The Galley

The Galley sits on Topsham's Fore Street, a twelve-minute drive from central Exeter and effectively on the water. Topsham is a former port that has slowly become Devon's most attractive small town — Georgian terraces, boatyards, and a dining culture that takes its seafood more seriously than Exeter proper sometimes does. The Galley has been its anchor restaurant for two decades.

The menu is unapologetically short and changes with the day-boat catch. Crab. Dover sole. Lobster when the pots allow. A bouillabaisse that uses whatever is running through the bay. The kitchen's confidence lies in knowing when to do almost nothing — a grilled piece of fish, a lemon, a glass of something dry from the Loire.

The room is small and tiled, with a handful of tables that directly face the estuary. Those tables are the ones to ask for; they sell themselves. Service is warm in a small-town-regulars way — first-timers are treated as welcome, but the staff clearly know half the room.

The Galley is Devon seafood cooked with restraint, in a room that has the view and does not need to oversell the cooking.

The estuary-view tables at sunset and the short, no-fuss menu make The Galley the right first-date restaurant in the Exeter area when both parties want to eat well but talk more than they perform. Topsham is also the better-looking town than Exeter proper — the date begins at the train station.