We recently revisited a restaurant in Hayle called the Foundry. Hayle is a bit of a strange town in that the vast majority of shops and restaurants are strung out along the B3301 over a considerable distance. There is not a network of streets with shops that you have say in St Ives or Penzance. About 6 years ago we stumbled across the Foundry on Foundry Hill and not far from the railway viaduct. This street is not an obvious one to find a restaurant so we always thought it would be challenging for the proprietors. The building is a converted foundry building made of local stone.

When we first visited the Foundry it was being run by a guy from Birmingham whose goal was to have a "street food" theme. The food was well-prepared and it was a fun place to bring teenagers. It did not seem to be very busy although the proprietor said he was hoping to live off local custom rather than from tourists. We visited the place a year later and it was still running.

About 3-4 years ago we returned to find that the restaurant had changed hands. The night we were there the place was fairly full and the menu was mediterranean themed from what I recall.

 Foundry Bar

We recently visited the place again and it is now in its third version. This time the restaurant has a Cornish theme with Cornish flags in abundance and Cornish language greetings on the menu. It is run by two families.

Reading the menu and talking to the staff, there are two themes that come out: a) local sourcing of food and b) making the restaurant a community facility. Local suppliers are used for meat and fish while the vegetables come from local farms. The kitchen is also used for a local meals-on-wheels service and the restaurant is used as a community facility when needed. While the restaurant in any of its forms might have done well in Penzance or St Ives, using it for community purposes makes sense in Hayle.

I tried their fishcakes as a starter. Fishcakes vary tremendously from the awful mass-produced frozen ones which are tasteless to the really good. These were defintitely in the latter category with a pleasant fish and parsley flavour. My boy tried their prawn salad as a main course and liked it. The portion of prawns was generous but I was surprised that no salad dressing was offered. I tried the steak which was tasty and served with piping hot wedge potatoes. Like fishcakes potato wedges can be awful but these were clearly prepared from scratch. Mrs O tried the Stilton and Walnut "Oozy Goozy" which was served in a bowl. She had ordered a soup by mistake a few days earlier and commented that it was more like a soup than she was expecting. The portions were all hearty. At the end we were offered complimentary Cornish liquers - one of which was a bit like Irish cream.

The staff were helpful and friendly, but a few things came across as naive. For example, we ordered a red wine and it was brought in an earthenware cooler (though not soaked so thankfully it did not cool the wine) and we were not offered the chance to taste the wine. I have no doubt if we had had a bad bottle they would have handled it appropriately.

Overall, I would probably visit the place again. However a little attention to detail would probably make the place more successful.