The Hunters Lodge Inn — Restaurant in East Devon

You'll be hard pressed to find people more committed to providing great traditional food in a friendly setting, served by conscientious staff with can-do attitudes. I've eaten here a few times and would do so again.

I've noticed a couple of very negative reviews posted here which comes as a real surprise because they are certainly not reflective of my own experience. Looking into it a bit further, those posting such reviews have a clear history of doing so wherever they go, almost never taking the time to leave a good review of anything. From this one can only surmise that they have a particularly negative disposition and /or habitually obtain free goods or services on the back of unfounded complaints. Being someone who's career focus prior to entering law has always been staff development and enabling others to provide excellent customer service, combined with being quite accomplished in a kitchen myself, I feel confident in my ability to attribute the word "inaccurate" or even "spurious" to at least some of the criticism posted. Certainly some of the negativity is most undeserved. Just saying.

So, onto my own experiences and observations, which I'll try to keep concise :

Atmosphere /environment :

~ the busy road outside is forgotten almost immediately, the welcoming atmosphere which is tangible and genuine allows for relaxation from the off. ~ Family run, the personal ownership is evident due to a welcome absence of anything corporate. ~ The building itself is older than an old thing in old town, which brings some design quirks that add to the charm. I'm disabled and find access to be OK. Sure there's room for improvement but the listed status of the building will prohibit quite a lot. Most reasonable people are able to accept this, and staff will gladly help anyone without hesitation. I've found chain establishments to be greatly inferior in terms of access and helpfulness. Here, there is a noticable willingness to help make visitors comfortable. ~ Outdoor cooking and eating is available now thanks to the recent addition of "The Cabin", providing al fresco dining to the rear. I haven't tried it yet but I intend to

Food :

~ when I ate here a few months ago I was happy enough with the quality and taste etc, my only criticism being that the menu and specials seemed a bit uninspired (don't let that put you off as I'll come back to that in a moment) . More recently I enjoyed the Sunday roast ; having had delicious pork on my previous visit I was keen to have beef this time around. Now, I'm a foodie at heart ; I love great food and will only return to places which provide just that. The astute reader will have noticed this is not my first visit 😉. ~ Roast is just like momma used to make, as they say. Good selection of veg, decent helping of meat, proper gravy (slightly thicker would be even better), served with potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. A homemade horseradish sauce would have topped it off beautifully although the sauce of choice was a good one. Can't understand the need to serve everything in separate dishes though - it's a very nineties habit! ~ returning to the point about menu & specials. There have recently been some new additions and I have it on good authority that more will follow, due to a change in kitchen staff. I how the new chef really embraces the themes available to an historic place named 'The Hunter's Lodge' and its location near to the coastal town of Lyme Regis. My mind brings with possibilities of how to make this the number one place to eat and so I'm keen to see what happens.

Staff & service :

On each visit I've been impressed with the friendliness and positivity of staff. Arguably the most important ingredient of any business is great individuals developed into truly great staff and it is clear that this sentiment is shared here. In fact when booking in person for my most recent visit I was surprised to learn that the staff member taking my booking had only joined very recently as I had not formed that impression at all.

Overall : Excellent. Word limit prevents me...

Icy path. Had to help 2 older ladies. When we arrived,shocking the staff allowed them to walk there with no help or salt or grit. Told 4 mins to order as kitchen was closing. We did this. With a bottle of wine. Then we were told they close at 3pm. Felt rushed. Which got worse when staff got the hover out. Happy to take our money but not to let us finish our wine with out rushing. Food was OK. Sadly let down by the staffs attitude to rush us and get us out. Ruined our anniversary lunch. Won't go back and i wouldn't recommend this pub. Lots of others locally. Avoid this one. Bad service, And to be clear. 3pm was not mentioned when we ordered. And when I said what time do we have to leave. I asked 15mins. She looked at the clock and said we close at 3pm. Clock showed 1 min to 3. So if that's not rushing us out. And he needs to rewatch his cctv.i almost left with out paying due to having to rush. So staff are not being truthful or you clearly haven't watched cctv. As this will be very clear, and to try and say I'm making this up to get free food or drink. I'm shocked. And does your cctv show me helping the old lady due to your unsafe icy path. His shocking threatening reply.

Open app Your location

The Hunters Lodge Inn Charmouth Rd, Axminster EX13 5SZ British Paul Reader 359 points

Service Your cctv will clearly show us being told we close at 3pm only when we were eating. And not b4,,, and when I asked when do we have to leave 15mins. She looked at the clock and again said we close at 3pm.we looked at the clock. Said I min to 3. So that's rushing us when we still had half a bottle of wine Response from the owner 4 hours ago Hi Paul Well our private communication obviously did not make any difference, even with the apology, I wonder what you really wanted? We have plenty of people who try to scam/bribe us for free food and drink. The full story of this is you turned up 5 minutes before our kitchen closed, you were informed of our kitchen and pub closing time before you ordered and was ok with the timings on offer, you made no complaint at the time but later decide to send an email of complaint which we promptly investigated and replied. Our kitchen closes at 1430 and our pub closes at 1500, but we do not rush people out, you were told by our team that there was no rush. People will see this for what it actually is extortion pure and simple and we simply will not tolerate it. Be careful where else you publicise this as we would most certainly take action against you or anyone else who tries to damage our reputation or business. We provide excellent service and food we open 7 days a week from 0830 for breakfast close at 3pm so our team can have a meaningful break then reopen at 5.30pm. We are one of the only establishments to do this in the off season months, even though it would be more cost effective to close, because we offer stability and security with our opening hours. Our opening times are published everywhere including on the premises as well as online. You cite an icy path as an issue but you can only get to that path once you have navigated and icy carpark and icy roads, you cannot hold us responsible for the weather, that sir is an act of god not an act of the Hunters Lodge. You have now had your 30 seconds of fame by defaming a local business who work extremely hard to provide a good all round service as can be seen from our other reviews. I find this whole review pitiful, we also have CCTV footage of the entire event so if I were you I would be...

Absolutely disgusted booked a table for 6 with a high chair in advance turned up for our meal to be told that all high chairs were in use and that I could sit down whilst I have my meal and hold my 9 month old because basically it was tough luck. We had to leave as obviously holding a baby whilst eating is not practical hence why we asked for the high chair in advance. Will not be returning to this joke of an establishment when they can’t keep sufficient seats back for bookings they have already taken and then to be told by the rude and uncaring and unapologetic staff that it was tough luck really took the biscuit. If I could put negative stars I would worst experience of my life in any restaurant I’ve ever been in and I’ve been in to Beirut. complete joke of a business AVOID AT ALL COSTS RUDE AND ONLY SEE YOU AS A POUND SIGN. As for your quite rude reply I can see where your staff must get it from. There was no apology or even anyone to tell us you had no high chairs they went off to “look” for one and I found them 15 minutes later having a laugh and joke with their colleagues behind the bar. As for the worst experience of my life yes it was in a public house obviously I would say I have had worse experiences outside of a public house setting (my life is better than spending it pubs all day everyday) however Being told I have no common sense by the owner of a clearly failing public house that likes to jump down the throat and be so rude to Anybody that dares speak out about a negative experience is probably my highlight of the year so far perhaps if you took on board what people were telling you took the time to make improvements instead of getting all defensive and going on the attack perhaps you would see an upturn in business and less negative reviews I would call that common sense. Try apologising for the mistakes you have made and rectifying the situation or even a little communication whist people are in your pub would go a long way please don’t try and talk down to me I have been recommending your pub for over 3 years to holiday makers when they visit our site however I can assure you after the way you have spoken to me and handled my negativity I will no longer be doing this as I’m sure you understand that’s what most normal...