This award-winning West Dorset artisan ice-cream maker blends organic local milk from “happy cows” with the home-grown glut of fruit from its smallholding in neighbouring Bridport. Our order: one scoop of maple-and-walnut gelato and a second of pear sorbet. Best enjoyed from a “baboos” – think of it as a chocolate-coated ice-cream bite.

Pink-washed brick walls, coffee-table magazines and macramé-strung spider plants set the scene in Swim, a self-titled “little café bar by the sea”. Menus here see you through from sunrise to sundown, so nab a comfy cushion on a raw-wood banquet and settle in for jammy shakshuka, crab sandwiches, colourful “whole bowls” and, our favourite, the chocolate sourdough bread-and-butter pudding.

If you haven’t nibbled on a cup of cockles from a seafood stall, have you really experienced the British coast? Lyme Regis does have a couple of decent stands, but we’ll let you in on a local secret: nip one street back from the bayfront and you’ll find this small gem of a fishmonger where, like packed sardines, fresh catch glistens beside ready-to-eat pints of prawns. If a sit-down affair is more your vibe, grab a table at the nearby Harbour Inn. Its seafood-focused menu runs the gamut from whitebait and beer-battered cod to seared marlin with chorizo and butterbeans.

Sure, you’re not in Cornwall, but if you’re able to walk past The Cornish Bakery’s window stacked high with pasties, flaking French pastries and fat scones, then your mettle is stronger than ours. The pasties here are PGI protected, meaning they’re the real deal – though we recommend trading in the traditional filling for the BLC (bacon, leek and cheese) or spicy chickpea and potato iteration. Perfect fodder for a beach picnic.

Many of Lyme Regis’ waterfront restaurants showcase the Channel’s bounty on their menus. Bucking the trend is Tierra Kitchen, a small vegetarian restaurant and deli secreted on a back street of Lyme’s artisan quarter. What the place lacks in chic decor it more than makes up for with a veritable rainbow of mezze, falafel, veg-packed samosas, home-baked bread, vegetable bourguignon and other such nourishing dishes. Vegan options are available.