So I recently went to Hope Cove for a long weekend and did a proper deep dive into the gluten free food and drink avaible in and around the very small village to hopefully give you guys the best recommendations of specific dishes and places you need to try and places to avoid.
So here are my honest opinions about all the dishes I tried in hope cove...
The cove
This resturant is usually my familys faveriote place to eat when we come here, but one night after being packed from an england football game we were forced to try out the larger pub which was suprisngly very good and to me felt much more in control of makeing allergy safe meals. However I still do love the cove and the many gluten free dishes that it offers. Whilst they dont have a gluten free menu they do have the gfo symbol next to each dish on the menu that can be made gluten free. On the first night we were in hope cove I tried the seafood salad with chips. The chips were perfectly crisp and salty. For my salad I chose to leave off the prawns as i'm not a big fan of them. This was my first time trying mackrel and it was amazing super light and salty. I think the cove offers some of the best fish that I had on this trip.
Another big benefit of the cove is that they do a take away and a specials board which changes daily. One night we did a takeaway pizza and lord of the rings night. The cove pizza is the absolute best gluten free pizza that I have found in the UK (The best ever being in italy obvs). I chose a gluten free pizza two which was a hawain pizza so I removed the ham and added vegan cheese. The base of the pizza is not soggy, with a crispy crust it was the perfect dinner for a movie night.
2. The cove vs Hope and anchor Brownies
This night I also chose to try there gluten free and vegan brownie. Now I also got to try the pubs brownie so I could compare them. To be honest neither of them really hit the brownie spot. Neither had that crisp top with the fudgey middle. The cove brownie had a slightly coagulated texture and was not as rich as I would have wanted it, simarley to the hope and anchor brownie which was far to sweet for me with a crisp texture from the cristelised sugar.
3. Finding the best oat milk hot chocolate
I also did a side by side comparison of the oat milk hot chocolates from 3 different places, the cove, the hope and anchor and a little cafe called the beachouse which you can walk to from hope cove. My faveriote by far was the beach house it was smooth, rich and creamy whilst the other two where far sweeter and a bit thinner. My secound faveriote was the pub as the top of the hot choclate had a rich and creamy foam layer. Lastly the Cove's hot choclate for me was to sweet and thin compared to the other two.
4. My Lunch Experience...
Over the three days we bought two lunch's from the salcombe area which is a short drive from hope cove. Firstly we went to the winking prawn which does sandwhiches and salads at lunchtime. Whilst there is no gluten free bread so you are limited to the salads, there is still a range to choose from and the chips are fully gluten free to! I chose the mackrel and beetroot salad which was super fresh and contained a delicous top of salted cucumber, chickpeas, veg and mackrel. The mackrel was not as light as I would have liked but went great with the beetroot and cucumber.
From the plaice fish and chip shop takeway I also managed to find some pasties which we bought frozen to heat up at home for lunchtime. I chose the curried vegtables which had cauliflower, sweet potato, chickpeas and a curried sauce. To be honest going into this pasty I had very low expectations but this pasty blew me away. The pastry was crisp and light with a great flavour and no soggy pastry at all! My mum chose the cheese and onioun and she loved that one.
5. My Hope and Anchor dinner experience
We had two dinners at the hope and anchor, and they where both great with really attentive staff who made finding gluten free safe food feel really easy. They had a full gluten free menu with loads of options. The first dinner we tried I had crab loaded fries and batted cajun whitebait. I loved the crab on top of the fries however the fries were a little cold and not as crisp as I would have wanted them. This was my first time trying whitebait and I really enjoyed my only improvement would be to have more of the cajun flavour comeing through in the batter.
On are last night due to the cove being to busy we went to the hope and anchor for dinner where after being desperate to have my faveirote childhood sandwhich over the weekend (a crab sandwhich) I finally had one! The staff where amazing, going to check for gluten free bread upon request. The bread was actually a great sandwhich bread and usually I don't love gluten free bread unless it is toasted. The crab had a great flavour with a great crunch from the lettuce. The fries had also really improved and were crisp, light and salty.
And there it is my gluten free food review of hope cove from my long weekend away.If you found this helpful head over to instagram to let me know that it was useful @rubysgfkitchen.
Thank you for reading,
Ruby X
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