The Peapod review: No1, Rick SteinsFish, Falmouth
So whilst down in the South West recently I decided it would be remiss of me not to have some lunch at one of the regions great restaurants, and as we were in Falmouth, the obvious choice was the Rick Stein Fish & Chip Restaurant down on Maritime Quay, and as we had our children, The princess aged 2 and the boy aged 4 with us, it seemed a sensible choice.
In the past I have eaten at the original Padstow restaurant which was an enjoyable experience, however here there is a much more defined menu, so it was a good chance to experience a fuller menu, as well as plated service(Padstow served all food in cardboard containers).
The Restaurant in Falmouth which is in a newer part of town with a variety of other branded and independent restaurants as well as the Maritime Museum which is well worth a visit. It is an open restaurant with plenty of space and a good feeling of not being sat on top of each other like the original can often give. The service here is friendly and the children were made welcome and entertained by a well thought out colouring/games sheet with every colour crayon you could need.
As for the menu, there are a variety of options ranging from the a la carte, to a selection of 2 and 3 course options. We both plumped for the 3 course which at £19.95 was very good value. To start we chose the Salt & Pepper Prawns and the fishcake. It would be fair to say that this was the weakest part of the meal, still not shabby though. The prawns were lovely and fresh, however most of the Salt and pepper flavour remained on the outer shell and so it amounted to more of Prawns with garnish. The fishcake was more of a hit, and was extremely tasty, as you would expect, homemade and with a lovely sweet chilli sauce to complement it.
At this point it would be good to mention the service, during the course of the meal we were served by two of the staff, who were excellent in their interaction and conversation, they were attentive and informative and we felt very well catered for throughout the meal, engaging with the boy as he likes to tell them about everything in his life, and making their experience very enjoyable. The childrens menu is very good it should be mentioned and ours both emptied their plates of the Fish with new potatoes (They don't like chips! ...Yes I know?) and peas followed by ice cream.
On to the main, which for both of us was the Cod and Chips, this as you would expect was delicious, coming in a lovely beer batter, not to thick, but nice and crunchy on the outside and falling away inside and cooked to perfection, the chips were good chip shop style chips however slightly on the drier side which was good. The homemade tartare sauce was exceptional and the mushy peas were, well mushy peas, washed down with some mild ginger beer the main course was very good and what you would expect from this tried and tested dish.
Finally the desserts, we decided to chose differently here, and so ordered Apple Pie and Treacle Tart. The Apple Pie came with vanilla ice cream and was delicious, the pastry was short and complemented the apples well, however we were both taken by the treacle tart which was amazing, the taste of the tart, combined with the clotted cream that accompanied it was declared by my colleague as the best they have ever had, some praise from a dessert connoisseur. In seriousness, the tart was rich but not sickly, it had a lovely consistency and provided a great way to end a very good, reasonably priced meal, which I believe you would struggle to match for price and quality.
Service: 4.5/5
Price: 5/5
Food Quality: 4/5
Cleanliness: 5/5
Overall experience: 18.5/20
