As we stepped off the boat onto the Dartmouth riverside the
time was approaching half past one and our thoughts were turning towards lunch.
As I've said before, lunch is not a matter to be taken lightly, we've often
spent more time looking for somewhere
to have lunch than we have eating
there. (As an aside I'd point out that we've often found all sorts of non-food
related hidden gems while looking for a good looking eaterie.)
We didn't think that Dartmouth would present up with much of
a challenge, mind you. It's a small place that attracts a lot of tourists, so
we figured that pleasant little restaurants would be pretty thick on the ground
- and we were right. To be honest, we didn't really need to cross the road, as sitting demurely on the harbour
side is the Station Restaurant. It's
an odd building in many ways - not least because the railway is on the other
side of the river Dart. The story goes that the railway company couldn't get
planning permission to build a bridge over the river, so the trains had to stop
in Kingswear. Dartmouth Station was therefore built on the harbour side and
linked to the trains by a ferry.*
The little restaurant looked rather crowded, and besides, it
doesn't do to go straight for the first place you see so we ventured further
into town. Turns out, we were right - there were a lot of places to eat. Little tea rooms, pubs, fish and chip shops
(which we ignored because you should never buy fish and chips south of
Sheffield. Just trust me on this...), bistros and all manner of foodie
goodness. We passed several "possibles", but eventually found
ourselves outside the rather attractive cream shop front of the TwentySix Cafe on Lower Street.
We looked in through the windows to see a pleasingly simple
interior, mostly white and cream, with just one occupied table. I confess that
we are a little hesitant - whilst we don't particularly like being shoehorned
into places, a Bistro with only one occupied table doesn't inspire all that
much confidence about the dining experience. There was something about the place though. I have no idea what it was, perhaps
the softly playing French music, perhaps the discreetly framed photographs of sailing
yachts but there was a atmosphere about the place. So, in we went.
We settled in to a table for two by the wall, and were
greeted by the happiest waitress I have ever met. seriously, I don't think that
she stopped laughing at any point during the hour or so we were on the
premises. I suppose that could have
been annoying, but it wasn't - she was marvellous. We perused the menu, all the
time being amused by her loud and incredibly giggly 'phone conversation with a
fellow member of staff - again, this could, in different circumstances, have
been annoying. Being forced to listen to other people on the 'phone is
genuinely quite high on my list of "things that really really get on my wick", but somehow
the pure joy of it made her one-sided
chat more of an entertainment than an intrusion. Service was unaffected too - I
don't quite know how she judged it so perfectly, but her 'phone call ended and
she appeared at our table the very instant we were ready to order.
The menu at TwentySix is simple and classically French - Croques,
Onion Soup, open-faced sandwiches and so
on, which meant that the regular "unknown restaurant" standbys of
both me (burger) and my wife (cheese ploughman's) were unavailable. In the end, we'd both gone for more or less
the same thing - Mrs Snail went for a Croque Monsieur, while I opted for a Croque
Madame, which as the menu pointed out is basically a Croque Monsieur with an
added poached egg. For those of you wondering what a Croque Monsieur is, well,
basically it's a ham and cheese toastie. But nice.
In this case exceptionally
nice.
A ham and cheese toastie is not, in the grand scheme of
things, a difficult thing to get right. I mean, it's not in any way up with
differential calculus or pan-dimensional geometry. On the other hand, it is spectacularly easy to get horribly wrong. For a start far too many
people use horrible fatty ham, which ends up as chewy horrible gobbets in your
mouth. Many people who get that bit
right use tasteless gloppy cheese which they fail utterly to season and
therefore tastes like melted tupperware.
No such issues here. The ham (or "Jambon de Paris"
as the menu would have it) was beautifully cooked, lean and incredibly
flavoursome. The cheese was rather good gruyère,
melted but not burned, and seasoned with lashings of dijon mustard. All of this
on a lightly toasted slice of granary bread, which itself was possessed of a gentle
nutty flavour which complemented the topping perfectly.
We were impressed, is what I'm saying.
I have to say, about the only thing that could have improved
their Croque Monsieur would have been an
unctuous runny egg yolk oozing through the cheese and ham onto that wonderful
granary toast. That of course is why
I'd ordered the Croque Madame, but on this occasion my foresight was to go
unrewarded. My toast, ham and cheese combination did indeed come topped with a
poached egg, but sadly it was topped with a poached egg that had been cooked
until the yolk was disappointingly solid.
Cest la vie, as the French might have it. I'm prepared to
forgive them because not only was the meal utterly delightful in spite of the lack of a runny yolk, it
also came accompanied by an unannounced side order of chunky crisps and a
little pot of delicious Aioli. All things considered I'd have to rate TwentySix
as the outstanding dining experience of the whole holiday - better perhaps even
than The Vintner in Stratford!**
Should you ever find yourself in Dartmouth, and feeling a
bit peckish, I can give you no better advice than to direct your feet to Lower
Street and the impeccable food and service of this excellent little bistro. In
fact, TwentySix is probably worth making a special trip for, although a perusal of the website will show you that the Dartmouth Bistro is a sort of satellite venture, and that the original branch of TwentySix is to be found in Teignmouth. All I can say is that if the parent establishment is even half as good as the one in Dartmouth, it might be worth collecting the set!
*This has the ring of truth about it, but I was given this
information by the Captain of the Cardiff
Castle, who also told me that they spend the winter trimming low branches
on riverside trees to keep them parallel with the water...
**Just go to the "Lunch in Stratford on Avon"
posting to see what high praise this is...
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