The river exe cafe
When Paul & Tess said they’d come between 10:15 - 10:30 a.m. & grab me to make the journey to River Exe Cafe I knew they’d be late. They were almost an hour late for lunch & I could tell it didn’t bother them for a minute, whereas I’d be beating myself to a bloody pulp about it. I actually admire this about them, but in me, it causes havoc. I’m trying to let go of the anxiety I feel about time, but it’s a tough one. Being a chef & having to adhere to a tight time schedule is proving to be difficult to let go. I’m a work in progress!
Nevertheless, they pulled up in the work van & we made our way down to Exmouth. We got to The Point in time to park & walk around a little bit (See! We weren’t LATE!) & decided to wet our whistle with a glass of cider at The Point Pub. Minutes after we ordered & took our seats in the outdoor terrace, we realized that we had to catch our ferry over to the restaurant in right then! Argh! Paul dashed into the pub to get our drinks in to-go cups. It’s perfectly acceptable to drink alcohol pretty much anywhere here. I saw a guy with a bottle of beer on the train & wondered WTF, but it’s ok. So, we walked, paper cups in hand, to queue for the boat.
The ferry ride over was exhilarating. I love being on the water! The day was proving to be another gorgeous one & we joked & chatted easily during our journey. Paul & Tess are the quintessential hosts & made me feel part of their team immediately. We disembarked & sat at picnic style wooded tables with an umbrella for shade at the edge of the barge & ordered our drinks…sort of giggly from the cider. I call this feeling, “high on life”….not drunk, but feeling a little euphoric.
The River Exe Cafe is a seasonal restaurant on a custom-built barge that floats offshore, about a 30 minute ferry ride, in the Exe Estuary. Surrounded by amazing views, the by-reservations-only cafe offers up something fresh & delicious everyday. They are proud to offer fish & crustaceans freshly caught daily by local fisherman. In fact the entire menu revolves around carefully chosen local ingredients & their award winning “gastro shed” is a much sought after ticket with locals & tourists venturing into The Point.
The menu was mouthwatering & I wanted to order everything on it, but we narrowed it down to a mushroom & truffle pate with a red onion chutney & perfectly crunchy grainy sourdough crostini & 6 of the biggest oysters I’ve ever chugged to start with. Our main delight was the Neptune’s sharing platter, which consisted of whole lobster, crab claws, shell on prawns, pickled cockles, crevettes, steamed mussels & clams, rollmop herrings, marinated octopus, more fresh shucked oysters + buttered new potatoes, sea asparagus, truffle & Parmesan fries & sourdough bread. Help me Ronda! Even though we were pushing the last few bites towards each other to finish we ended the feast with an espresso/Baileys Irish Cream/Ice cream thing with a chocolate mint patty. God, I love my life!
Honestly, between my fish & chip lunch with Ray & Sue at Dartmouth & this seafood feast with Paul & Tess, I felt like i had won a lottery. Certainly the friendship lottery!
We drove back in stuffed stupor to pick Otis up from the grandparents & have cream tea & cake with clotted cream sitting out on the back deck at home.
How am I going to leave here? How?
