The Chapel Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Bodmin

I have pondered this review for a couple of days… on arrival we met Jo at the reception, a great start, she was very professional! The place was gorgeous, we had high hopes. However, it went downhill straight after we walked into the champagne bar… ordered 2 soft drinks, never got them, the chap behind the bar was like a rabbit in the headlights when a few other people came in. We sat and waited. Eventually another chap showed up with a clipboard asking what time our table was for. We told him we hadn’t had our drinks, he went straight behind the bar and brought us two drinks, not what we ordered, but by this point we knew the kind of night we were going to have so we settled for them. I had a coat on my arm, a bag, a glass and a bottle as we headed up the stairs, the chap looked back but didn’t even offer to help carry the drinks, so my husband took what he could manage along with his own glass & bottle. As we sat down we asked for some olives and bread, the same chap said “dunno if we have any olives” then shouted over to the bar to ask, then said “we’ve got more now”… we had the bread and olives, ordered our mains, by this point my husband had finished his drink, he never got asked again if he wanted another one, for the entire meal!! Food was mediocre at best, the chef has potential but seems to miss the spot with flavour and texture. Service was horrific for such a lovely looking place. The staff didn’t look like they knew what they were doing the French maître d' didn’t acknowledge us once, not even a smile. She was stressful and actually held her head in her hands shaking her head at the till at one point like a scene from Fawlty Towers. People were having to go to the bar to ask for things because no one seemed to know how to interact with the diners! And it wasn’t even busy! 5/6 tables. There was one professional attentive female (we didn’t get her name but she was tall with a high ponytail) she should be running the place. People were starting to come in just before we left and were left stood with no acknowledgment for quite sometime, not even a ‘we will be with you shortly’. We had to actually ask for a drinks menu at the end of the meal so we could choose a coffee… what an absolute shambles of a service and very sad that this seems to be a theme with reviews… it needs an overhaul! We would not recommend and certainly won’t be back! Very overpriced for a...

My partner and I weren't staying at the hotel, but enjoyed a 3 course meal at The Chapel. The jail itself is really impressive and I left wanting to know more, so would definitely visit the tour if I'm ever in the area again.

The Chapel restaurant is a good sized open space with artworks projected on the ceiling and windows, although the window projection was quite misaligned. Atmosphere-wise for dining, I would have liked the background music to be louder, as it was almost non-existent.

The staff were friendly enough, but there were some inconsistencies with the tone that the restaurant is trying to achieve, for example our waiter's footwear had holes/tears across the side of the shoe. Get the guy some new trainers. Also when taking our order, he seemed to opt for the 'memorise' route, and then forgot everything and wanted to double check our order. There's no shame in writing the order down guys. Our first order of drinks didn't arrive until our main course, which is odd. Was the order forgotten, or is the service too slow?

My starter of the crab was presented in the shell atop a large bowl full of seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, pine). I didn't quite understand what they were trying to achieve, or what happens to the seeds after (hopefully not reused, but surely too expensive to simply throw away?) The taste was okay, I'm not a fan of eating out of a shell, it's too awkward. Forget the seeds, and the shell, add a rocket salad.

The mains and dessert, presentation wise, was incredible, like something out of MasterChef. The staff who bought our food out poured gravy atop it, with no real flair, and the awe in presentation quickly went away. Taste wise, it was nice but overly sauced. The beef shin was extremely small, like a very large scallop, but cooked very well. Equally the dessert was delicious.

£50 pp for the 3 course dinner which is probably about right. The menu didn't have individual dish price points, so be prepared to have a 3 course...

We came here with an experience voucher for a three course Sunday lunch, like everyone else in the restaurant from the looks of it. First off the atmosphere was very odd, a large near empty room with lots of staff but none of them particularly friendly or welcoming. They then got our drinks order wrong, and the waiting staff left too quickly for us to point it out. The menu said there was bread and butter, but we weren't brought any and I didn't see anyone else get any (even people who had ordered soup). To start I had the tomato salad, where they took the name very literally... It consisted of various tomatoes quartered in a bowl, with 6 cubes of mozzarella. That's it. No salt, pepper or olive oil in sight. It was incredibly bland and boring. The main was no better- I opted for the road beef, with the main positive being that the beef wasn't overcooked. The potatoes and roast parsnip were undercooked, with everything else well cooked but again incredibly bland. Did they forget to season everything??? The Yorkshire pudding was awful, Aunt Bessie's would've been better. They were also incredibly stingy with the gravy- we weren't given enough and I saw several tables ask for more too. The pudding was very disappointing too. I ordered the chocolate bread and butter pudding, and it was a tiny portion. There were two little chocolatey bits to it, but the rest of it was very stodgy and again bland. The clotted cream was completely wrong for the dish, and didn't go with it at all- custard or single cream would've helped combat the stodgey-ness, but the clotted cream did nothing for it. We left thinking that had we paid for the meal, we would've felt incredibly ripped off considering it was £50 per person. I've genuinely had a better roast at a Toby Carvery. The only positive was that the service was very quick, meaning we left...