Ben Tunnicliffe at the Tolcarne Inn - Newlyn

Before testing our mettle on the French coast, Mrs P, The Child and I were in the depths of Cornwall with family. While many lunches and lovely treats were had, the most amusing of which happened in a tiny shop hidden on a back street that proported to be:

I later learned that this claim related to the bakery chain rather than the shop itself which I will admit left me slightly disappointed. But one of the main attractions was visiting the Tolcarne Inn in Newlyn. Mrs P and I managed to find a unsuspecting family member to look after The Child for the evening and off we went to try and find this pub.

From the outside, this seems like a perfectly normal boozer - but don't let that fool you. It is stood not 200 yards from the best fish market in the South. 90% of what is landed goes straight off to London and the quality is superb. Inside, the space is small, with less than 20 covers, but perfectly formed. Certainly informal (the waiting staff had to shoo how a local cat a couple of times), the place won me over straight away. The menu was short, with only five starters, mains and puddings to choose from but there was something in there for those of us who pride quality over quantity.

Starting with scallops and lentils for Mrs P, these were nice and big. Full of taste and the creamy sauce was fab. Neither of us were sure about the lentils as they didn't seem to bring anything to the plate apart from a little grittyness.

I went for the crab cakes which were good. Perhaps a little bland if I'm being uber critical, needing more crabiness to really stand out. The avocado dip though was really good, a perfect balance.

For mains, I had monkfish with crab risotto:

Which was all the crab that the starter was missing. This dish had everything, and I enjoyed every, single, fork-licking moment. The fennel was a great accompaniment and a vegetable which I vowed to feature more heavily on my plate at home. Mrs P, in a shocking break from tradition, had a mahoosive rib-eye steak:

Which looked an absolute fright but tasted beautiful. She ordered a side of chips which were the size of potato based medieval clubs and I'm ashamed to say we left most of them.

We shared a pud between us and what you can see here:

Is what's left of the lightest toffee sponge cake you will ever taste. It sent Mrs P over all unnecessary and she had to go for a lie down afterwards. The quality of this sponge was sublime and required us to say so to the waiter. He seemed pleased and said he would pass the feedback on.

In conclusion, If you are in Newlyn please go and support the Tolcarne Inn. Ben is a former Michelin starred chef and while the food here isn't up to that standard, I hope that isn't where he wants to take it. It's a work in progress, of that there can be no doubt and there is no mistaking the talent in this kitchen but by creaming off the quality of ingredients that are on his doorstep there is very little Mr Tunnicliffe can do wrong.

Oh, and he did me a great favour by recommending a couple of butchers for my sister-in-laws birthday BBQ which I catered for a couple of days later. So if you are reading this - the meat and fish went down an absolute treat, thanks very much.

www.tolcarneinn.co.uk/