The story
The story of Stage begins not in Exeter, but on the North Cornish coast. Its founders — Felix, Blaise and Robbie — first worked together at the St. Enodoc Hotel in Rock, a kitchen known for producing chefs such as Nathan Outlaw and Clare Smyth. When the hotel changed hands, the trio bought a horse box and launched Taco Boys, a fine dining food truck on Polzeath’s Baby Bay. For two years they served elevated food to beachgoers, building a loyal following.
In September 2020, the team crossed the Tamar and opened Stage on Magdalen Road in Exeter. The name reflects both the theatre of the open kitchen and the progression from pop-up to permanent home.
Stage’s modern cuisine is grounded in a farm-to-table ethos that was forged in Cornwall and refined in the city. The restaurant operates a whole-animal-only policy, doing all its own butchery, charcuterie, misos, soys, vinegars and beers. Most produce comes from local farms and a dedicated market garden; the menu aims to be fully British, with only unavoidable exceptions like chocolate, sugar and certain wines sourced with care for ethics and quality.
The team’s prep units double as a site for experimentation — fermenting, curing and brewing. This commitment to house-made ingredients gives every dish a distinct, considered character.
Stage offers a tasting menu that changes regularly to reflect seasonal availability. The kitchen draws from its own smokehouse, brewery and the surrounding market garden to build each course. A sample menu is available on request, and the front-of-house team pairs the food with an innovative drinks flight featuring home brews and fine wines.
Pricing is straightforward: weekday lunches at four courses for £35, weekend lunches and dinners at six courses for £60. The dining room seats a maximum of six per party, so each booking feels personal.
Stage’s meticulous approach has earned a Michelin Recommended award, a mark of the consistency and creativity that runs through every plate. For a restaurant born from a surf-town food truck, that recognition speaks to the depth of skill and ambition in the kitchen. The team continues to push towards a fully sustainable, British-led menu — and the dining experience reflects that unpretentious, driven spirit.
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History
Older subscribers may recall the Taco Boys' horse-box on Porthilly beach. It was the jumping-off point for the collective that now runs Stage in Exeter's bosky Magdalen Road district, a 10-minute flit from the city centre. The place has been dolled up a little in the last few years, with comfier booth-style seating and the reception desk now moved sensibly to the door. Felix Craft and his team can be seen through a broad hatch at the back, while the effervescent Robbie Ashby runs the front with galvanising panache. The place takes about five minutes to fill up in the evening (book well ahead), and a sense of community prevails – we're all eating the same things, after all (give or take the odd allergy). It's four set courses at lunch, six at dinner, changing weekly. We began with a bowl of yummy beetroot gazpacho, accompanied by a steel brochette of beetroot, bresaola and quail's egg. Next up was a shatteringly good version of Chinese sticky chilli beef, made with battered and glazed shin, on an underlay of stir-fried spring greens, asparagus and slivered garlic – a stunning success. An intermediate salad saw more wafer-thin, rosy-red beef topped with Devon Blue cheese and rocket, before a majestic main course of crisped pollock with lemony fennel and wholewheat farfalle in a puddle of 'nudja fat, sizzling with chilli. A cheese course with lacto-fermented mini-plums and candied pistachios followed, while the whole show was rounded off with a slice of rhubarb frangipane tart, its accompanying milk espuma dotted with cornflakes. The drinks flight is worth taking: only three of the six items were wine when we visited, the rest were aromatic cocktails, shrubs and shandy. Not every match is, strictly speaking, a match, and the approach can teeter on the edge of recklessness, but it adds hugely to the fun. Which is exactly what Stage aims to deliver.
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