Boskerris Hotel

Eating

The sea view dining room is New England meets Mediterranean rustic; with painted furniture, pale wood floors, seaside art on the walls (providing splashes of cobalt and bold seaside blues) and fresh flowers (fragrant lilies in simple tubes of glass). In summer, it’s drenched in sunlight; on a winter’s night, cosy candelight.

A three course dinner is served between 7 and 8.30pm. You can also have two, or even just one course if you fancy, and the timing can be flexible. A typical menu might offer homemade soup with olive oil crostini, or St Ives Bay grilled mackerel fillets on a rocket salad, followed by Cornish lamb cutlets, or Catch of the Day served on warm Sicilian pepper caponata. You could finish with dessert (lemon posset with fresh raspberries, Roskilly’s organic ice cream) or Cornish cheeses (Yarg, St Endellion, Cornish Blue) with West Country cider chutney. Fish is caught daily from the boats in St Ives; the meat too, is local (and supplied by a village butcher near St Austell).

Breakfast is a buffet of juices, cereals (including a delicious homemade muesli) and a fresh seasonal fruit salad, followed by cooked breakfast to order.

If you want to eat out, you are spoiled for choice around here. The closest is the Porthminster Beach café (a five-minute train ride from Carbis Bay station, or a 20-minute walk on the coast path). Other good seaside choices include Gurnards Head gastro pub (on the coast road between St Ives and Penzance, a 20 minute drive) or The Beach at Sennen Cove (1/2 hour in the same direction). In Penzance, 8 miles south, try the Abbey Restaurant, owned by 1960s model Jean Shrimpton.