2 Best Restaurants in Penzance, The West Country

One of the town's most famous inns, the 17th-century Admiral Benbow was once a smugglers' pub—look for the figure of a smuggler on the roof, and (if it's not too busy) ask to see the tunnel used for contraband. There's a good selection of West Country ales, and in the family-friendly dining room, decorated to resemble a ship's officers' mess, you can enjoy pizzas, seafood, and steaks. Seafaring memorabilia, a brass cannon, model ships, and figureheads fill the place.

Seafood is the main event in the two small, pink-toned rooms of this restaurant off Market Jew Street. The menu showcases whatever the boats bring, though crab Florentine, grilled on a bed of spinach with a cheese sauce, is usually available. Meat dishes might include noisettes of Cornish lamb with fennel puree and rosemary sauce in spring and summer or breast of guinea fowl or venison loin in winter. The restaurant is small—just six tables—and the semiformal style is intimate, elegant, and traditional.