Old Inn & Restaurant — Restaurant in England

Update 25/08/2024 Reduced from 5 to 3 stars simply due to pricing.

I booked a table for four for late lunch on August Bank Holiday for my wife and I and two friends who were holidaying in Cornwall at the Old Inn at St Brewards, I believe that the pub/restaurant is under new management. We have visited this pub/restaurant many, many times since my initial review. It has been our go to place for a Sunday lunch. I was surprised at the availability as it is usually booked up well in advance, especially for this popular holiday weekend. On arrival I was unusually able to park right outside (a first) and the restaurant was almost empty although the bar area was quite busy. I soon realised the reason why.

The price of a two meat carvery has gone up from £11.95 to £17.95 in two years, that is an over 50% increase!!! That said, the meat portions were really generous, even more than before. The quality was still excellent, as was the service, but with these prices there is an awful lot of choice out there and the footfall appears to have fallen dramatically. £17.95 is quite a lot for a carvery and we will not be visiting this pub/restaurant quite as often as we have done. It is clear that many others are thinking likewise.

Original review from 2 years ago. My wife and I decided to have our Sunday lunch at the Old Inn & Restaurant after reading all of the good reviews of their carvery. This is a very busy place and booking for Sunday lunch is a must especially if eating outside is not an option due to the weather. Well it did not disappoint. I did worry that with many carveries the vegetables can end up soggy and tasteless and the meat can be of poor quality. All my worries were unnecessary as here at the Old Inn all of the vegetables were crisp and tasty and the meat was succulent and tender. The choice on our visit was beef, lamb, turkey, pork or gammon. The pricing for a choice of one meat is £9.95 -, two meats £11.95, and four meats £16.95. The meat is served generously and the vegetables are help yourself and on this occasion they included broccoli, carrots, suede, cauliflower cheese and roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings along with rich, tasty gravy and all of the sauce accompaniments. We will certainly be making this one of our regular eating places and whilst I really struggled with the four meats, despite only a moderate helping of vegetables, so I shall plump for the two meats in future. As an aside, I cast an eye on a neighbouring table and I saw that they had chosen the mixed grill which looked tremendous. I can't wait...

This place is a real gem. We arrived at our accommodation early so popped into the old inn to get some lunch and to kill a bit of time while we waited to get the keys to our lodgings at Hengar Manor nearby. Due to the ongoing covid pandemic, there was a need to leave our personal details for track and trace. Once this was done, we sanitised our hands using the free sanitiser at the door then went in. As it was a Monday afternoon, the pub was quite empty so we were given the options of where we wanted to sit and with it being a nice day, we opted to sit outside. We ordered 3 cheeseburgers, cheesy chips and a chicken breast with drinks which was ridiculously cheap due to the government's eat out to help out scheme. When the food arrived, we couldn't get over the size of the portions - we could have ordered half of what we did and still be full. The food was cooked to perfection and tasted wonderful. Iver the next 2 weeks we ate there on at least 4 more occasions and each and every time the staff were polite, wonderfully helpful and nothing was too much trouble. There is half decent WiFi in there ro keep the kids quiet along with a good selection of draught ales. The highlights were definitely the mixed grill and the carvery. All quality food and i wish this was my local pub - living 300+ miles away will be good for my...

As others have said, it’s the oldest and highest pub in Cornwall, and the home-cooked food is extremely good, with a fantastic menu of 29 different specials when we we there! (Not including desserts!) All of them sounded delicious! The atmosphere is really great, the place is absolutely spotless, and the staff couldn’t be more lovely, (-and their dogs are absolutely wonderful too).

They serve you ridiculously generous portions of food, and we all left here in a food and drink induced coma! I would advise to only order one portion of chips per couple, as the basket of chips they bring out as a so called, ‘side’ would feed two people on its own. And they’re delicious!

We have already agreed that we are going back again tonight, and tomorrow, and probably leaving later on Sunday now, so that we can get one more visit in, before heading home! And we will be back in future. We all absolutely loved it!

You know a place is very special when you genuinely consider selling your house in the Southeast and moving here, just so that you can have this as your local pub! This is what a pub should be. It’s got a really wonderful community feel. Great food, drink and really friendly, fun, nice people, I can’t recommend it...