Plonk’d, Cornwall: ‘There’s an open-hearted warmth’

Photographs Karen Robinson

Choosing a Cornish restaurant to review, I had one rule: that it be open all year. Certain restaurants here – those serving small plates made with carefully sourced local ingredients, those aimed at wealthy tourists – close in November, when the tourists stop coming, reopening in spring. The reason is simple: Cornwall is one of the poorest regions in the UK, one of only two to receive EU development funding before Brexit, with the highest difference between average income and rental/house prices.

I grew up near Totnes, in south Devon, but my partner was born on Bodmin Moor, and her father and grandparents still live in Cornwall. We visit often, and see the seasonal change up close. Totnes is affluent, and though it grows quieter outside of the tourist season, it never ceases to be busy; nor do the surrounding villages. Restaurants here such as the Bull Inn, and Emilia in Ashburton, are lively all year round. It’s the same in other, less affluent Devon towns. Cornwall’s winter quiet is not a necessary part of rurality, but a result of seasonal exodus.

This leaves many communities bereft, feeling taken advantage of. Tourists – emits, in Cornish vernacular – are seen as a necessary evil at best. For locals, already shut out by economics, winter closures accentuate the feeling that nice restaurants are not for them. And while some restaurants pay their staff all year round, most don’t, leaving front- and back-of-house out of work for months at a time.

Not so at Plonk’d, opened in 2021 by Jess Balsam and Jonny Mutch, the couple’s first venture. Its decor is flash – green tiles and copper fixtures. It’s busy when we venture in from the cold, and hopes to be for months to come, for it doesn’t close. Across from us, four people, parents with their grown-up child and their child’s partner, order with hard Cornish vowels. Another Cornish couple, one heavily pregnant, tuck into croquetas and fried chicken with glee, discussing the bird’s superior crunch in detail. I perch on a stall opposite my friend Tess, whose mother lives twenty minutes away. On the drive here, we’d gossiped about village matters – trees that had fallen, who was sick, who had left, the thrill of trading damp Kernow for an evening in the Basque country.

Drinks first. There’s a good variety of Spanish (though no Basque) and West Country wines by the glass, selected with obvious care. The sparkling, reasonable at £11, is light and playful. I grin when I see it’s from Totnes. Beer follows the same pattern: mostly local, with the exception of Alhambra Reserva, a light lager rarely found outside southern Spain. Most impressive are the non-alcoholic cocktails, one of the most extensive lists I’ve seen. I order one Pen-No-Cillin – a smoky, gingery creation. Then another.

Cornwall has lots of excellent restaurants; my favourites, NSK Fowey and the Rocket Store in Boscastle, both close in November. Those that do stay open all year must adapt. Barnaby’s, in nearby Padstow, serves inexpensive weekend brunches from October; many others, such as Four Boys, here in Wadebridge, radically reduce their opening hours. Plonk’d has a £40-a-head Sunday lunch club, where pre-booking and everyone eating the same simple dishes cut down costly waste. But more importantly, its daily menu is reasonably priced. The most expensive dish – a baked gurnard, its meaty flesh enriched by roast fennel – is £18; everything else hovers around a tenner. Such consciously accessible pricing persuades locals, and the quality of the cooking has them return. It’s working: vacated tables are quickly reconquered. I’d tried to book for Friday dinner a week in advance and was unable to, and there were only two tables left for Saturday.

Suitably enticed by our neighbours, w e devour our fried chicken (balanced with distinctly un-Spanish spiced romesco), a generous portion of salty-sweet jamón and earthy Cornish beetroot on slick sesame yoghurt. The meaty-rich boquerones, cut just right with vinegar, come in a pool of excellent olive oil. The three Spanish cheeses, presented atop a piece of paper bearing the restaurant’s name, a nod to the Spanish bars Plonk’d emulates. The best is a blue, from the Asturian Picos de Europa, aged in ancient mountain caves.

Deep-fried oysters are served in their shells, a joyous touch. Texturally, they’re almost transparent, the oyster’s sliminess absent, though the pickled cabbage garnish is not quite sour enough to cut the batter’s richness. Sadly, these and the gurnard are the only fish on the menu, despite local ling and mackerel being plentiful at this time of year and the very nearby sea.

Wild mushrooms, fried just a little in plenty of butter so they retain a firm bite and finished in cream, speak of damp Cornish woods and fine dairy cows. The patatas bravas (which aren’t really bravas at all, since they are unspiced) are nonetheless a pile of very good roast potatoes, a pleasing British twist.

There’s only Basque cheesecake for dessert – an act of self-confidence, bravado even, from the kitchen. It pays off: it is the best I’ve had in England and, honestly, better than most I’ve had in northern Spain. Its innards are velveteen, its rich sweetness cut by a funky tang that is almost, but never quite, too much.

My mouth’s still full when the younger couple from across pop outside, and the man falls to his knees – not drunk but proposing. She says yes. Everyone watches, grinning, and the waiter tells us it’s the restaurant’s first engagement.

Jonny worked in restaurants before Plonk’d, but Jess’s background is in the beauty industry – the chatty, casual service feels reminiscent of salon visits. There’s an open-hearted warmth from the staff here, and an excitement describing each dish: “Croquetas are like posh tater tots,” we’d been assured, in case of confusion from the uninitiated. The food isn’t exactly Basque – there aren’t even pintxos on today’s menu – but cleverly inspired by northern Spain. It deserves to be the site of many more proposals.

Plonk’d, Foundry Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 7NW (plonkd.co.uk). Tapas £5 to £18; wines from £28; cocktails from £12