Barricane Beach Café, Woolacombe, Devon,
If you’re down in Woolacombe round about Easter time you might see a crane hoisting Barricane Beach Café over the cliff down onto Barricane Beach. And there it stays until sometime in September, drawing folk to this sheltered little cove for snacks and lunches, and in the evenings, for the most amazing authentic Sri Lankan curries.
They’re a lovely bunch, the people who run Barricane Beach Café and they’ve got things down to a very fine and laid back art with what they do. They open at 10 in the morning and serve baguettes, wraps, ciabattas, snacks, ice creams and drinks until 4 in the afternoon. Then throughout May and June they start dishing up their homemade and mega flavoursome curries at weekends from about 5 to 7pm; in the season they step it up to almost every night (it can depend on the weather) and it’s well worth going along for the totally relaxed ambience as well as the tasty fare.
They don’t take bookings though – what you do is rock up, grab a spot on the beach and then go and queue up at the café and place your order. You’ll be given a ticket so you can enjoy a drink before they call your number and you go and collect your food and cutlery. They have a few benches but as the curry nights are increasingly popular, these get taken very early on, so pack a rug and a few cushions and make yourselves comfy on the sand. Take your own booze as Barricane Beach Café isn’t licensed and be mindful that they only take cash.
Other things worth knowing are that the curries are gluten free and dairy free and that if you aren’t keen on spicy food or if you’ve got kids with you who aren’t then there are jacket potatoes and filled cold baps you can have instead.
All information correct at the time of writing