complete with huge walk-in shower and White Company toiletries all added to the luxurious feel, as did the calm and muted colour palette, speckled with little flashes of sea-blue.

Breakfast is as equally impressive as the view you get while eating it (the Water’s Edge restaurant runs the whole length of the front of the hotel). If you don’t fancy a Full Cornish you can tuck into smoked haddock and poached eggs, eggs Benedict or porridge with Rodda’s clotted cream.

Doubles from £143, check availability at booking.com

Click here to read our full review of The Greenbank

Coombeshead Farm, Launceston

• Doubles from £165, check availability at mrandmrssmith.com or coombesheadfarm.co.uk

There are 66 acres of meadow, copse and wooded riverbank to scour for the perfect picnic spot at Coombeshead Farm. Once the dairy farm for the Trelaske estate, this is the latest venture from British chefs Tom Adams (of London restaurant Pitt Cue) and April Bloomfield (who set up Michelin-starred gastropub The Spotted Pig in the States). A working farm, and guesthouse, it's a pulse-racing addition to Cornwall's culinary scene.

There are nine bedrooms (and one adjoining bunk room) in the rambling 18th-century Georgian farmhouse, which squints over at Dartmoor on the horizon. Plus a dining room where Adams and Bloomfield dish up dinner at the 'feasting table' - expect produce from their smokehouse, curing and pickling rooms.

For breakfast there's homemade yoghurt, bread, freshly milled oats and grains, preserves, butters, ham, bacon and cheeses to tuck into.

Doubles from £165, check availability at mrandmrssmith.com or coombesheadfarm.co.uk

Click here to read our full review of Coombeshead Farm

Kudhva, Tintagel

• Doubles from £143, check availability at booking.com or kudhva.com

Drive down narrow lanes flanked by towering green hedges on Cornwall’s wild Atlantic coast to discover Kudhva, an off-grid glampsite near Trebarwith Strand. Set up by leatherworker Louise Middleton, this disused quarry has been transformed into a verdant enclave where visitors can stay in tree tents, rigged above ground, or in one of four kudhva – compact wood-and-metal cabins on stilts.

In the midst of this bucolic setting is a self-catering glamping site. Expect flushing toilets, solar-powered showers, your own fire pit, a communal kitchen and even an outdoor hot tub, while the rustic surroundings are reflected in the décor – much of the furniture and structures are wooden and handmade, with jars of velvety fern fronds and wildflowers decorating most surfaces.

Doubles from £143, check availability at booking.com or kudhva.com

Click here to read our full review of Kudhva glamping

Havener’s Bar and Grill, Fowey

• Doubles from £145, check availability at booking.com

Looking for hotels in South Cornwall? Fowey is a pretty, buzzy harbour town. Set in a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, the town has a rich maritime history and, in season, the harbour is still filled with yachts (there’s also a Royal Regatta each summer).

Narrow cobbled streets wind uphill from the quayside and there is a lively independent shopping, eating and drinking scene. Sitting in a prime position right on the quayside is Havener’s Bar and Grill, a restaurant with five stylish bedrooms and an apartment above it.

The hearty food menu has plenty of pub classics such as fish and chips, steak and burgers but also offers some slightly more refined cooking with lots of local fish and seafood.

Doubles from £145, check availability at booking.com

Click here to read our full review of Havener's Bar and Grill

The St Tudy Inn, St Tudy

• Doubles from £150, check availability at booking.com or expedia.co.uk

Emily Scott's gastropub The St Tudy Inn in the little Cornish village of the same name is also home to simple, stylish bedrooms, too. Good news for fans of her rustic, seasonal menus, as you can stumble straight up to bed after dinner.

Doubles from £150, check availability at booking.com or expedia.co.uk

The Scarlet, Mawgan Porth

• Doubles from £275, check availability at scarlethotel.co.uk

Looking for romantic hotels in Cornwall? The only routine at The Scarlet, a hotel perching on the edge of Mawgan Porth, is the regularity of the tide: the cool waters pulling back to reveal soft golden sand and thousands of lead-coloured mussels that cling to the rocks as stubbornly as guests lie on the loungers a few metres above.

Rooms, which are spread over five levels, come with their own outdoor space and open-plan bathrooms to ensure the connection with the view is never broken. The goosebump-inducing outdoor pool is naturally filtered with reeds, while the indoor pool is heated by solar panels.

Dinner is served in a dramatically quirky three-AA-rosette dining room that makes most sense when the curtains are pulled back to reveal the views. One day you might have Cornish hake with lobster ravioli, cured ham, lobster bisque and cucumber, the next a twice-baked Cornish Crackler cheese soufflé with candied walnut and Devon Cox’s apple salad. Like the hotel as a whole, it’s well considered but far from formal.

Doubles from £275, check availability at scarlethotel.co.uk

Click here to read our full review of The Scarlet

Trewornan Manor, Wadebridge

• Doubles from £180, check availability at booking.com

Luxury B&B Trewornan Manor may date back to the 13th century but its attitude to food is firmly forward thinking. Close to the Camel Estuary, and surrounded by 25 acres of gardens and meadows, the four-bedroom property (Porthilly and Daymer feature freestanding tubs) is fast becoming a gourmet destination.

Highlights include an honesty bar stocked with Sharp's Doom Bar, a beer brewed down the road in Rock, and Camel Valley sparkling wine; breakfasts that focus on the best Cornish produce (butcher Philip Warrens in nearby Launceston is one of the suppliers); and a location that’s just a napkin’s throw from Rick Stein's empire in Padstow.

Doubles from £180, check availability at booking.com

Chapel House, Penzance

• Doubles from £200, check availability at chapelhousepz.co.uk

One of the best bed and breakfasts in Cornwall... Nobody has coined the right term yet for the ‘B&B plus’, according to Susan Stuart, owner of Chapel House in Penzance. Many luxury B&Bs now offer far more than a traditional guesthouse yet don't fall into the boutique hotel category. Chapel House, once the Penzance Arts Club, is certainly one of those.

Relishing a new lease of life after an extensive renovation, the stately Georgian building is now light and bright, with six sleek bedrooms and walls hung with striking modern artworks.

As well as slap-up communal breakfasts (sizzled cod roe, samphire, smoked bacon and poached egg is a Cornish speciality) Stuart hosts gourmet suppers, long Sunday brunches and lunches, foraging and feasting weekends, guest chef demos, Saturday morning children's cookery classes and has a home-from-home, right-to-roam attitude to the fridge.

Doubles from £200, check availability at chapelhousepz.co.uk

Haybarton, Tregony

• Doubles from £120, check availability at haybarton.com or airbnb.com (for The Potager self-catering let)

Another fab B&B in Cornwall, the previous winner of Alistair Sawday's 'most praised breakfast award' Haybarton is a farmhouse B&B with just three pretty rooms and a self-catering let The Potager on Cornwall's picturesque Roseland Peninsula.

After tumbling out of bed and gazing out over rolling farmland as you run a bath in the roll-top tub, you can wander downstairs to its flagstoned dining room to feast on scrambled eggs (from their own Maran hens), sausages and bacon from the local Kernow Sausage Company, homemade granola baked in the Aga and local artisan breads spread with homemade marmalade and locally produced honey.

Doubles from £120, check availability at haybarton.com or airbnb.com (for The Potager self-catering let)

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