THE owners of an East Cornwall restaurant were delighted to be recognised for all their hard work and presented with an accolade at the South West Tourism Excellence awards recently.

Gail and Anton Buttery, from Langmans in Callington, came back from a glittering awards ceremony with yet another award under their belts, — a silver in the Taste of the South West category of the tourism awards.

The couple, who moved to Callington to start the restaurant in 2000, achieved silver in the Restaurant of the Year 2014/2015 with VisitCornwall, which entered them into the running for the South West Tourism Excellence Awards 2014/2015.

Gail said: 'We knew we were finalists for the Cornwall event in November and that forwarded us on to represent Cornwall at the regional awards. We went to the awards' ceremony just knowing we were finalists — we didn't know whether we would win anything. We were very thrilled, it's a fantastic achievement.'

The restaurant is run with Anton as the chef in the kitchen and Gail working the front of house, hiring local students as occasional waiting staff.

It has previously won Restaurant of the Year in the Cornwall Tourism Awards in 2002 and 2004 and was runner up in the years following, up to 2006.

'Until 2014, we didn't enter any other competitions,' said Gail. 'So that is why it is so wonderful to get this regional recognition. Obviously, the latest awards are the most significant, but the earlier ones, together with receiving two AA Rosettes for culinary excellence every year since we've been here, shows the quality and consistency of our restaurant.'

This year's South West Tourism Excellence Awards broke the previous record for entries with 425 submissions being considered, each going through a rigorous three-stage judging process and 275 being visited by a team of 35 mystery shoppers.

Mystery shoppers dined at Langmans as part of the judging process and left comments such as: 'Best fine dining I have had in a long time. Everything about the food is well thought out and executed perfectly. Not a fault in the cooking anywhere!'

Chair of the awards judging team Alistair Handyside said: 'The list of winners really does look like a who's who of the best in the industry in the South West. Once again entrants have surpassed themselves in showing that investment, innovation and creativity remain at the heart of the visitor economy in the region.'