Abi Manning discovers a Cornish dining pub confidently making its culinary mark
There’s a frisson of frenetic energy beneath chef Dan Hyams’ laidback exterior. Perhaps his mind is whirring about how he’ll use the herbs he’s just picked from the pub garden. Maybe he’s buzzing about the john dory delivered to his kitchen door. Or it could be that he’s simply feeling the joy of stamping his signature style on his own restaurant after a career spent working for others.
While Dan is reluctant to shout about it, that career has given him a blinding CV. The classically trained chef, who’s worked at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in France, has also cooked in the kitchens of Le Gavroche, Marcus Wareing, The Fat Duck and No.6, to name just a few. He’d probably rather you didn’t know that, though; he’s fully focused on the here and now.
New beginnings
That place is The Barley Sheaf, a dining pub located above the sleepy fishing village of Gorran Churchtown. When former owner Tim Kendall – for whom Dan worked as head chef – left to focus on his other Cornish pub venture, The Rising Sun at Altarnun, Dan took the reins. This is his first solo venture and, in his own words, the first place that convinced him to settle, without wondering what his next role might be.
If the chef is pleased with the dining experience he’s cultivating at The Barley Sheaf, so are the punters. He’s created the sort of village pub everyone would love to have as their local, and it’s down to a winning recipe of his training, his personable and relaxed approach, and relationships with growers so nearby that you could wave to them from one of the dining tables. It’s a formula that’s earned the pub a listing in the Trencherman’s Guide and a place as a finalist in the Best Pub category of the Trencherman’s Awards 2026.
Visitors can choose from two menus, which are available in both the restaurant and the bar (the more casual bar menu is a relatively new development). While the latter offers quality takes on pub classics, the à la carte is where Dan really flexes his skills.
Start with a Cornish Bramble for a blackberry-infused autumnal sip, or order a bottle of Vintage Cuvée or Bacchus from Knightor in St Austell. Then tuck into homemade focaccia with lashings of confit garlic butter.
So beloved is the St Ewe Dippy Scotch Egg that it never leaves the menu, although it does change with the seasons – and Dan’s whims. On our visit, it was an umami-rich delight thanks to its accompaniments of blue-cheese soldiers and miso mayo.
Megrim sole (whizzed over from Newlyn’s dayboats) was studded with cucumber, capers and preserved lemon, doused in beurre noisette and accompanied by organically grown village greens and new potatoes. While Dan’s cooking style is stripped back and deceptively simple, wallops of flavour cut through, thanks to subtle streaks of sauce and preserved vegetables – a reminder that his classical background has imbued him with meticulous attention to flavour.
A raspberry and lime curd, spiked with ginger crumb, meringue and raspberry sorbet, and topped with mini doughnut spheres and delicate flowers, was as pretty as it was delicious. It revealed that, while Dan’s cooking rarely shouts, it speaks with the quiet assurance of a chef who knows exactly what he’s doing.
