Exceptional Cornish Seafood at MOR, Carbis Bay – and Fine Coastal Dining at Porlock Weir
Two Fabulous Coastal Restaurants in the South West
The other evening I sat in a Cornish restaurant peering through the big view windows at the sea, and experienced one of those interludes when you stop short for a few seconds and enjoy a very special moment. Why? Because the mackerel I’d just eaten was the best bit of seafood I’d consumed in a long time.
So good that, after a while, I went on one of my social media streams and wrote: “The mackerel dish served at Mor, a new restaurant at Carbis Bay near St Ives, is arguably the best bit of mackerel being sold anywhere in the UK today. I’d go as far as to say that it would be worth catching a train from London and travelling the five-and-a-half-hours to enjoy. It is that good.”
MOR at Carbis Bay: A New Approach to Cornish Seafood
So why was it so good? Well, for a start it had been cooked over a mix of Japanese and local hardwood charcoal - and it was served with a stunning selection of no fewer than eight different condiments, all of which helped magnify and enhance the magnificent flavours of that salty, smoky, oily fish. But it was more than that.
The whole ethos surrounding the concept of seafood cookery at MOR is on another level, partially based on a tome called The Whole Fish Cookbook, by Australian chef Josh Niland, which has revolutionised the way people are thinking about the creatures of the sea as a food-source.
I remember Cornish chef Nathan Outlaw, who is generally recognised as one of the best seafood cooks in the country, talking about Niland's work when it came out: “This book is a game-changer! Josh has literally taken all the old ways of fish prep and cookery and thrown the bad ones out of the window then turned what remains on its head.”
In the foreword to the book, Rick Stein added: “If you love cooking fish this book will be a revelation. You’ll learn about dry-ageing to concentrate flavour and using every part but the bubble from the fish’s mouth!”
Dry-Aged Fish and the Whole-Fish Cooking Philosophy
Dry-aging… Most foodies will have heard of the term in conjunction with red meat, but nowadays the very best seafood restaurants do the same with fish. And right there in the hugely impressive new kitchen at MOR, there is a posh-looking glass cabinet in which various creatures of the Cornish seas hang over huge blocks of pink Himalayan salt which helps to both dry the flesh and to develop the flavours.
Later, just as I was about to leave the restaurant, I bumped into executive chef Tom Anglesea who told me: “Your butterflied mackerel will have been in there for 24 to 36 hours before going out onto the grill. And it will not have touched water since it was caught by a local fisherman on a hand-line. We have strict and specific requirements - all of which help bring the very best out of every bit of seafood we serve.
“If you’ve read Josh Niland’s books, you’ll know about the sort of thing we are trying to achieve.”
I have read them - and this is the sort of thing Tom’s talking about… In the very introduction to his first book there is a double-page photographic diagram of a single fish that has been dissected and divided into no fewer than 31 edible parts. These include cheek, jowl, collar, throat and heart - bone-marrow, blood, liver and spleen. If you thought the nose-to-tail style of eating was confined to large animals like pigs or cattle, think again.
And it’s the sort of thing they’re doing at this fabulous new restaurant called MOR, which is now part of the hugely impressive, forward-thinking Carbis Bay Estate…
The name itself is the old Cornish word for the sea. It is a simple, direct title, and sitting there right above the tide line looking across the white curve of Carbis Bay, you can see why they didn’t bother looking any further for a name.
The pedigree behind the project is considerable. Chef Patron Tom Sellers, best known for his two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Story in London, first dipped a toe into Cornish waters back in 2019 with a summer pop-up. It proved so successful that he returned to establish something permanent. But it is Tom Anglesea and head chef Corrin Harrison who are handling the day-to-day work at the pass. Anglesea made his reputation running the kitchen at The Laughing Heart in Hackney, while Harrison arrived from Gareth Ward's two-Michelin-starred Ynyshir and its sister restaurant, Gwen, where he had been head chef.
Together, they have created a room that does not play by the usual seaside restaurant rules. No breadcrumbed fillets or polite, butter-drenched standards. Instead, you get whole Cornish plaice, day-boat sea bass, and prime turbot hauled straight from the local markets and hung in that dry-ageing salt room, before being cooked over charcoal and brought whole to the table for sharing. Even the meat side of the menu takes its cue from serious local sourcing, with aged beef on the bone coming from Philip Warren up in Launceston.
It’s not cheap. That has to be said. My fabulous mackerel was £34 which was fine I thought, given the condiments, new potatoes and salad. A 500g serving of miso cured monkfish would cost £75 and one kilo of Cornish ‘ikejime' sea-bass would be £130 - but for my wife and I that would be a sharing plate. I’d still say excellent value for money. Because the team at MOR really do go the extra sea-mile. There is a huge amount of work in this kind of food and the flavours really do reflect that time and care - and I was impressed how completely they have embraced the idea that nothing from the ocean should be wasted.
Cornish Bluefin Tuna: A Special Dinner at MOR
Which brings me to the marine story that will be unfolding in the restaurant later this month. On Friday, October 30, the restaurant is hosting a dedicated Tuna Night to celebrate the extraordinary return of Atlantic bluefin to our coastal waters. It’s an oceanic story that would have seemed impossible a decade ago, but today these torpedo-shaped giants are once again boiling bait-balls of mackerel and pilchards right under the cliffs.
To mark the occasion, commercial fisherman Kieran Burkhill and his crew-mate Kyle Robinson are coming ashore from their Mevagissey boat, the Stargazy. Operating under strictly controlled, rod-and-reel licences, they land these immense creatures using a custom stern-ramp to ensure the fish is handled with supreme care. Kieran will co-host the evening alongside Tom Anglesea, beginning with a live breakdown of a whole bluefin right there in the dining room, explaining the butchery and zero-waste philosophy behind cuts like the rich belly and lean loin.
The MOR team will then send out a five-course tasting menu built around that fish - from raw sashimi with English wasabi and house-made smoked tuna soy, to a rich broth made from the roasted bones, followed by prime loin gently poached in chicken fat and served with MOR tuna garum, before finishing with their signature Medjool date and custard tart. Marine scientist Emily Theobald from the Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation will also be on hand, explaining the research they’re doing with the University of Exeter into what these apex predators are feeding on.
It’s proper, serious, ocean-to-plate cooking with complete respect for the beast. Tickets are £150, but guests even leave with a portion of that tuna to cook at home - a fitting souvenir from a restaurant that is taking Cornish seafood into an entirely new dimension.
Another Coastal Venue: The Porlock Weir Hotel in Somerset
Another day, another moment of foodie admiration on the West Country shoreline - this time 150 miles north-east up the coast in Somerset…
At the Porlock Weir Hotel to be precise, where chef-publican Miguel Tenriero was showing me his new autumn menu which, it has to be said, is equally inventive and delicious, but set within a lower price bracket.
South African-born Miguel, who comes from a Portuguese family, has spent seven years at the helm of this handsome, 17-bedroom waterside inn, and he puts on no airs and graces. “I’m head chef, publican, and general dog’s body really,” he laughed as he laid out a few test plates.
But what comes out of his kitchen is remarkably accomplished. His team is nothing but international - featuring Polish, Hungarian, and Tunisian chefs - and that cross-pollination shows in the cooking. “We try to create a European fusion menu,” Miguel explained. “Everyone brings their own background and we give it our own twist.”
Exmoor Produce and Inventive Cooking at Porlock Weir
Take the Brixham monkfish tail (£28.50), wrapped in Parma ham and served with a paprika puree and a super-concentrated, crystal-clear tomato consommé. Or the locally shot Exmoor red deer loin (£29), served with braised shoulder tucked inside a Roscoff onion and a clever red cabbage ketchup.
Vegetarians are treated with equal respect. Miguel’s butternut squash Wellington (£23.50) is an intensive, three-day labour of love. The squash is roasted and shaped, rolled with mushroom duxelles and spinach pancakes, rested for 24 hours, and then baked off to order. “If you’re charging people for a main course, you have to put in the effort to make it worth it,” he told me.
With mains largely hovering between £22 and £29 - beef coming from Westermill Farm just six miles away - it offers genuine, generous cooking in one of the most tranquil spots in the West Country.
I am biased, being a West Somerset boy born-and-bred, but I believe Porlock Weir to be one of the most beautiful, scenic, places along the entire West Country coast. The fact there’s a really good watering-hole right on the harbour-side is a fantastic bonus. In an era of eye-watering bills, that makes a visit to this haven of fine food well-worth the journey.
