Buffoons and those with gastric bands best avoid this restaurant...

LET’S get one thing straight: comments here are not designed to offend.
I eat out frequently in Barnstaple at perfectly respectable places. Their menus are fine, the ambience good, service generally warm and efficient. But – and there’s the rub – I rarely find anything on the menus exciting or challenging. The spare tyre around my middle attests to the fact that I like to eat. I devour cookbooks like ladies of a certain inclination do Catherine Cookson novels. And I spend a disproportionate amount of time in the kitchen.
But in more than four years I can’t recall walking into a restaurant in Barnstaple and seeing things on the menu that simultaneously aroused my curiosity and made me salivate.The minute I opened the menu at The Old Custom House I knew it was either going to be exceptional or – apologies for the technical French – cack.
It was lunchtime so we chose from the tapas menu. Tiger prawns came huge and grilled, with a light coating of sea salt, garlic and olive oil and accompanied by a bowl of fruity mayonnaise drizzled with parsley oil.
The rare-as-requested slices of local rump steak were served in a deep, rich sauce, heaped with different wild mushrooms and peppers.
My least favourite was the home-made spaghetti in a tomato sauce with parmesan. It was good, but personally I prefer the al dente resistance of dried spaghetti with a sauce like this. But this is verging on the churlish.
The crab and clam risotto, well that would have been a treat if only because it’s the first time I’ve been able to eat fresh clams in a Barnstaple restaurant. But it was fantastic, loaded with shellfish flavour.
We reluctantly agreed to see the desserts menu – in the name of research, you understand – and, when I asked whether the puds were also tapas style I was offered the option of a dessert plate to share. Who wouldn’t? Only a buffoon or someone fitted with a gastric band.
What came was a fragrant panoply of fresh ice creams (plural), different types of biscuit, lemon cream desserts with a liquid caramel top and a much appreciated chocolate fix which came in the form of a hot chocolate pud with a gooey centre. Just what the doctor ordered me to avoid.
Lovely.
The Old Custom House is a rare treat of a restaurant. The food oozes classy ingredients, freshness, imagination.
Chef/patron James Duckett’s years in Spain come through loud and clear.It only remains for North Devon to support him: anybody interested in food owes it to themselves to ensure the new Old Custom House is successful and thrives for us all to enjoy.
The Old Custom House, The Strand, Barnstaple, Tel 01271 370123.
Tapas for two including extravagant desserts, soft drinks and coffee cost £31.60.