5 Best Restaurants in St. Ives, The West Country

This dining-focused pub with bright, homey furnishings and a relaxed ambience looks past green fields to the ocean beyond. The frequently changing fixed-price menus (£35 or £42) feature fresh, inventively prepared meat and seafood dishes; look for plaice and brown shrimps with capers in a samphire butter sauce or rump of beef with asparagus and polenta. Leave room for some enticing desserts. Eight smallish rooms provide guest accommodations. The inn sits near the curvy coast road 6 miles west of St. Ives.

This tiny backstreet burger joint consistently draws enthusiastic crowds for its delicious burgers made of pure Cornish beef or vegan and vegetarian ingredients. The lightly toasted buns are baked with sesame seeds (there are gluten-free alternatives), toppings include field mushrooms and wilted spinach, and the skin-on fries are hand-cut. Organic wines and local beers and ciders are also available. There's normally a line outside, but you can phone ahead with your order, and if the limited seating outside is occupied, carry your burgers to the nearby beach—just watch out for the marauding gulls.

Intimate and elegant, this restaurant located within a luxury guesthouse is an ideal hideaway if you want some respite from the crowds swirling around St. Ives. Everything on the seven-course tasting menu (£49 or £69) is locally sourced and seasonal, and the chef will take the time to talk you through each dish; the menu's highlights might include lobster bolognese cannelloni with a caramelly lobster sauce, duck with Puy lentils and smoked carrot, or guinea fowl terrine with celeriac and pickled mushroom. With its boldly patterned wallpaper, the restaurant enlivens its classic style with modern decor, and there are superb views over Porthminster beach and the sea.

Unbeatable for its location alone—on the broad, golden sands of Porthminster Beach—this sleek, modern eatery prepares imaginative lunches and evening meals that you can savor while you take in the marvelous vista across the bay. The accent is on Mediterranean and Asian seafood dishes, and typical choices include sea bass fillet with local asparagus and a sauce vierge, Indonesian monkfish curry, and roasted duck breast with baked beetroot, burnt orange, and gin sauce. There's a gin bar and outdoor kitchen too—a tempting stop on a sunny day for breakfast, a snack, or just a drink—and two sister restaurants (Porthminster Kitchen on the harborside and Porthgwidden Beach Restaurant, in the Downalong neighborhood) have smaller and cheaper menus that are equally strong on seafood.

One of Cornwall's oldest pubs, the 1312 Sloop Inn serves simple lunches as well as evening meals in wood-beam rooms that display the work of local artists. The traditional menu includes fish pie, salads, and burgers as well as Cornish seafood paella. There's also a separate restaurant upstairs, and if the weather's good, you can eat at the tables outside at the front or on a rooftop terrace for excellent harbor views.