Welcome to seagrass-stives.com – an independent guide to eating well and travelling smart in St Ives and across Cornwall. This site is written and maintained by Petroc Tregenna, a Cornwall-based food and travel writer who believes the best meals in the county aren’t always the famous ones, and that a good day in St Ives is built as much on the walk between courses as on the plates themselves.
Who Writes This
My name is Petroc Tregenna. I grew up in West Cornwall and now live in Penzance, a short drive around the bay from St Ives. I’m 35, and I’ve spent the last decade writing about food and travel – first in professional kitchens in Bristol, where I learned that respect for an ingredient matters more than any garnish, and later as a freelance writer covering regional restaurants, fishing ports and coastal holidays for newspapers and magazines across the South West.
That combination – time on the line in a kitchen, and years reporting on the places that feed us — is what shapes everything here. I know what a properly handled piece of hake feels like under a knife, and I also know what it’s like to arrive in a packed harbour town in August looking for somewhere honest to eat that won’t cost a week’s wages.
Why This Domain
This web address has a long history. For years it belonged to a well-regarded St Ives restaurant, and the name remains strongly associated in people’s minds with good food on the Cornish coast. When the domain became available, I took it on deliberately – not to pretend to be what came before, but because I wanted a home for honest, locally rooted writing that carries that same spirit: seafood landed nearby, produce grown in Cornish soil, and a town that has fed visitors for generations.
I want to be completely clear about this: I did not found or run the previous restaurant, and nothing on this site should be read as a continuation of that business. The reviews, recommendations and guides you’ll find here are mine, written fresh, and the restaurant that once carried this name is one I write about as an outsider like any other. What I’ve kept is the geography and the appetite. Everything else is new.
What You’ll Find Here
The guide is organised around five things I get asked about constantly:
St Ives Dining
Where to actually eat – from harbourside seafood and proper Cornish pubs to the tasting menus worth booking weeks ahead. I visit, I pay my own way, and I tell you plainly which places are worth your time.
Cornish Seafood & Local Produce
The heart of it. Cornwall lands some of the finest fish in Britain, and I write about what’s in season, where it comes from, the day boats and the markets, and how to choose and cook it at home. If you’ve ever stood at a fish counter unsure what to ask for, this section is for you.
Visiting St Ives & Cornwall
The practical, unglamorous, genuinely useful stuff: when to come, how to get here without a car-park meltdown, the best beaches, the coast path, and how to plan a weekend that balances food with everything else this corner of the county does well.
Cornwall Food News & Reviews
New openings, chef moves, awards, festivals and the occasional honest opinion about where the regional dining scene is heading.
Recipes & Cooking
Simple, seasonal, Cornwall-leaning recipes built around the seafood and produce I write about — the kind of cooking that respects the ingredient and doesn’t need a brigade of chefs to pull off.
How I Work
A few principles keep this site useful:
- I pay for my own meals. Recommendations are never bought. If a visit was hosted or a sample provided, I say so in the piece.
- I write from the ground. I live here. I eat here. When I recommend a beach, a boat or a bowl of mussels, it’s because I’ve been.
- I update what changes. Restaurants close, chefs move, prices climb. I revisit and correct rather than leaving stale advice online.
- I’m honest about limits. Cornwall is big and busy. I can’t cover everything, and I’d rather write thoroughly about the places I know than thinly about places I don’t.
My Experience and Expertise
My kitchen training gives me a working cook’s eye for technique and quality, and my years in food and travel journalism taught me how to research a place properly, talk to the people who run it, and separate genuine quality from marketing. I’m a member of my local fishmonger’s mailing list before I’m anyone’s affiliate – which tells you roughly where my priorities sit.
Get In Touch
If you spot something out of date, want to suggest a place I’ve missed, or you’re a Cornish producer or restaurant with news worth sharing, I’d genuinely like to hear from you. This guide gets better when readers and the local food community push back on it.
Thanks for reading – and if you’re heading to St Ives soon, eat the fish.
Petroc Tregenna, Penzance, Cornwall