There’s a fresh approach at Budleigh’s much-loved beachside café. The Longboat Café has recently undergone a transformation, one that needed to be done with care and appreciation for its heritage in the town. 

Now, under the guise of the Rockfish Seafood Café, doors are now open, and for opening night everyone in the area was invited to pop down to sample their wares.

“The Longboat Café held a warm place in everyone’s hearts, and we hope to earn the same,” says Chef Director Kirk Gosden.

Kirk says the Rockfish Seafood Café mixes traditional beach café fare with some truly inspirational seafood dishes, and this was on full display when we dropped in for lunch recently.

The Café opens early, and between 9am – 11am, dog walkers and other strollers can stop in for something on the breakfast menu, whether it be a dry cured bacon roll or something more adventurous, like the delicious Alfred Enderby smoked haddock and fried egg.

From midday to 9pm the menu changes and the Rockfish creativity is given free rein, introducing a range of excellent options with most of the seafood coming up directly from Rockfish’s Brixham quay facility.  

The Café draws on the Spanish chiringuitos which are pop up cafés that operate right off the beach often turning old boats into BBQs, serving up delicious, fresh local seafood in snack or full meal portions.

Among the smaller dishes we were keen to try something with the Spanish influence and opted for the premium Cantabrian anchovy fillets and Manzanilla olives from Seville. Both delicious and the anchovies were something else. Succulent, tasty, salty without being overpoweringly so – quite unlike anything I’d had before.  

The blackboard lists the day’s fresh catch – my partner opted for the grilled hake over the wing of skate. Kirk is keen to point out that although you might not always be too familiar with what you see on the Café’s menu, it is often the less well-known types of seafood that are most sustainable.

Sustainable seafood is an absolute cornerstone of the Rockfish ethos and as founder Mitch Tonks says, “we want people to enjoy fresh fish today while being part of the solution to help protect fish stocks for the future.”  

The South Devon blue lobster was a true pièce de resistance – stunningly fresh, tasty and accompanied by a crunchy, green salad, fresh bread and mayonnaise. Nothing pretentious, just simply delicious.

That perfectly sums up this beachside Café.

If you want to go full Spanish, every Sunday is Paella Sunday down at the Café from 12pm – 2pm (or until it’s gone), where you can enjoy baked rice, local seafood and prawns cooked in a rich shellfish stock.  A unique take on the traditional ‘Sunday Roast’, but then, that’s the Rockfish way.