ROCKFISH BUDLEIGH BEACH TO OPEN AS FULLY FLEDGED SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

Rockfish Budleigh Beach to open as fully fledged seafood restaurant. Rockfish’s seafood cafe on Budleigh Beach is set to enter a new chapter this May, as the seafront site is transformed into a full boat-to-plate restaurant. Featuring a totally refurbished interior, the restaurant will welcome locals and visitors alike to enjoy the full range of sustainable, freshly landed seafood while on its unique beachfront setting.

Bringing its longstanding commitment on fresh, local and sustainable seafood to Budleigh, the new restaurant marks a positive evolution for the town, introducing a fully-fledged dining destination with a seafood offering led by a dedicated Rockfish kitchen team. The site will continue to serve takeaway breakfast favourites, while from lunchtime onwards, a menu will showcase a seasonal selection of fish, landed and prepared fresh each day.

Evolving into a full restaurant, the menus at Rockfish Budleigh Beach will change daily, as like other Rockfish restaurants, shaped entirely by that morning’s catch, delivered straight from the quayside at Brixham Market and hand-annotated to signal to guests what’s at its very best that day.

The takeaway breakfast will be offered from 9am – 11am, simply serving  sausage and dry-cured bacon rolls, along with a selection of hot drinks, maintaining a much-loved part of the site’s daily rhythm for locals and regular visitors alike.

Lunch service will begin from 12pm, when guests will be able to enjoy both in restaurant and via the takeaway hatch, offering a menu centred around Rockfish’s signature spread, with starter highlights including Pot-caught ‘Disco’ Scallops with parmesan and garlic and Crisp-fried salt and pepper wild prawns and Brixham calamari.  Guests can then choose from the variety of fresh, seasonal fish landed that day, which will then be cooked to order and served with their choice of Cornish new potatoes, Green salad or Unlimited chips. Other standout mains range from Crisp-fried prime Brixham hake fillet fried in Rockfish batter with tartare sauce or Chargrilled sea bream with Greek island salad. Dinner will start across Friday and Saturday evenings, evolving as the team grows and summer nights get longer.

Rockfish Budleigh Beach has been thoughtfully redesigned to reflect the full dining-in experience at Rockfish restaurants, featuring interiors led by Lisa Helmanis, the same designer as recent new openings in Sidmouth and Salcombe:

“We wanted that feeling of stumbling across somewhere magical, like the old ciderias Mitch loves in Portugal and Spain,” explains Lisa. “Rich wood, terracotta, dark leather – but never precious. Sand can brush in through the door, wet dogs are welcome, and when you walk through to the main room you can see the stunning view out to sea. In summer it’s full of light, and in winter, it glows. It’s a year-round place, and that feels very different to what was here before.”

Mitch Tonks, Founder & CEO of Rockfish says:

“This is a space we’ve come to really cherish over time, and gradually shape it into a beachside spot loved by locals, so this next step feels like a natural evolution. It will still be a community spot where people can come down, have a morning swim, coffee and bacon roll! But we’re excited at the opportunity to now bring it in line with what Rockfish does best – a dedicated seafood restaurant by the sea, serving the freshest catch of the day.” He adds, “Budleigh has a strong sense of community, and this has been front of mind throughout. It was important to us that it still feels like a welcoming and relaxed place people know and return to, to enjoy great seafood, time and again.”

Following recent openings in Sidmouth and Salcombe, Rockfish continues its steady expansion along the South West coast. Since first opening in Dartmouth, next door to the critically acclaimed The Seahorse restaurant, the award-winning sustainable seafood restaurant group from CEO and Founder Mitch Tonks has grown into a scalable, sustainable model for serving seafood at peak freshness, deeply rooted in the coastal communities it calls home. The estate of restaurants also provides jobs and careers for hundreds living across coastal holiday towns, and has been named one of the “Best Places to Work” by the people who work there multiple years running.

Image: Rockfish