When I told my sister I was planning to stay at Exmouth she asked: "Will you be eating at Mitch Tonks?". My response was Who or What?
It turns out Mitch Tonks is a chef, restaurateur and entrepreneur who does a lot of cheffing, restaurateuring and entrepreneuring in this part of the country. Apparently, he is well known to people who watch Saturday Kitchen or Sunday Brunch and other food programmes, but as he hasn't appeared on Great British Menu or MasterChef he hadn't hit my awareness - until now.
As it happened, I had already booked a few restaurants before our visit to Exmouth and one of them was Rockfish, one of a small number of Rockfish restaurants in this region owned and run by Mitch Tonks. So without knowing it I was to taste his food on this lovely Friday evening.
Going to Rockfish
We left the house at 6.30pm and wandered down the 1.2 miles - it was downhill all the way - to the Exmouth Pier where Rockfish is located, right next to the sea arriving at 6.55pm for our 7pm booking.
As the name applies, this place is all about the fish, and much of it about fish which arrives in Exmouth from the fishing boats that have been out to sea today.
The menu has some regular options, but the major part of it is a list of fish, which the server marks to indicate which ones have come in fresh today.
Starters
While we were making up our mind we started with some Sourdough and Seaweed Butter, which was salty and delicious.
It seems right to be here on a Friday, a day of abstinance from meat for us Catholics, but it is no penance to eat fish which is looked after and care for as well as that at Rockfish.
For his starters Drew opted for Crispy Fried Whitebait with Aioli, the garlic rich sauce was a perfect accompaniment for the crispy little fishes. Drew was very happy.
I decided a salad would make a good starter and choose the Caesar Salad with anchovies. The croutons on the salad were crisp and delicious, though with a lot less garlic than we use when we cook them at home. The pickled anchovies added a vinegary richness to the Caesar sauce and the lettuce leaves were crisp and fresh. In short a perfect Caesar salad.
Mains
For Main course we had both gone for fish from the daily catch. Drew opting for Silver Mullett and I for Plaice, we accompanied these with Chips (Drew) and New Potatoes with Fresh Mint and Isle of Wight Tomato salad for me.
Plaice is such a delicate fish, that it is all too often wasted in Fish and Chip shops when it is drowned in batter. Batter works well with more robust flavoured fish, but plaice's gentle flavours work well when it is lightly cooked and ready to fall off the bone.
As I eat it I was reminded of a Malay Chinese friend of mine whom I worked with when I taught on the Newport MBA delivered at Hainan University in Haikou, China. His greatest delight was to finish a fish and then suck the head to get every last but off. I didn't quite go to Dr Tan's extreme but I took every bit of flesh from the bone and scrapped some for the head too. It was absolutely delicious. After the wonderful and complex food of yesterday it was a great delight to have something equally wonderful, but much more simple, in this meal which simply celebrated the fish and vegetables that were being used.
If you are ever in the South West do look out for a Rockfish restaurant, unpretentious ambiance, but high quality and well cared for ingredients. Who could ask for more?
I do like to stroll along the Prom, Prom, Prom!
We had the pleasure of a spectacular sunset and having worked the mile from Rockfish to the Maer. We took another route up the 1.5 miles to home.
