Seafood Restaurant + Rick Stein’s

Control at the Padstow pass

The fish stays at the centre of the plate under Pete Murt, Head Chef at Seafood Restaurant + Rick Stein’s in Padstow. His favourite dish there, braised brill with slivers of potato and truffle, says much about the station he now holds: the garnish has a job, the truffle does not take over, and the fish carries the plate without being crowded. Murt came through section work at Hibiscus before taking head-chef responsibility at Rick Stein Sandbanks, then moving into the Padstow kitchen. That progression matters here because The Seafood Restaurant is not a room that rewards drift. Service depends on timing, clean repetition, and the ability to keep seafood precise without sanding away its character. Rick and Jill Stein established the flagship restaurant in 1975, and its reputation was built on fresh fish and shellfish cooked with curiosity rather than fuss. Murt’s role now sits inside that long-running house style, with Cornwall’s produce close to hand and a menu broad enough to include British favourites, curries, and dishes shaped by travel. The discipline is in holding the line.

A seafood bar with work in plain sight

The central seafood bar gives the room its clearest bench-side view. Chefs prepare oysters, langoustines, sushi, sashimi, and shellfish platters in front of the guest, so the gesture has nowhere to hide: the knife angle, the opened shell, the dressing held back until it has a reason to be there. The wider kitchen works in the same register. Lobster thermidor, turbot hollandaise, Indonesian seafood curry, Dover sole, XO clams, deep-fried camarones with migas, Frank Hederman’s smoked salmon, whole sea bass cooked in a banana leaf, and fish and chips all ask for different kinds of control. Some plates want heat and richness; others want restraint, acidity, or a clean cut. The seasonal menu keeps Cornish produce in the foreground, while the wine list, chosen by Charlie Stein, gives the cellar its own discipline beside the pass. In 2024, the restaurant received the AA Food Service Award, with the award attached to service and hospitality at this house, not borrowed from another kitchen.

Light on the room, pressure on the hands

The room is bright rather than theatrical, with a blonde wood floor, white walls, contemporary art, and the harbour close enough to keep the work honest. Around the counter, the pace changes by dish: a platter assembled cold, a whole fish carried hot, a curry sent with its sauce doing the lifting. The front tables look toward the harbour, but the main room keeps the focus on movement between the pass, the seafood bar, and the floor. It is a quayside restaurant with a long memory, not a museum of one chef’s name. The Stein family’s presence gives the house its frame; Murt’s kitchen gives the present tense its shape.

The house held in repetition

What matters now is continuity under pressure: a flagship opened in 1975, still asked to make seafood feel direct, seasonal, and properly handled. Murt’s task is not to decorate that inheritance. It is to keep the method steady through service, from shellfish at the bar to the favourite brill dish that fixes his own measure of balance at Seafood Restaurant + Rick Stein’s.