The Ship Inn — Restaurant in East Devon

UPDATE - 4 years later: We returned to this part of the world for a short break, 4 years later and as it was so good last time, we were hopeful of a repeat performance. I'm delighted to say that's exactly what we got! We had the same dishes as last time and they really were spectacular! This on the same night that they were hosting a very busy and brilliant (and free!) beer festival. We were slightly anxious that with it being so busy, standards might fall but this was completely unfounded, the food was outstanding and still very good value (two courses each, a bottle of wine, a large gin & tonic and a pint and still under £100 is very good these days). The only very minor criticism I could make is that after a long wait with no sign of any servers after being seated, I eventually went to the bar to ask if I should order there tonight, given they were clearly so busy and may not be offering table service. The young lady I asked this of was clearly working under pressure of so much custom that she misunderstood my enquiry as a criticism and snapped "we are but we are very busy at the moment" a little too harshly. Fortunately, a more experienced server jumped in and very politely helped us with our order so no harm done and I do understand it can be difficult when so busy and working in a customer facing role, I've done the same job myself in the past but it does pay to mindful of customer service at all times. In conclusion, a fantastic night with still very high quality food at a great price point.

Original post: Dog friendly, fantastic food and service, would highly recommend!

We had not booked but the very friendly staff chose to accommodate us anyway and kindly made room for us. The quality of the food is outstanding, in particular the pork belly I had was probably the best I've ever tasted and my calamari starter and chocolate brownie desert were also excellent.

Prices were very reasonable and we were also very impressed by the excellent customer service and friendly attitude from the team.

I would not hesitate to go back here again, indeed I may well do before we leave the area, it...

Came here for my Dad's birthday, half way through the evening the landlord's 3 dogs just came out and started wandering around and jumping on people and peeing on customer tables. We had a dog who was completely fine under the table until the owner's dog came under our table while we were eating and started interfering, upsetting our dog. When I questioned a waiter about the dogs jumping on people, the response was "the landlord lives here too, they need to let their dogs out". I had to leave with our dog for 30 minutes as the staff did nothing about it and continued to let them wander around begging for food from everyone.

When I returned I was greeted by takeaway customers leaving who were warning me and complaining about what was happening with the owner's dogs, and then the landlord himself came out and was arguing with our party and had upset one of my family members, and was saying that they had only been out for 5 minutes and "what do you want me to do about it". I would have left 3 stars at least as the food was actually very good, and the staff manning the pizza station were especially excellent, but when the landlord came out and showed no remorse and was extremely rude, it completely ruined the...

I took my dad and very elderly grandad here for lunch today. It was overall very nice. The staff were really nice and the service, especially from the guy in shorts, was very attentive and friendly to start with, although once the pub got busier after 1pm the service did get slower (and it did get really busy -surprisingly so for a weekday lunchtime!). He still delivered friendly service though. My grandad is very elderly and he struggled with the noise level in the pub once it got busier as he finds it hard to pick out conversation over background noise. The food was very nice and reasonably priced for what it was. We had pork belly and scallops in chilli sauce which were both delicious. For dessert, the lemon posset was great. The sticky toffee pudding wasn't the nicest that I'd ever had but it was a good sized portion. Overall we spent just over £110 for 3 people with drinks and two courses, so not bad at all. I would definitely come back again if I'm...