Farmhouse — Restaurant in East Devon

Booked a table for our family party of 7 on the previous day for 7.30pm. We arrived early, found our table and got drinks from the bar then placed our orders promptly at 7.30pm and were told we would have a wait of up to 40 minutes. The pub was very busy for a Monday night and everyone else's seemed to have already ordered - the staff were friendly, as helpful as possible but were rushed off their feet. Anyway, after 45 minutes a starter arrived for the only guest who had ordered one. After an hour and five minutes everyone else in the pub was eating, including at least one party who had arrived over half an hour later than us and had not reserved a table. When we reminded a staff member that we were still waiting, we were finally served. Most orders were OK but my husbands had THREE gammon steaks not one and an undercooked fried egg. My daughter's vegan 'fish equivalent' was apparently very good but the number of chips could be counted on two hands - no toes needed. However, I had ordered the steak and ale pie with mashed potato - and it was not good! There was every indication that it had been a really good pie but this one had been seriously overcooked. The pastry was hard and inedible and the gravy had cooked out and the contents almost totally dried out. To add insult to injury the gravy served with it tasted like nothing and, having used it myself, I'm pretty certain the potato mash was frozen - it was wet, heavy and unseasoned. Good job that after such an unacceptable wait I had lost my appetite! I don't like rating anywhere this low but I spent 20 years running pub restaurants and I would never have allowed people to wait so long when they had advance booked for a table and service at a particular time - and I would not have sent that pie anywhere but the bin! A clear case of lovely staff and very bad...

We have gone to the farmhouse for food over many years as it’s our local pub but in the past 5 years, the quality of food and service has gone so far downhill that we avoided going. It is such a shame that since being taken over by the hungry horse, the quality of food has gone from freshly prepared, hot and delicious food to Luke warm, microwaved, stodgy & greasy food.

We decided to give the Farmhouse another chance to see if it had improved. We were very disappointed with our visit on Sunday 2nd February 2020 at 5:30pm. Our table was 2 adults & 2 children. Mine & the kids food was ok. However my wife’s roast dinner was disgusting, the worst roast she’d ever tasted! She couldn’t eat most of it. The ‘hand carved roast beef’ was dry & fatty, the mash was Luke warm & clearly not fresh, the Yorkshire was so tough & microwaved to the point that you could not cut into it with a serated knife & most of the veg that came with it was not even listed on the menu.

As a small family with minimal other diners on a quiet Sunday evening, the whole meal took nearly 2 hours to complete. I also had to remind them of the children’s desserts that we’d paid for as part of the kids menu, as they had clearly forgotten our order despite it having already been paid for!

I would not recommend the Farmhouse to anyone! Avoid at all costs unless you’re going just for a drink - food and service at its absolute...

We booked for Boxing Day and paid a £10 deposit as we have always had a good meal at the Farmhouse. On the day we ordered two Serloin steaks plus a chicken salad and a Chicken New Yorker. Did not wait long and the food Dudley arrived, that's when the fun began. My Dad took a bite into his Stake which nearly broke his jaw and spat it out , strange as both Stakes should have been medium and mine was tough but enable. Then one of the staff turned up and asked "how was the food" we explained about my dads Stake and the replay was " see how you get on with it and I'll come back" well that was the last we saw of her. Dad tried his best but ended up with a plate of half chewed Steak which is not a nice site. So we made our first complaints to the young chap who took the plates away. Mum fancied a Baked Alaska, big mistake! As it turned out. The young chap returned and said " sorry " about Dads Steak and we could have a free pudding so we ordered two Baked Alaska's. If anyone has ever tried to break Conctete then take how the Alaska's base was even trying to force a Folk into it it would not break. Again upto the bar to compline!!! To say it was the worst meal we have ever had at the Farmhouse is an understatement as we do tend to eat there twice a month and Easton all around the World so should know it was THE WORST MEAL EVER. It will be a long time if ever to...