The Diggers Rest — Restaurant in East Devon

We checked the times for food serving time online, which was advertised till 9pm. We arrived at the pub for 815pm, 45 mins before the food stopped serving and were told the kitchen shut early because no one had ordered food that whole day. I understand as a business that is hard but if the trade isn't there in the earlier evening maybe times should be thought about to avoid disappointmented customers. We went to a different pub that were also serving food till 9pm, who happily served us and enjoyed our anniversary meal elsewhere. It is a real shame as the pub looked lovely inside and really cosy too.

In response to your reply to my review above, I could have called but maybe you should update your website and Google information to advise kitchen times may vary and to call to enquire. If something is advertised as being available till a specific time, like yours, you expect it to be the service that is available till that time. I work in the customer service industry and would not practice this. You wouldn't expect a shop to be advertised as open till 10pm, then shut at 7pm because you are quiet. I understand it is quieter in winter months so maybe that should be something you review when trade is quieter and update your website and Google...

We had dinner here last night. We had three courses, all of which were well presented and delicious. I had the ribs as a starter which were hot and delicious. My wife had the beetroot and goats cheese and our kids had soup and garlic cheesy bread. For mains my wife had venison pie with Juniper sauce and chunky chips. Our kids had the burger with chunky chips and I had the Flatiron steak in peppercorn sauce. The steak was the best I've had in years. It melted in my mouth. Presentation was just as good for the main course and desert; the flavour was delicious and the texture of the steak was delightful. For desert we shared a honeycomb ice cream with chocolate brownies and the Diggers sticky toffee pudding because we were just too full to manage a desert each. To be honest we were full before desert but if we're going out we make the most of it.

We'll definitely be back for more of their delicious hot food.

Insider tip: Our son fell on a ridge in the car park on the way back to the car because there's no light. He grazed his hand and knee quite badly, so remember a torch to get back to the car.

Other than that we could not have hoped for a better meal. The waitresses were friendly and polite and made us feel very relaxed...

Visited for Sunday roast around 2pm last Sunday. Our roasts were absolutely atrocious - the meat was well over with no taste or seasoning, the potatoes were hard (not crispy)/pale and looked as thought they'd been reheated - tough and flavourless. Vegetables were boiled until green colour had faded and the roast parsnips were sticks of black carbon. The gravy was very thin and again somehow without any flavour. For dessert we had the special which was crepes with chocolate sauce and ice cream - same story again, somehow stone cold crepes which were thick and tough with flavourless chocolate sauce. You get the idea by now and given all the excellent prior reviews I don't know how we ended up with the food we had. I can only assume the chef was off this day. We did not say anything to the staff as quite honestly we were the last people there by half 3 and how do you say it was all that bad? I say all this with absolutely honesty and no sarcasm or dramatics - I've never been compelled to give such a negative review before but this had to be said. Service was friendly and its a nice comfy pub but if it anyone finds there's been a permanent switch of ownership or kitchen staff recently - I'd take this as a red...