How Prawn on the Lawn Is Celebrating Cornwall
From Padstow to London to Padstow again
Rick and Katie Toogood have been bringing the Cornish coast to Londoners since they opened Prawn on the Lawn in Highbury in 2013. Starting life as a fishmongers and tiny seafood bar, it expanded into a bigger restaurant site just up the road two years later.
The couple decided that Cornish locals deserved to see what they were doing with all that local seafood, so they opened Prawn on the Lawn in Padstow – yes in the land of Rick Stein – in 2015, and they’ve been on a roll ever since. Next was Barnaby’s, a pop-up-turned-permanent produce-led restaurant at Trevibban Mill Vineyard, and then Little Prawn, a test kitchen and seafood bar across the road from the main restaurant.
All three Padstow restaurants are a real expression of the area – the seafood is all caught locally, the meat is reared locally and the veg is grown locally – but they’re different to both typical fish & chips seaside fare and to what the likes of Rick Stein and Paul Ainsworth are doing just down the road. Rick and Katie have created buzzy spots (Prawn on the Lawn and Little Prawn particularly are very fun and vibey, with Barnaby’s being a bit softer and more relaxed), and the menus aren’t boxed in by any one style or cuisine. Rick, a self-taught chef, has drawn inspiration from all over the world, so you get South East Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean flavours paired with the freshest seafood – talk about a winning combo.
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