Watermark Café

If the views and location tempted you the first time – right on the sweeping North Bay seafront, with outdoor seats and uninterrupted ocean panoramas  – you'll be back again at this great seafront café. The Watermark has carved out a reputation as a genuine Brit-caff beach hangout, with as warm a welcome for families as for the surfers stripping off in the parking bays up the road – seaview terrace aside, there's a sheltered back patio, plus library area with wood-burner and diner-style booths inside. It's open from 6am onwards for all-day brekkies that hit all the right notes – locally sourced, outdoor-reared sausage and bacon, free-range, organic eggs, good Fairtrade coffee – as well as homemade burgers, sandwiches, soups, organic, gluten-free cakes, caramel slices and the like. They rustle up a chicken curry and other specials for daytime mains, and stay open until 9pm in the summer – adding live-music nights, beer and wine into the mix if you want to make more of a night of it. Be prepared to wait at busy times, either for a table or food, but on the gastronomically challenged North Bay it's a price worth paying. There's a takeaway counter and ice cream if you just can't resist the beach.