Café Alf Resco

Cafe Alf Resco has been on Lower Street in Dartmouth, a few metres from the ferry and harbour, since it opened its flame-topped iron gates on April Fool's Day 1994. It's family-run and has stayed that way for three decades, which locals treat as a point of pride rather than a footnote - it's spoken of as a South Hams institution rather than just a cafe.

The kitchen's rule is simple: nothing deep-fried, nothing microwaved, everything cooked fresh to order using locally sourced produce, and coffee still made on the original Italian Gaggia lever-arm machine from when cappuccino was still a novelty in this part of Devon. Breakfasts are the reason people queue - the cafe has picked up double gold at the International Marmalade Awards and a place in The Guardian's list of the 50 best breakfasts in the country - and lunches run the same way, unfussy and properly made. It opens early, 7am, and closes by 2pm, which tells you this is a morning destination rather than an all-day one - go early for a table by the harbour.