Padstow - Rick Stein's Fish and Chips - review

Back to the 31st of August now, for our visit to RickSteintow, sorry Padstow, a wonderful picture postcard kind of place set in a sheltered estuary on the north Cornwall coast (it's about an hour south west of where we were staying)...parking in the place is an absolute nightmare, we drove in droves around (forming part of a the constant procession of cars doing exactly the same) then pulled into the "park and ride" next to Tesco just outside town. The bus came quickly, we all hopped on, and literally 300 yards down the road we were all told to get off to walk the rest of the way into town! Bit of a waste of time!

Anyway, we got there in the end, only to find quite a lot of the shops were closed because of a power cut, suspiciously though, none of Rick Stein's (many) business ventures (at last count I believe it was 7, yes seven, in this one tiny village) seemed to be having any problems at all...

So, passing Rick's Patisserie, Rick's Kitchenwares, and one of Rick's cafe's we worked our way down to the the harbour...

Struggled through the thronging crowds and then up the cliff path looking out over the estuary -

- and up to chapel point (where we had a little rest) and watched the ferries and fishing boats zooming around the sand banks in practiced fashion -

- then back down to the main car park (there was still a power cut), past Rick Stein's main (and original) resturants, on past Rick Stein's deli (had a quick nose round) and on to sample a bit of Rick Stein Fish and Chips in his chip shop (next to his Fish and Chip resturant, which was closed)...is that seven? Might even be eight, I lost count... ;)

We were reasonably lucky with the queue, rumour has it that it can sometimes take up to an *hour* to queue to even make your order, but this time we were waiting just a few minutes -

- then you go and join the *other* queue (armed with your order number) and wait for your number to be called -

- (I had haddock and Flyingpops went for cod) -

- it was served up with a flourish, never had take away fish with fresh parsley garnish before... ;) The homemade tartare was really tasty, the chips were flawless, the fish was moist and fresh with a crispy batter, but I couldn't help thinking that it was just...well...fish and chips...albeit in a Rick Stein cardboard box...so, jolly nice, but not worth a 1 hour wait... ;)