Unpretentious Italian classics made with flair are bringing in the locals in Cornwall
Straddling the River Camel, just five miles upstream from tourist favourite Padstow, is Wadebridge, a bustling town well known for hosting the annual Royal Cornwall Agriculture Show. But it's also fast becoming known for having one of the best Italian restaurants in the county, thanks to Onda, which Gordon Ramsay dubbed "Wadebridge's best new secret" and "everything you love" from a local restaurant.
Meaning ‘waves or good vibes', Onda, which opened last March, is set close to the estuary's banks and is the second establishment to be opened by Bedfordshire-born chef-restaurateur Ben Ambridge, who moved to Newquay aged nine. After growing up in the county, Ambridge went on to graduate from Fifteen Newquay in 2012 and, after a series of well-respected jobs in Cornwall, including head chef of the Longstore in Charlestown, he took on the Fox's Revenge, a 400-year-old pub in Summercourt in 2020, and opened sister restaurant Onda three years later.
With Ambridge sharing his time between the two properties, the kitchen at Onda is headed up by fellow Fifteen alumna Emily Hunt, who spent 10 years working in London at the River Café and the Anchor & Hope – interspersed with periods in New Zealand – before working with a close friend at the Workshop, a small plates restaurant in Crosby.
"I trained at Fifteen and I fell in love with Italian food – the simplicity of it and the quality of ingredients," says Ambridge. "I'm big on family-style, small plates, gathering around and sharing comfort food. I love that vibe. Wadebridge is full of pubs and smaller restaurants, but who doesn't like an Italian? There's something for everyone."
On opening, however, pizzas weren't on the menu. "We may have hit the brief slightly wrong," confides Ambridge, "and I think we priced ourselves out [of the market] a little bit. We recognised that not everybody gets the authentic Italian feel of, say, duck leg with Puy lentils and agrodolce sauce, so to try and broaden our customer base, we put pizzas on, with a classic Neapolitan-style base made by ourselves. It's helped us to reach a broader demographic."
The 85-cover, multi-level, characterful site provides just the right space for anyone wanting anything from a glass of wine and a starter of olives (buttery Nocellara olives that are stuffed with blue cheese, floured, breadcrumbed, frozen so the cheese stays gooey, and fried for service), to a three-course meal including pasta, pizza and fish- and meat-based dishes served with fine wines. In the evening, the lights are dimmed, oil lamp candles are lit and the music is turned up.
While there are many staples on the menu, and some dishes are swapped out depending on how they sell, one dish that will never come off is carbonara.
"It's such a classic Italian dish, but I think there's a bit of a misconception with it," says Ambridge. "Traditionally, you would use Guanciale, but we use a good Cornish pancetta from Duchy Charcuterie. Then it's literally just egg yolk, black pepper and Parmesan instead of Pecorino. We fry off the pancetta, add a little bit of pasta water to the pan, toss our spaghetti and in goes the egg yolk. It's lovely and glossy and doesn't need a lot of seasoning because of the pancetta and Parmesan. It's just one of those simple things – done well it's brilliant, done badly it's a catastrophe!"
One of Hunt's favourite dishes is steamed mussels. "We gently melt Duchy Charcuterie nduja and blend it with our arrabbiata sauce, white wine and Porthilly mussels," she says. "We then cover and steam and they're served with a grilled slice of Da Bara focaccia and garnished with fresh chervil and parsley, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil."
Specials are also offered, particularly through the summer, and might include sardines, which are butterflied and served on bruschetta, or cooked whole and served with a simple dressing of lemon and olive oil.
"Our big focus is not to mess around with things too much," says Ambridge. "We keep it very simple. We're not pretentious in any way. We're very humble in what we do, we love what we do, and we like cooking nice food and looking after people."
From the menu
Pizza marinara, tomato sauce, garlic, oregano £5
Calamari, lemon aioli £8
Mozzarella arancini, basil aioli £8
Slow-cooked beef and pork ragu rigatoni, Parmesan £17
Seafood spaghetti, hake, mussels, crab, garlic, chilli, and white wine, pangrattato £21
Whole Cornish sole, anchovy, caper and lemon £18
Lemon tart, clotted cream ice-cream £7
Chocolate torte, crème fraiche £8
Orange, almond and polenta cake, vegan vanilla ice-cream £7
4 Molesworth Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 7DA. www.ondawadebridge.co.uk
