STAFF and customers at a Port Isaac restaurant had a surprise as a high-profile sporting VIP paid a visit.

Jürgen Klopp, the outgoing manager of Liverpool, appeared along with an entourage of ten at The Mote Seafood Restaurant and Bar.

While the Port Isaac community is no stranger to high-profile individuals staying in and visiting their village, not least during the years during which Doc Martin was filmed, Mr Klopp’s visit was very much unexpected, having appeared without a reservation.

Lindsay McAsey, the general manager of The Mote, said that despite it being busy, the German manager and his family opted to dine anyway, with staff only too happy to serve them.

She said: "We just looked out the door and saw him and a big group. We went out with the kitchen porter who is a big Liverpool fan and wanted a photo with him.

"They were just looking around the harbour and suddenly pointed and said they would eat here. I wouldn't have personally recognised him even though I've seen him on the telly a lot but loads of other people knew it was him."

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to cook for Mr Klopp, Ms McAsey said that the head chef, who was on a night off, came to help.

She continued: "The head chef was on a night off but decided to come down . He was like 'I'm not missing this'. They were just a lovely bunch and because they hadn't booked anywhere they said we'd saved their evening but they made ours too."

As for the man himself, she was effusive in her praise: “I was a bit concerned at one point because people were coming in all the time to see him as word got around the village but he literally went out to everybody. That was really nice. There were no airs and graces and he was happy to do that for them.

“He said 'this is my job' and respect to him really for that, and to be fair the whole group were really respectful. You wouldn't have known they were anything special, they were just like everybody people.”