This final post about Polperro (for this year anyway!) is dedicated to our favourite restaurant in the village, Couch's Great House Restaurant.
We always eat here at least twice during our Easter break and this year was no exception. Executive Chef and owner, Richard McGeown (who trained with Gordan Ramsey, Marco Pierre White and Raymond Blanc) has done an amazing job with this place.
He personally welcomes us, presents the food to us himself and explains exactly what produce he has used and the techniques he has employed to cook the dishes he serves. And when we see him around in the village is always eager for a chat about what we've been up to in the day.
My two favourite anecdotes that relate to Couch's and Richard himself are ones that I regualarly tell when people are talking about exceptional service. A couple of years ago, on one of the nights that we were eating in, I'd decided that I would cook duck risotto - could I get duck breasts from anywhere? No way! So I cheekily knocked on the kitchen door at Couch's in the morning and asked Richard if he could order some for me on his daily fresh produce order. He was more than happy to and of course was in no way obliged to - he did it because he's a lovely bloke who wanted to help us out.
My absolute favourite story about Couch's is actually from last year and the fishing trip we went on then. We caught a monster haul (honestly!) of nearly 50 mackerel which we had no idea what to do with! So we knocked on Richard's door (recurring theme?!?!) as we were booked in for his 'taster menu' that evening and asked if he would prepare some of the fish as part of one of the courses. He was only too happy to take all the lovely fresh fish from us and cooked us an AMAZING course of mackerel with spiced apple and balsamic reduction. Awesome stuff!
But back to this years visits to Couch's. We often have the taster menu one night and then go from the al a carte menu another, but this year we did the taster menu on our first night and it was so good that we asked to have it again! Richard of course didn't do the same courses, he came up with 7 different courses on both nights and every single one of them was superb!
As a family, we couldn't recommend Couch's and Richard's hospitality enough, it's one of the highlights of our week away when we go there for dinner and we can't wait for more of the same next year!
Thanks for reading this series of holiday posts - hopefully they gave you a sense of what I like to do when I'm not shooting weddings, the kind of places we like to go and what a beautiful part of the world Polperro is!
Next year is our 10th Anniversary of visiting Polperro at Easter, so expect some SERIOUS blogging after that landmark holiday! This has been nothing compared to what will be coming next year!!!
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