The Boathouse, Preston, Paignton

The Boathouse is a café/bar/restaurant next to Preston Beach and a large concrete area full of picnic tables out the back affords lovely views of Tor Bay. The opening times are from noon in the week and 10:00 at the weekends until late every night, whenever that is. There are no hand pumps, but a standard draught range is available alongside Amstel. I found it a bit bland in here as I prefer a proper pub, but I would consider returning for a bite to eat during the day if with the family.

This is an art deco style building which now contains a modern bar and restaurant, the interior is L shaped and open plan but divided in to two distinct areas. If you enter via the main entrance you will see a dining area on the right and a public bar on the left, the dining area is simple with modern tables and chairs. Also as you enter through the main front door, there is an L shaped bar counter with an ice cream counter straight in front of you, serving many varieties. The decor is fairly plain and mainly white, on the walls of the bar there are modern prints of musicians such as John Lennon, Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley, seaside pictures and a large piece of material hanging up in the centre to look like the sail of a boat. In the public bar on the left of the building, there are high tables and bar stools which you can sit at and look out to sea through arch shaped windows as the building is on the seafront at Preston Sands. At the rear of the bar is a door which leads out to a patio area with over a dozen picnic tables and if you stand up, you can get lovely views of most of Torbay. At the front of the building is a large public park. There were no ales on hand pull, but they did sell bottled ales from local Brewery Bays – Bays Breaker & Bays Gold. I had a bottle of Bays Breaker which I enjoyed, however it was quite pricey! The place is trying to cater for everyone’s needs, holiday makers in the day time serving cold drinks, warm drinks, snacks & ice creams and then having a more formal approach in the evening serving a larger menu of hot meals. I did not eat on my visit, but I have been reliably informed that the food is very nice. I would probably not return in a hurry as I prefer a more traditional pub with ale on draught, but if I was in the area and fancied something to eat, then it maybe somewhere I would try.