The Living Space at Watergate Bay Review: Family Dining with One of Cornwall’s Best Views

The Living Space at Watergate Bay review: By Rachel Ducker

There are restaurants you visit primarily for the food, others for the atmosphere, and then there are those special places where the location becomes as much a part of the experience as what’s on your plate.

The Living Space at Watergate Bay Hotel manages to bring all three together, with relaxed family dining accompanied by some truly spectacular panoramic views of the Cornish coastline.

During a recent family trip to Cornwall, we visited The Living Space as a family of five and, from the moment we arrived, it felt like exactly the sort of place we had been hoping to find. Overlooking the sweeping sands and Atlantic Ocean at Watergate Bay, just outside Newquay, the restaurant occupies one of those locations that immediately makes you want to linger a little longer.

Huge windows frame the sea while the ocean-facing terrace provides an even closer connection to the beach below. It’s particularly beautiful as the evening draws in and the light begins to change across the water.

Watergate Bay itself is renowned for its huge sandy beach, surfing culture and dramatic north Cornish coastline, and The Living Space sits within Watergate Bay Hotel, practically on the beach. The hotel describes the restaurant as somewhere for everything from coffee and cream teas to cocktails, sharing plates, dinner and children’s meals.

A Little History

Watergate Bay Hotel has quite a story behind it. The original building dates back to 1900 and was intended to become a railway terminus hotel for a proposed railway line between Newquay and Padstow – a railway that was ultimately never built.

During the Second World War, the building became an RAF Officers’ Mess before later falling into disrepair. John and Mary Ashworth purchased the property in 1967, initially operating it as self-catering accommodation before converting it back into a hotel in 1971.

The following decades saw Watergate Bay evolve considerably, particularly under the next generation of the Ashworth family. The Living Space emerged from the hotel’s major redevelopment in the mid-2000s. Contemporary reports from the time describe a multimillion-pound refurbishment creating the new Living Space bar and dining area, and it has been part of the Watergate Bay experience for more than two decades.

That history makes the hotel interesting in itself, but what I particularly like is that it doesn’t feel overly formal or precious. Watergate Bay has built its reputation around the idea of a relaxed beach lifestyle – essentially creating what its owners have described as a “ski resort on a beach” – and The Living Space fits that philosophy perfectly.

Relaxed Dining for Families

Travelling and dining out with three children can always be slightly unpredictable, so one of the biggest positives for us was just how accommodating the team were. The staff were genuinely lovely with the children, creating a relaxed atmosphere where we never felt as though we needed to constantly worry about them sitting silently at the table. For family dining, that makes such a difference.

The Living Space itself helps too.

Rather than feeling like a traditional formal hotel restaurant, there are sofas, armchairs, banquettes and tables, together with the ocean-view terrace. The idea is very much to find a spot, settle in and enjoy yourself.

It’s perhaps why The Living Space has developed such a following with families. Previously being highlighted as a perennial family favourite and specifically described The Living Space as its informal lounge-style restaurant, serving everything from sharing plates to children’s dinners, cream teas and cocktails.

The Food

Of course, location alone isn’t enough to make us recommend a restaurant, and thankfully the food lived up to the surroundings.

The menu has plenty of choice without becoming overwhelming, with a combination of smaller plates, sharing dishes, salads, burgers, grilled dishes and fresh pasta. The restaurant’s current philosophy is very much about relaxed, hearty food rather than overly complicated fine dining.

Being beside the Cornish coast, I was particularly pleased to see seafood represented well, and what we tried tasted wonderfully fresh. There is something especially satisfying about eating seafood while looking directly out towards the Atlantic – it feels completely appropriate to the setting rather than something added to a menu simply because you’re in Cornwall.

The children’s food also went down extremely well. Our kids opted for cheese burgers, which disappeared remarkably quickly. Any parent will know that finding somewhere the adults genuinely want to eat while also having food the children are excited about is a definite win.

More generally, the menu feels designed to suit the way people actually spend time at Watergate Bay.

You could come in after being on the beach for something filling, share several smaller plates over drinks, stop for lunch or settle in for an evening meal. The open kitchen serves throughout the day, and the restaurant currently welcomes both hotel residents and outside visitors for lunch and dinner.

More Than Just a Restaurant

What I think makes The Living Space particularly appealing is that it doesn’t try too hard to be one thing. You could arrive sandy-footed after a day on the beach with children, meet friends for cocktails, have a long lunch overlooking the sea or simply settle into an armchair with coffee and watch Cornwall happening outside the window. It’s also dog friendly and fully accessible through the hotel’s main entrance, further adding to that genuinely welcoming feeling.

Watergate Bay’s food offering has continued to evolve too. The hotel’s restaurants have recently been undergoing another culinary chapter under Cornish chef Chris Eden, who has been reimagining menus across The Living Space, Zacry’s and The Beach Hut. It means that although there is plenty of history behind the hotel, it certainly isn’t standing still.

Our Verdict

We loved our experience at The Living Space.

As a family of five we sometimes find either a spectacular location can lack family-friendliness, or if it’s family-friendly, then the food/atmosphere might take a back seat.

The Living Space is blissfully perched somewhere in between.

The kids felt at ease and very welcome, the service was second to none, the choice was good, the seafood tasted fresh, the cheese pizzas got the tick of approval from the kids (and trust me that’s a major win!).