Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling

The story

Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling, Newquay: Modern British Dining at Fistral Beach

Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling in Newquay serves modern British cooking at The Headland, Headland Road, Fistral Beach, Newquay, TR7 1EW, and holds a Michelin 1 Star (2026) for its high quality cooking. The restaurant sits inside the historic Headland hotel, with the clifftops and ocean in view from the dining room.

Cooking with the South West larder

Chef Adam Handling MBE trained at Gleneagles, and the kitchen draws mostly on produce from the South West coast. Local fishermen and farmers supply the kitchen. The team buys ingredients whole and uses all of them, an approach drawn from Adam's time learning zero-waste cooking in Japan. The menus change regularly and include foraged ingredients from the land.

Terrace, tea lounge and views

The dining room looks over the cliffs toward Fistral Beach. In summer, guests can eat on the Terrace and watch the waves, with both the restaurant and afternoon tea menus available outside. Afternoon tea is served in the Tea Lounge, built on the history of the luxury tradition the Duchess of Bedford began.