When I reviewed Carbis Bay Hotel in the spring, my review mentioned a new restaurant called Mor opening in the summer.
Photographs of Carbis Bay are routinely mistaken for somewhere in the Caribbean, and it’s easy to understand why, because the sand is pale gold and the water runs through three shades of blue and turquoise before it reaches the rocks at either end. Put a foot in, and the Atlantic tells you precisely which ocean you are dealing with; this being the far west of Cornwall, in water that has come a very long way from anywhere warm.
The beach belongs to the Carbis Bay Estate, all twenty-five Blue Flag acres of it, so a wedding party here is not sharing the sand with day trippers and their dogs, and that privacy and guarantee matter more to the day than anything. Ceremonies take place either in the Ocean Venue, which faces the water head-on, or up in the Main House for couples who want something more traditional, and the estate has been handling both ends of the scale for years, from twenty guests to several hundred.
The Food
Until this summer the food never quite matched the setting, which is a common enough complaint about hotels with a view, especially when the view is so magnificent. Mor has put that right and Carbis Bay now has a fine dining option that’s hard to beat, even by London’s standards.
It's Tom Sellers' first restaurant in Cornwall, on the site of what was Ugly Butterfly until recently, and it takes its name from the Cornish word for sea. Sellers opened Restaurant Story in Bermondsey in 2013, at 26, after training at Tom Aikens, Noma and Per Se, and earned a Michelin star within five months. Here he has built the restaurant around the window, so the bay stays with you all evening as it turns from turquoise to pewter to black, as the reflection of the candles takes over. Underfoot there is parquet, warm and slightly uneven, and at the centre of the floor a hand-carved wooden table. The ceramics are made for Mor by a South African potter called Sky and carry the charming, small irregularities of things thrown by hand; I would have bought some if they had been for sale. The glassware is fine enough that you do need to hold it more carefully than usual, in case you hold it too tightly, and the kitchen is open to view, working away almost silently.
The private dining room
Mor has a private dining room seating up to fourteen, with floor-to-ceiling windows and a handmade grand table of its own, and for anyone planning the days either side of a wedding it is the most useful space on the estate. Fourteen covers both sets of parents, the wedding party and a few people who have flown a long way, which makes it right for the night before, when you want everybody together and nobody shouting over a hundred other guests, though the acoustics throughout the restaurant have been carefully thought of.
I would book it twice. The day-after lunch is the meal couples most often leave to chance, and a long one at that table with the bay filling the windows sends everyone home happy, which is not something anybody has ever said about a cold buffet in a function suite!
There is also a bar, ONE MOR, open to everyone rather than only to diners, with sea views and a cocktail list worth spending time over. Joe is the mixologist, and he asked me two questions before making me something better than the drink I had been about to order.
Porthilly oysters come cold with elderflower vinegar, floral where the usual shallot dressing is aggressive, and again hot and crisp in a light batter with hot sauce; I would order both and eat them alternately. The 'One Breath' scallop is hand-dived by James, a free diver working on a single lungful of air, and arrives baked in its shell with roasted chilli paste and salted butter, the butter running into the shell juices until you chase the last of it round with a spoon. There is a Bang Bang squid salad with sesame, chilli, and peanut that has far more bite than squid usually has, and whole fish ordered by the kilo from a sheet clipped to the menu, because those prices move along with the boats.
Tomato consommé starts the meal, delicious and clear as tap water and I was delighted to notice that no bread arrives at any point. Pudding brought a custard and medjool date tart, and a delicious yet simple soft serve scattered with caramel popped rice. Every dish was described at the table by someone who had eaten it and had opinions about it, and GM Katie, who came down from London to manage the restaurant after a spell with Rhubarb, keeps the service moving so that nobody hovers and plates land and vanish at exactly the right moment.
Where to sleep
Couples should look at the Junior Beach Suite, which sleeps two, sits directly above the sand in the Ocean Building, has an ocean-facing balcony and reaches the beach by lift, and starts at £450. For a honeymoon rather than a single night after the wedding, the One Bedroom Beach Suite adds a living room and a panoramic balcony from £1,210.
The Beach Lodges suit the wedding party better than the couple, since they sleep six or eight, and they sit right on the sand with bay-facing balconies, private sun decks and rooftop hot tubs. The Luxury Lodge starts at £1,000 for six and the Deluxe at £2,350 for eight, the latter in a corner beachfront position with an oversized tub. Further up the estate there are glamping pods for guests watching what they spend, and in between sits the C Bay Spa, whose outdoor sauna pod looks straight out over the water and is where I would put the bridal party on the morning of.
Getting there, and staying on
Carbis Bay has its own station on the St Ives branch line, with two trains an hour seven days a week except Christmas, a three-minute run into St Ives and a fare that costs less than a coffee. From London, take the main line from Paddington towards Penzance and change at St Erth.
For a honeymoon I would go into St Ives in the morning for the galleries and the harbour, then walk back along the South West Coast Path, which runs along the top of the bay for about twenty-five minutes with the sea below you the whole way and the last stretch dropping through pine and scrub towards the sand. Book Mor for when you arrive, and let the car sit where it is all week.
Mor, Carbis Bay Estate, Carbis Bay, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 2NP carbisbayhotel.co.uk