The Commercial Hotel is a hotel, restaurant and bar in the centre of the village of St Just in Penwith, 10 miles west of Penzance and a mile or so from the rugged cliffs of Cape Cornwall.
This review is just for the evening meal - we didn't stay here. (They provide bed & breakfast, as well as having a restaurant and bar.) We ate here at the suggestion of our host as we were staying nearby. Although it was curry night, we had had a curry a few days before so decided to choose from the main a la carte menu.
To start, my partner had whitebait with a mixed salad garnish (£8.50), and I had the carrot and orange soup (£5.95), served with warm bread and butter. The soup was very pleasant - it is hard to go wrong with soup, but it was nice nevertheless. The whitebait were fine, but were 7 of the smallest whitebait we've seen! We both had linguine for the mains: my partner crab linguine, topped with rocket; and I had the vegan linguine, with roasted squash, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, red onions and wilted spinach. My linguine was fine, but it would have benefited from a sauce raher than the veg being simply in oil.
My partner's crab linguine was very tasty, but unfortunately he found half a dozen pieces of crab shell in the linguine. We explained this to the waiter, who spoke to the kitchen and came back to say that the shelled crab was bought in, and should have been shelled properly by the supplier. I'm not quite sure what to make of this: surely the restaurant should take responsibility for what it serves, rather than blaming suppliers? Anyway, we weren't impressed and so it drops a star for that. The Mediterranean side salad (£4.95), drizzled with balsamic vinegar, was good.
Service (from a young student) was friendly but a little haphazard. With two soft drinks, the bill came to £63 for two. I'm not sure if we'd go again; it was okay, but we might try one of the other eateries next time. read more