River Exe Café, Exmouth, Devon
If you value a unique dining experience, you are going to love the River Exe Café. This award-winning restaurant comes with a big difference to most eateries – it’s floating! Yep, floating. It’s set on a custom-built barge on the beautiful waters of the River Exe estuary offshore from Exmouth. The only way you can get here is by water taxi, or by private boat, which adds to the adventure.
The food is very, very good, with a huge focus on fish and seafood, as you’d expect, but they cater for all tastes, so even the vegetarians and vegans won’t be disappointed. The menu has starters like Ham hock terrine, Roasted scallops, Crispy panko squid, Oysters and Mussels; follow with Whole roasted catch of the day, Pan fried fillet of hake, Darts Farm roast sirloin, or Thai red vegetable curry. Desserts are equally tempting and if you’re worried the little ones won’t want to eat anything, fear not, because there’s a kids menu.
There’s always a lot of praise for the amazing sharing platters they serve here, including Neptune’s, served on ice and one the sea god himself would be proud of – whole lobster, crab claws, shell on prawns, pickled cockles, crevettes, steamed mussels and clams, rollmop herrings, marinated octopus, oysters, samphire, buttered new potatoes and sourdough. For a little extra you can add Exmoor caviar; either way you have quite a feast there.
Local is big at the River Exe Café, with ingredients sourced as close to Exmouth as possible, so most of the fish is caught in these very waters or along the Devon coast. You’ll notice that a lot of the soft drinks are produced in the West Country and meat comes from Darts Farm, less than 6 miles away.
The restaurant is fully covered and has outdoor dining areas for when the weather is good, including the upper deck, but you all have to be over 14 to be up there. Needless to say, the coastal views are incredible and on a summers evening, when the sun sets over the estuary, this is such a special place to be; with the scenery, the quiet chatter, just the whole ambience - it’s amazing.
The River Exe Café is family friendly and dog friendly, and opens form 1st April to 30th September every year, from 12pm to late Tuesday to Sunday and on Bank Holiday Mondays – although they then close the Tuesday following the Bank Holiday.
T: 07761 116103
All information correct at the time of writing