Exeter for Foodies: From the Quayside Smokehouse to the High Street
If you want to understand Exeter for foodies in a single walk, start by the water and finish near the Cathedral. The city is small enough that you can cross it in twenty minutes, but dense enough that you will pass independent bakeries, fishmongers, market stalls, riverside terraces, and a handful of restaurants you could happily book again on the way out. This is the route we send visiting friends on when they have one day and an empty stomach.
Start at the Quayside
The Quay is the obvious place to begin. Stage on the Quayside leans towards a tasting-menu evening, but during the day the area is more relaxed: bench seating along the warehouses, paddleboards drifting past, and On the Waterfront serving handmade pizzas and seafood from a converted 19th-century building on Commercial Road. If you want a coffee before food, the pop-up huts under the arches usually have something hot by 9am at weekends. Prices on the Quay sit at the £-££ end for casual lunches, with mains around £14 to £18.
Parking on the Quay itself is metered and busy by 10.30am at weekends, so most locals use the Mary Arches multi-storey and walk down through the old West Quarter on foot. The descent through Stepcote Hill takes about four minutes from the High Street.
Up through Fore Street
Climb Fore Street and the city changes character. This stretch is the artery of independent Exeter, and most food businesses you read about in the local press have a doorway somewhere along it. Crankhouse Coffee roasts beans on Fore Street at their basement roastery, supplying the brew bars and cafes you will see further uphill. If you are walking past on a weekday morning, the smell coming through the grate is reason enough to stop.
Fore Street rolls into South Street, and on Thursday mornings the corner between the two becomes the Exeter Farmers Market. From 9am to 1pm you will find roughly thirty producers selling Devon venison, Brixham fish, Sharpham cheese, sourdough, raw apple juice, and seasonal vegetables that arrived in town a few hours earlier. It is the most reliable single hour in the Exeter food calendar.
Pause for lunch
By midday you are in the High Street zone, and the choices fan out. Boston Tea Party on Queen Street, set in a Grade II listed Victorian building, is a sensible mid-walk stop: walk-in only, brunch served until late afternoon, and dog-friendly seating on the ground floor. Expect £10 to £14 for a brunch plate and a coffee.
If you want something more substantial, Harry’s Restaurant on Longbrook Street has been running since 1993 and is now in its third generation under Samantha Pounds. The meat is Devon-reared, the building is a former 19th-century stonemason’s workshop, and lunch sits comfortably in the ££ bracket. Booking is wise on Fridays and Saturdays.
A bakery worth a detour
The Exploding Bakery sits beside Exeter Central station, on The Crescent. The cake counter is the headline act (the brownies travel well in handbags), but the lunch sandwiches and traybakes are quietly excellent too. Open Monday to Saturday, 8am to 4pm, and you can pick up a loaf to take home if you arrive before they sell out.
Finish near the Cathedral
The final stretch tips you onto Cathedral Green, where the lawn becomes one of the best places to eat outdoors in the city on a warm day. From April to September the Exeter Independent Market sets up on the steps and West Front with over sixty stalls of food, drink, and craft producers; on quieter days the Cathedral Green Market hosts traders on selected Saturdays and Sundays. Either way, you can grab a wood-fired pizza, a Devon pasty, or a cup of something cold and find a spot on the grass.
For dinner, Rendezvous on Southernhay rewards anyone willing to step one street off the main drag. The wine list is thoughtful, the daily menu sits firmly in the £££ bracket, and the room is small enough that you should book at least a few days ahead.
Practicalities for the day
Distances are short: end to end, our route is about a mile and a quarter. Wear flat shoes for Stepcote Hill, carry a small bag for bakery overflow, and remember that most independents close around 4pm on Sundays. If you are driving in, Mary Arches and John Lewis car parks are the most useful for this route; the train into Exeter Central drops you almost on top of The Exploding Bakery.
Many of the businesses on this walk are dog-friendly, especially at the Quayside end and in the bakeries; ask at the door if you are unsure. And come hungry, because building Exeter for foodies into one day means committing to several stops rather than one big meal.
For more on what is happening in town this weekend, browse our Central Exeter food and drink guides.