Best Restaurants and Cafés in Carbis Bay

Carbis Bay is barely a mile from headline-grabbing St Ives yet has quietly built a food scene that can keep you happily rooted to its own soft-white sands for a week. Almost every table looks out across the bay to Godrevy lighthouse and almost every menu reads like a roll-call of West-Cornwall farmers and day-boat skippers. In this piece, you’ll find the stand-outs, if you’re visiting in the summer months book early for summer sunsets, arrive hungry and let the Atlantic do the rest.

Whether you want high-gloss tasting menus or sandy-toed fish and chips, the kitchens here are brilliant examples of how Cornish cooking should be done: short supply lines and flavours as bright as the sea outside the window. Here’s our favourites…

Walter’s on the Beach

Carbis Bay Hotel’s glamorous beachside restaurant is open to non-residents, and it’s not to be missed. Step straight off the sand and you’re in Walter’s: floor-to-ceiling glass, soft linen, and the water close enough to practically touch the tide. Lunch is light, think crab brioche with rose harissa, crisp courgette fries and Cornish sparkling rosé, while evenings stretch into tasting-menu territory. The signature lobster macaron starter is a menu highlight, and you’ll see mains such as pair line-caught stone bass with coconut bisque and ginger-pickled kohlrabi, and short-rib with seaweed crumb and smoked shallot. Desserts often nod Asian: mango parfait, yuzu curd, sesame tuile. If you can, snag a terrace sofa for sundowners: a rock-samphire gimlet glows green against the pink sky, and there’s always blankets to brush over knees the moment the sun drops.

Becks Fish and Chips

Just a short stroll uphill from the sands of Carbis Bay beach, Becks Fish and Chips is a beloved local spot for traditional seaside fare. Perfect for grabbing a takeaway to enjoy with sea views, or you can dine in if you prefer, Becks serves up crisp, golden chips and sustainably sourced fish, all cooked to order. Whether you’re tucking into freshly battered cod on the sand or sharing a portion of chips along the coast path, it’s classic comfort food done right. With generous portions and a well-earned local following, Becks is a delicious way to round off a day by the sea.

The Gannet Inn Restaurant

Ten minutes’ gentle stroll inland rewards hungry walkers with wholesome hospitality: tweed banquettes, soft jazz, and a fire roaring on chillier evenings. The kitchen won an AA rosette for dishes that feel hearty yet refined – corn-fed chicken supreme on wild-garlic farro, Newlyn cod under seaweed crumb, and sticky toffee pudding draped in clotted-cream ice-cream. On Sundays think thyme roasties and ageing beef; Yorkshire puddings rise taller than a dry-bag and gravy arrives in jugs big enough for second helpings. Portions are generous, service unhurried, and the wine list leans Old World with a nod to English sparkling for celebrations.

Read our full review, here.

The Orangery

As part of the prestigious Carbis Bay Estate, The Orangery is open to non-residents seven days a week. Expect wraparound glass and foliage-filled planters, where you can graze morning to dusk: chia-seed porridge with Porthilly honey, smoked-haddock hash topped with poached St Ewe egg, or cream-tea towers teetering under scones taller than a kite-mark. The pastry counter shames restraint – caramel-brownie slabs, pistachio-rose macarons, thick wedges of zingy lemon polenta. Book in a lavish afternoon tea, and sip on a pot of Tregothnan Earl Grey, sink into a wicker chair and watch Atlantic squalls sweep across the bay while you stay warm beneath the glass roof.

La Casita

Leave the estate behind and wander up Trencrom Lane to a slate-roofed cottage glowing with fairy lights. Inside: beamed ceilings, terracotta tiles and a blackboard of tapas chalked anew each week. Classics never leave the menu, think patatas bravas, sizzling gambas, Iberico pork meatballs, while experimental plates riff on Cornish produce: hake croquetas with lemon aioli, goat-cheese churros drizzled in heather honey, or sea-salt chocolate pot topped with smoked almonds. Staff encourage ordering in rounds, plus beware the gin list spans Spain in twenty bottles: sip a Valencia Orange tonic G&T while you wait.

The Beach Club Restaurant

The Carbis Bay Estate’s family-friendly brasserie, the Beach Club sits just above the Bay. Sliding windows vanish on warm days so the line between table and shoreline blurs. Daytime staples are generous: chilli-lime prawns on sourdough, whipped feta salad piled with garden peas, and a chowder served in a bread bowl. By night white linens appear, candles flicker under storm lanterns and the specials board swings toward serious seafood, such as roast monkfish with chorizo butter, or scallops on cauliflower puree with shaved truffle. The youngest diners are well catered for too, where children’s meals come complete with a soft drink and dessert. Adults will enjoy rounding the meal off with affogato poured at the table, and watch the sun begin to set from the comfort of your dining table.