Ice Cream and Food and Drink

Simply the best

Ice cream

Giacopazzi’s make and serve the best ice cream in Eyemouth. Make that the best ice cream in the Borders. No, we’d say, the best ice cream anywhere. And we’d regard that as fact, rather than opinion.

Quite honestly, the finest ice creams we have ever tasted have generally come from ‘Giaco’s’. All their flavours are wonderful, from the simple vanillas and strawberries, through to the more esoteric ‘blue moon’ and ‘ruby chocolate’ (delicioius). But our very, very, very favourites have been:

• Dark chocolate sorbet

• Chocolate and coconut

• Blackberry sorbet

Each of these was an absolute stunner. We think this is because they make their own. And they really know what they are doing.

On a sunny day, the queue at the ice cream window can be pretty long. You have to be up early to get a picture like this, with no one in sight.

And here’s another shot (below), taken from across the harbour. Recently the old wooden boat museum was taken down. This has opened up the area immediately outside Giaco’s, and we look forward to seeing what the development that is planned there will look like. Early indications are good!

Pizza

We’ve eaten pizza the world over. Italy, Berlin, Boston, New York. But Giaco’s pizzas are up there with the best of them. They’re not cheap. But they are excellent. If we are here for a few days we will always ensure we get a takeaway one evening. If you want pizza, there’s really no competition.

Fish and chips

It’s getting a bit silly now, isn’t it. Because Giacos also serve fantastic fish and chips. Excellent chips and consistently good batter. To be fair, Mackays (or ‘Mackos’) also do very good fish and chips and have a really good place to eat in on the seafront. But as you’ve probably realised, our hearts belong to Giacos.

Other restaurants, bars, and takeaways

Oblò Bar is our preferred eating out venue. This also happens to be part of the Giacopazzi conglomerate. Lovely, friendly service, and good meals. If you are lucky and the weather holds you can sit outside on the balcony and watch the sun set. That’s one of our favourite evening activities.

The Ship has recently re-opened and we haven’t had a chance to try that yet. But reports are good. There’s also a great coffee place called Rialto.

Eyemouth isn’t a great pub town. The beers aren’t to our taste really. The Contented Sole is cosy and welcoming. But nowhere sells good beer. There must be a business opportunity there for someone. Luckily Berwick has very, very fine pubs, including one of the best in the land: The Barrels, on Bridge Street. There’s also a superb micro-pub on Bridget Streer: The Curfew. We also very much like Atelier (also on Bridge Street!)

There is an Indian restaurant (we believe - all these things are a little hard to be sure of coming out of lockdown…) where we have had good meals. And there are two Chinese takeaways which have also served up good food to us. It’s just we can’t get past the pizza, if you see what we mean.

Local Businesses

There are some fantastic businesses working out of Eyemouth. Leftfield Kombucha brew four outstanding kombucha teas, Jarvis Pickle make some of the finest pies we’ve ever tasted, and ReTweed is a successful social enterprise that encourages and enables creativity in crafts.

And don’t forget, a little further afield, is the peerless Chain Bridge Honey Farm, which is fighting for all our futures (and which sells wonderful honey products).