The best surf hotels · Cornwall
Padstow Townhouse
Paul Ainsworth won BBC Great British Menu in 2011 with a dessert called Taste of the Fairground. He and Emma used it as the design brief for their hotel. Six suites in an 18th-century townhouse — Rhubarb & Custard, Toffee Apple, Honeycomb, Bon Bon, Marshmallow, Sherbet — no reception desk, breakfast hamper from the No.6 kitchen delivered to your room, Paul's Marvellous Medicine hot chocolate left at bedside on the final night. Priority booking at Paul Ainsworth at No.6 (Michelin starred), Caffè Rojano, and The Mariners. The hotel exists because their restaurant guests needed somewhere to sleep. It is the most considered expression of that logic — a six-suite hotel built entirely around the idea that the meal is the point and the room is where you recover from it.
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The hotel
The Design
Six suites named Rhubarb & Custard, Toffee Apple, Honeycomb, Bon Bon, Marshmallow, and Sherbet. A Great British Menu dessert as the design brief. It holds.
Emma Ainsworth and Eve Cullen-Cornes translated Taste of the Fairground into rich textures and warm tones — handmade casement windows, an oak column retrieved from a stately home topped with marble as the entrance table, antique pieces alongside contemporary furnishings. No room is like another. The pantry is stocked by Paul and Emma themselves.
The Design
Six suites named Rhubarb & Custard, Toffee Apple, Honeycomb, Bon Bon, Marshmallow, and Sherbet. A Great British Menu dessert as the design brief. It holds.
Emma Ainsworth and Eve Cullen-Cornes translated Taste of the Fairground into rich textures and warm tones — handmade casement windows, an oak column retrieved from a stately home topped with marble as the entrance table, antique pieces alongside contemporary furnishings. No room is like another. The pantry is stocked by Paul and Emma themselves.
The Food
Paul Ainsworth at No.6 has held its Michelin star since 2013. The tasting menu changes with the season. The wine list is one of the most considered in the south-west.
No.6 is a Georgian townhouse on Middle Street — six courses, seasonal Cornish produce, the kind of cooking that references Ainsworth's training under Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing without announcing it. Caffè Rojano is the casual version: Italian-influenced, harbour-adjacent, the place for lunch. The Mariners at Rock — a short water taxi across the Camel Estuary — is the pub, on the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs list. Three restaurants, one collection, one town. Staying at the Townhouse puts you at the centre of it.
The Food
Paul Ainsworth at No.6 has held its Michelin star since 2013. The tasting menu changes with the season. The wine list is one of the most considered in the south-west.
No.6 is a Georgian townhouse on Middle Street — six courses, seasonal Cornish produce, the kind of cooking that references Ainsworth's training under Gordon Ramsay and Marcus Wareing without announcing it. Caffè Rojano is the casual version: Italian-influenced, harbour-adjacent, the place for lunch. The Mariners at Rock — a short water taxi across the Camel Estuary — is the pub, on the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs list. Three restaurants, one collection, one town. Staying at the Townhouse puts you at the centre of it.
