A Falmouth restaurant owner has been left devastated after a fire gutted The Seafood Bar's kitchen.

John Ball has run and owned the restaurant on Quay Hill for the last 22 years and is now having to come to terms with what has happened.

"It's a bit of a shock but I'm coming to terms with what it did - there's nothing else to do," he said.

There was no one in the restaurant when the fire started at just after 10pm on Sunday night.

Falmouth firefighters were called at 10.38pm but when they arrived the fire had already taken hold.

Two crews battled the blaze using specialist breathing equipment and quickly put it out but had problems ventilating the property.

The area was declared safe at 11.30pm though firefighters stayed on scene until Mr Ball arrived just before midnight.

Mr Ball had been unaware of the fire until he got a call from his sister and immediately rushed down to see the damage caused.

He found the kitchen gutted with the rest of the restaurant left blackened by the smoke.

Mr Ball believes the fire was started by a fault with the electrical deep fryer, thinking it must have turned itself on.

He is upset it happened when no one was around because within metres of the fryer are two fire extinguishers.

Mr Ball and his partner Anne Oliver had planned to go on holiday next week but that has been cancelled while he deals with getting the restaurant up and running again.

"I've every plan to get open again as soon as possible," said Mr Ball.

But he expects it to take at least one, if not two months, before the restaurant is open or business again.