Royal Castle Hotel - Dartmouth, Devon
The Royal Castle Hotel is one of the most popular and busy places to eat in Dartmouth, and also offers an obvious insight of how things have changed in Dartmouth with the influx of wealth from the city with more and more wealthy people snapping up second homes and using the River Dart estuary as a sailing base.
On entering the Royal Castle Hotel you are presented with two choices, to the left is a recently refurbished bar area more in keeping with a city wine bar with its contemporary chrome furniture and wood floor. The door on the right is the entrance to the main bar, a more conservative room with original stained oak beams and varnished tables. On this particular day this seemed to be the more popular of the two and as a waiter rushed by with two enormous plates of fish and chips, it was not hard to understand why.
The bar was also busy but a table was found and a much needed pint of Darmoor Jail Ale ordered whilst perusing the lunchtime menu. Like nearly all the hosteleries so far visited in Devon, there was plenty to choose from and all very reasonably priced such as rump steak for under £10.
However after the brush with the waiter, the thought of cod and chips in home-made batter was too tempting and two plates at £8.50 each were ordered and we sat down, soaked up the atmosphere and awaited our feast.
The cod was absolutely delicious, definitely fresh and the batter was lovely and light. In fact it would be true to say it was some of the best fish and chips eaten in a long while. The Royal Dartmouth Hotel also offers accommodation and I can recommend it as the perfect place to stay in Dartmouth as the food was delicious, the staff were most courteous and the hotel was very clean, well run and maintained.