THE FACTS ABOUT ST EDMUNDS HOUSE

England

The Michelin-star inspector must have been blind to miss Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant. Everything there is delicious, from Dover sole meunière to the freshest fillet of cod you will ever taste. The busy Padstow restaurant is popular with celebrities. Perhaps it is this smattering of glamour that inspired Stein, who already has the run of this small Cornish fishing village, with the 13-room St Petroc's Hotel, a café, delicatessen and cookery school, to open St Edmund's House, a new six-suite property set back from the waterfront. It has been furnished by Rick's wife, Jill, who shows both design talent and a true five-star sensibility, each room featuring a huge cherrywood four-poster, a claw-footed bathtub, wooden floors and crisp white wood-panelled walls. The three bedrooms on the ground floor open out onto a modern landscaped garden; those upstairs have garret-style bathrooms with lethally low beams (painted white, so you can't see them). There's no room service, but there is adjacent parking, a prize in Padstow come the popular month of June, as is the Ryanair London-Newquay route, now up and running. COST Doubles £210 CONTACT St Edmund's House, St Edmunds Lane, Padstow, Cornwall (01841 532700; fax: 532942; e-mail: reservations@rickstein.com; www.rickstein.com)