'Here in the South West, we value our seafood. We celebrate it': Mitch Tonks on his new Salcombe restaurant and the state of our fishing industry

Mitch Tonks sounds excited, if a little exhausted. After seven years of trials and tribulations, he’s finally about to open his latest venture, the long-awaited Rockfish Salcombe — the 10th in his family of South West seafood restaurants — but this one has been by far the toughest of them all, he admits. ‘Honestly? It’s been very, very difficult at times,’ he says, with an almost audible wince. ‘But it’s all going to be worth it in the end.’

As one of the South West's most successful seafood chefs, Mitch is no stranger to the vagaries of the restaurant business. Over his 25-year career, he’s had his share of ups and downs. Born in 1966, he grew up in Weston-super-Mare, and having trained as an accountant, in the mid 1990s performed an unlikely volte-face: he gave up his career to start a fishmongers. He founded the Green St Seafood Cafe in Bath, later to morph into the FishWorks chain, which ran aground painfully during the financial crisis. In 2008, he established one of Dartmouth’s top fine-dining restaurants, The Seahorse (it’s now run by his son Ben). The first Rockfish opened in Dartmouth two years later, and has now expanded to 10 other locations across Devon and Dorset. As if that’s not enough, he’s also written seven cookbooks, been appointed as an ambassador for the Marine Stewardship Council, filmed a popular fish-themed TV series with rugby player Matt Dawson and become a regular on cookery shows including Saturday Kitchen. And those are just the headlines.

I catch up with Mitch on a bright, sunny spring day in early May, just shy of a month before Rockfish Salcombe’s opening night. The South West is basking in an unusually balmy spell of weather — day after day of blue skies and calm seas — so it seems an auspicious time to finally be opening the doors. The journey to get here has been unusually stormy, however: it’s seven years since he first had the idea for the restaurant back in 2018.

‘I’ve always been in love with Salcombe,’ Mitch says. ‘For me, it has one of the most beautiful estuaries in the world. I love to sail, and I always dreamt about opening a restaurant here. Then one day, I happened to walk past an old boatshed, not far from where the fishermen land their crab. So I went in, just browsing the boats they had for sale. And I was besotted. Right then, I just knew this is where I wanted my next restaurant to be.’

With its rough-and-ready maritime architecture and stunning outlook along the Salcombe estuary, Mitch could immediately see the building’s potential, but as always, the devil was in the detail. Months passed while he outlined his vision to the building’s owner, hashed out a lease, sought planning permission, drew up designs, and waited for the sitting tenant to find new premises. Then, of course, came Covid-19, followed by a dizzying inflation spike and the cost-of-living crisis, which caused customers to drastically tighten their belts. Construction costs spiralled. Prices of materials and labour went through the roof. And just when construction was about to begin, the building dropped its own bombshell.

‘We discovered the whole thing was sinking,’ Mitch says. ‘So we had to underpin everything. Then put a new roof on. The outside walls, the old roof trusses and the piers on the inside are probably all that’s left. It was really difficult. But now, you’re sitting in this old boatshed, eating great seafood, with this fantastic view down the estuary. That's what I set out to create.’

Construction challenges aside, it’s easy to see why Mitch felt Salcombe would make a natural addition to the Rockfish family. Apart from two city branches in Exeter and Plymouth, his Rockfish restaurants are all in very similar settings: a pretty South West seaside town with a gorgeous view across the water. Salcombe certainly fits that bill, but despite its location, Mitch felt the town was underserved by its food scene.

‘Salcombe has always had amazing pubs,’ he says. ‘But it’s actually very limited in terms of restaurants. What's so wonderful here is you've got the fishermen landing their catch on that quay, bringing in their lobster and crabs every day. I wanted to make the most of that.’

Logistically, it fits neatly into the wider Rockfish operation, too. All 10 restaurants are clustered nearby along the south coasts of Devon and Dorset. Fish is supplied straight off the quayside at Brixham, where Rockfish keeps its own harbour unit (they also operate their own fishing boat). Key staff members including Executive Chef Kirk Gosden are moving over to Salcombe to get things up and running. And while recruitment remains a perennial challenge in hospitality, especially in a hyper-seasonal destination like Salcombe, Mitch is confident about his team. He’s also excited about the new restaurant’s trump card: a tap room created by Salcombe Brewery, serving session ales.

In terms of food, it will be the classic Rockfish menu with a Salcombe spin, Mitch says: local seafood, simply served, with minimal fuss. He hopes the restaurant will attract a varied clientele, not just holidaymakers and second-homers, but lots of local diners, too.

'What’s great about Rockfish is that we’ve always enjoyed a really strong local trade,’ he says. ‘Our mission is to get people to experience seafood in a way they haven’t before. People come to us for that. In Britain, seafood has been done badly, I think. Supermarkets, big supply chains, frozen fish: just a really narrow view. Here in the South West, we value our seafood. We celebrate it. That’s what Rockfish is all about.’

In terms of the day-to-day running of the restaurant, however, Mitch seems glad to have hung up his chef’s whites. ‘I do miss it sometimes, even though I still design and direct all the food,’ he says. ‘The problem is the ultimate buck stops with you. You're always thinking, how can I make things better? You go to bed worrying about it. And as you get bigger, you have to let go of certain things.’

For now, however, Mitch still has his hands full. First, there’s the opening of the Salcombe restaurant in mid-June. Another Rockfish will follow in Sidmouth in the autumn. He’s now focused on growing other areas of the business — particularly his online seafood market and tinned seafood shop, providing a quayside-to-doorstep delivery service across the UK. They have proved very popular, he says, and are growing fast.

In 2020, he also co-founded the Devon Environment Foundation, a charity which raises funds for grassroots projects across the South West. Its projects include the recent Rockfish Litter Free Sea Project, which cleaned up plastic pollution around Brixham harbour. In his spare time, he continues to work as an ambassador for the MSC, campaigning for the importance of sustainably sourced seafood, and was recently a figurehead for #Fish24, a day-long digital campaign championing the merits of the UK’s seafood industry.

It all sounds like a lot for one man to have on his plate, especially after nearly 40 years in the business. He turns 60 in 2026, but somehow, Mitch does not seem like the retiring type. As we part ways, I wonder what other plans he has in the works.

‘Honestly, I don't know what the future holds,’ he says. ‘Maybe we'll stop where we are. Maybe we’ll figure out some other killer locations. Who knows? Whatever we'll be doing, we'll just be carrying on with the Rockfish mission. Doing seafood really well. That’s enough to keep me busy for now, I think.’

Rockfish Salcombe opens in June. Click here for more information