Ardor — Restaurant in Great Britain

This was my second time at the Seafood Cafe, unfortunately wasn't as good as the first (June this year).

We ordered oysters, scallops, sardines, lemon sole and seafood chowder. In one of my oysters there was a little worm swimming. As much as I know that doesn't necessarily mean the oyster is bad or dangerous, I can't think of any scenario where finding a worm in your food is acceptable, let alone pleasant. It probably was in the shell, meaning it wasn't washed in the shipping, and got inside the oyster during the shucking, meaning poor shucking practices with no prior cold-water washing to remove grit and worms. The oysters were also with grit inside. They need better shucking training and perhaps better sourcing.

When I told the waitress about the worm she said that was normal, as they "litteraly just open them and serve them". I asked "don't you clean them?" and she said there's no such thing as cleaning oysters. She did cancel the charge for that one oyster though, billing us for 5 oysters instead of 6.

The food took a long time to come although I wouldn't lower my rating due to that alone. We understand many places are understaffed at the moment and we don't really mind waiting longer. The rest of the food was okay but I must confess I lost trust in the hygiene after the oyster incident and I wasn't enjoying the meal so much anymore.

The music was a bit too electronic to our taste but to be fair we didn't ask them to turn it off, if we had, they probably would have.

We weren't feeling sick after our meals, and the seafood does taste good, so I don't question the freshness of the produce. But I don't think I'll be going back for a third time as I don't feel comfortable when people handling my food think worms in...

Excellent meal! The Seafood Cafe menu boasts classic fish-based mains, small plates and appetising range of catch of the day (they also serve meat and vegetarian options but we didn't try them out). My party was made up of three people and we had:

x3 fresh oysters on a bed of sea salt; x1 Chowder; x1 Mackerel (fish of the day); x1 Monkfish (also fish of the day); x1 roasted cauliflower on a bed of cauli mash; Nice (bottled) Cornish beer.

The Chowder was very tasty, it came with mussels and bacon. Both fish were pan fried, the mackerel had mouthwatering crispy skin and the monkfish was deliciously tender. Both came with a side of roasted new potatoes and a lavish sauce made with capers, onion and butter. All portions were of good size and well presented.

For dessert, we shared a sticky toffee pudding; it's not like we needed that to feel full! But we thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was particularly pleased with the toffee texture and nice swap of vanilla ice cream with Cornish clotted cream. The stuff sweet-toothed people's dreams are made of!

The restaurant staff was courteous and service was very speedy. We wandered in without a reservation; luckily they had a table for us for 1 hour before the booked party arrived. I'd probably want to book next time around.

The only thing this venue could improve is soundproofing the dining room. It was pretty loud and I could barely hear the people I sat in front of (I don't usually have hearing problems).

Overall, a great restaurant for fresh fish in St Ives! Starred on my map and 100%...

My wife and I visited the Seafood Cafe in St Ives mid week, off-season for lunch. It was mid-afternoon and the cafe was not very busy at all.

The menu was not very adventurous for a cafe specialising in seafood within walking distance of St. Ives harbour but again this is perhaps more of a criticism of the British apathy with seafood from our own shores. I went for the Crab Linguine (£14.95) whilst my wife plumped for the Beer Battered Fish and Chips (£13.50). The service was excellent however the food could only be described as almost fantastically average. The sauce of my linguine was so runny that it was effectively pasta in a soup. I would expect the sauce to have enough substance to have at least some adhesion to the linguine but there was none. The sauce tasted OK with clear signs of fresh garlic and red chillies but the crab was all fibres and had no substance whatsoever. My wife's fish and chips were no better. The fish is not described on the menu and she did not ask but I am fairly sure that it was pollack. As at least one TV chef pointed out, it may be sustainable but it lacks flavour. The pollack I catch ends up as maklai massala, curried fish for this reason. The batter was very, very chewy without any crispiness at all. This is a basic kitchen error that is unforgivable in a cafe/restaurant specialising in fish / seafood. We chose here to eat, firstly to try somewhere different and secondly because the Seafood Restaurant we had previously visited...