The Riverside Restaurant is a seafood

Seafood

Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...

 restaurant

Restaurant

A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...

 in West Bay

West Bay (England)

West Bay, formerly known as Bridport Harbour, is situated approximately two miles from the centre of Bridport on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England, and is at the confluence of the River Brit....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The building is situated on a causeway and as such the dining area is on two levels with views of the river and beyond to the sea. In 2006, The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

 newspaper placed it at the top of the list of its Top 5 seafood restaurants.. In 2004, it was voted one of The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

 newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

's Top 10 Seafood

Seafood

Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...

 Restaurants. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a British celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer and "real food" campaigner, known for his back-to-basics philosophy...

 also says that it is one of the finest fish restaurants in the South West, and is arguably the most child-friendly restaurant in the country. It has also received critical acclaim from indulgesouthwest.co.uk food magazine and Harden's Restaurant Guide The restaurant serves local fish and is closed in the December and January months (the months when the fishermen do not go out in the area due to rough seas).

History

The origins of the Riverside stretch back into the early part of the last century

Century

A century is one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...

 when a tent

Tent

A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...

 was erected during the Summer to provide tea and cakes. This was replaced by increasingly enlarged wooden huts and a Post Office

Post office

A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...

 was located on the same site. The present owners who had been in occupation since 1964 decided to rebuild the Riverside in 1976 to a design by the Architects Piers Gough

Piers Gough

Piers Gough , is an architect in the practice CZWG. His younger brothers are the composer Orlando Gough and Jamie Gough, the University of Sheffield's senior lecturer in Town and Regional Planning....

 and Roger Zogolovitch. The building has had a few additions since that date but has remained largely the same. They acquired the Riverside in 1964 when the trade was limited to local fishermen, coach parties and people on camping

Camping

Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...

 holidays in the area. The menu was fairly basic with Roast dinners and Cream Teas the specialties. However local fish and shellfish were listed. The rebuild in 1976 coincided with the spread of car ownership and the purchase of holiday homes. The demand changed radically and we were soon offering a full seafood

Seafood

Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...

 menu and attracting customers from far and wide. Not long after this, Keith Floyd

Keith Floyd

Keith Floyd was a British celebrity chef, television personality and restaurateur, who hosted cooking shows for the BBC and published many books combining cookery and travel...

's T.V. programs began and seafoods became even more popular and increasingly so, when, at a later date, Rick Stein

Rick Stein

Christopher Richard "Rick" Stein OBE is an English chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He is currently the head chef and co-owner of "Rick Stein at Bannisters" at Mollymook, New South Wales, Australia, owns four restaurants in Padstow, a fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall and has...

 arrived on the scene. West Bay became increasingly prone to flooding and storm

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical body's atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather...

damage and the Riverside got flooded several times during the 60’s & 70’s.