From Padstow to London to Padstow again
Rick and Katie Toogood have been bringing the Cornish coast to Londoners since they opened Prawn on the Lawn in Highbury in 2013. Starting life as a fishmongers and tiny seafood bar, it expanded into a bigger restaurant site just up the road two years later.
The couple decided that Cornish locals deserved to see what they were doing with all that local seafood, so they opened Prawn on the Lawn in Padstow – yes in the land of Rick Stein – in 2015, and they’ve been on a roll ever since. Next was Barnaby’s, a pop-up-turned-permanent produce-led restaurant at Trevibban Mill Vineyard, and then Little Prawn, a test kitchen and seafood bar across the road from the main restaurant
All three Padstow restaurants are a real expression of the area – the seafood is all caught locally, the meat is reared locally and the veg is grown locally – but they’re different to both typical fish & chips seaside fare and to what the likes of Rick Stein and Paul Ainsworth are doing just down the road. Rick and Katie have created buzzy spots (Prawn on the Lawn and Little Prawn particularly are very fun and vibey, with Barnaby’s being a bit softer and more relaxed), and the menus aren’t boxed in by any one style or cuisine. Rick, a self-taught chef, has drawn inspiration from all over the world, so you get South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavours paired with the freshest seafood – talk about a winning combo.
There are some similarities across the Prawn on the Lawn, Little Prawn and Barnaby’s menus. You’ll always find oysters, which could be raw and served with POTL hot sauce, or deep fried with mojo verde. There’s often a scallop; we had them with Thai green curry, sobressada and fermented chilli butter. The seared tuna, dressed with soy and mirin, has become a bit of a signature, as have the impossibly crispy and moreish crushed spiced potatoes (you can buy the spice mix to recreate these at home).
But there’s also enough difference to give each place its own identity, especially Barnaby’s, which features more meat and veg on the menu in an effort to showcase the great ingredients that Cornish farmers and growers are producing – there’s much more to this county than the coast. That also means you can eat at each one in quick succession and have something new every time. We say that from experience, having had a spicy crab som tam, meaty tuna kofta and whole bream with soy and ginger at Prawn on the Lawn; fat boquerones in peppery olive oil, creamy grilled Atlantic prawns and mussels and tromboncino in Thai yellow curry at Little Prawn; and gurnard roti tostada with fermented cabbage and seaweed mayo, crab toast with muhammara, and oyster mushrooms with whipped tahini and gremolata at Barnaby’s.
The quality of the produce used in the restaurants is evident and that’s down to the strong network of suppliers. There are wines from Trevibban Mill, including an excellent sparkling pinot noir; Johnny Murt lands the best crab and lobster right on Padstow harbour, just steps from the Prawn on the Lawn: and the oysters come from Porthilly Shellfish, a family-run farm growing oysters (plus mussels and clams) in the Camel Estuary, just across the water from Padstow.
Ross Geach, who runs Padstow Kitchen Garden at Trerethern Farm, where Rick and Katie did Prawn on the Farm pop-ups during the pandemic, supplies the restaurants with veg and pork. We were lucky enough to try both on site – after picking a variety of kale to be cooked on a Big Green Egg, we had a feast of whipped lardo with Coombeshead sourdough, mussels with guanciale, and greens overlooking the farm’s rolling fields.
As well as supplying regeneratively farmed meat to POTL, Trevear Farm also acts as a great base to stay in the area. There’s a collection of luxury guesthouses on site, plus a swimming pool, a games room, a high spec gym, an honesty farm shop (stocked with POTL beer and wine), and an honesty gin and champagne bar, and plenty of impressive artworks by Cornish artist Jethro Jackson to admire. It’s very much a working farm so you can even take tours to see the animals, including pigs, duck, sheep, alpacas and guinea fowls.
Such is their dedication to using the best seasonal ingredients, Rick and Katie have created an incredible kitchen garden at their house in St Kew. Across various veg patches, raised beds and a polytunnel, they’re growing tomatoes, cucumbers, fennel, carrots, chillies (for the POTL crispy chilli oil), gooseberries, courgettes, tromboncinos, spicy oregano, multiple varieties of mint, apples, olive herb, lemongrass, plums and wasabi, and that’s not even the exhaustive list.
We got to pick some tomatoes and cucumbers for Rick to make it into a salad with his crispy chilli oil, part of a ridiculous feast featuring charred courgettes, tromboncino with fermented butter, and BBQ lobster caught by Johnny that day, all served with Trevibban Mill Pinot Noir fizz.
You may not get to eat in Rick and Katie’s garden but you can eat the best of Cornwall at their restaurants in Padstow, and if you can’t escape to the seaside, you can get a little taste of the south west in north London.
