Pearl & Trawl — Restaurant in England

We booked a table here whilst on Holiday to celebrate our recent engagement.

On arrival we found parking easy lots of spaces, when we enter the restaurant it looked clean and the decoration was great. I think that’s the only positives I can offer.

We waited at the front of the restaurant to be seated for what was much longer than you would expect. Finally a waitress arrived and took us to our table, she advised she would be back shortly to take our drinks order. Whilst waiting we thought we’d choose what we would like to eat, eventually after 15-20 mins she returned to take our drinks order, I started to place the order when another member of staff shouted something across the restaurant to the waitress, to which she replied “beef or chicken ?” At this point we realised there were no beef burgers as they had none left, not a problem as none of us were ordering burgers. She then looked at me to take the drinks or so I repeated x2 April spritz as I thought she’d not heard due to the interruption, she replied “yeah, I got that” we have the easy of the drinks order and our meal choices, most came with chunky chips, once we had finished ordering she informed id there’s no chunky chips, no apology, just an “ is that ok” not that we had any choice.

We then waited patiently for our drinks, after 20-25 mins the waitress returned to inform me that there were also no chicken kebabs that I’d ordered but I could have halloumi, not what I wanted she asked if I wanted a menu, I requested one so I could choose something else to eat, after 10 mins she returned with the menu I gave her my meal choice and asked if we could get the drinks, she replied “ yeah, we are busy” and stormed off throwing her hands in the air. I’d like to point out the restaurant was barely 1/4 occupied. After another 10 mins a different waitress returned with our drinks, she was much friendlier and apologised for the wait, the aperol spritz looked very unappealing flat and no orange slice, we asked if we could get an orange slice, she said she’d go check if they had oranges, yet again she returned and advised they are also out of oranges! At that point I’d had enough we’d been in the restaurant for almost an hour had only just been served our drinks. I suggested to the rest of the table hat we should go elsewhere. We told the waitress we were leaving, the service was bad, there were stock issues and I wasn’t confident the food would be worth what they were charging. The waitress got very defensive and advised they were short staffed. I appreciate that makes things difficult, however a guest on holiday does not need to know there staffing issues. I dread to think how they have coped with a full restaurant, this is obviously the reason this has availability and everywhere else was full.

Due to the time wasted at the Pearl and Trawl we couldn’t get into another restaurant to celebrate and ended up back at the holiday resort ordering pizzas ! Very disappointing celebration...

The place is really lovely and we often visit whilst on holiday in Cornwall as it is dog friendly and the food is good. Last night we both ordered chicken strip starter which came out within a few minutes of ordering which makes me question how fresh this is. It was tasty though nonetheless. My husband then ordered the lamb duo which he was pleased with. I ordered the roast beef (they had run out of pork by 5:30pm), when it arrived it had a hair in it, I informed the young waitress who took it to the kitchen, another young waitress then brought another meal out quite quickly, but when she left I realised this new meal didn’t have any seasonal greens with it, as my previous meal did. Nobody came to check on the table for quite a meal and my food was getting cold, I had to go and find somebody to inform them of this and in fairness to them they immediately got me some seasonal greens. I was just left a bit unsure about this meal as there didn’t seem to be much care that I’d found a long hair in my meal - most establishments would have personally had the manager come and apologise, check in on the rest of the meal, and good customer service would have offered a compensation eg. A drink on the house/pudding/small discount. Nobody seemed to care that my food had hair in it, which just didn’t really sit right with me. Once we’d finished the meal our plates sat on the table for over half an hour unvisited, which makes me think they only care about customer service until you’ve paid them. Disappointing as we’ve always enjoyed visiting this pub in the past.

UPDATE

We were kindly offered a complimentary visit following our previous visit and we took on this offer whilst holidaying in Cornwall this week. Our return visit was much better than our previous one and we left feeling very content and grateful for a second opportunity at this establishment. The food was delicious, the service was fantastic and despite being really busy the servers ensured they checked in regularly and provided excellent customer service. Thank you for welcoming us back 😊 we will definitely be back again for...

Here's somewhere we didn't think we would be dining? A modern, family-friendly pub, restaurant overlooking the Camel Estuary with spectacular views! It's part of the Marstons pub chain.

What drew our attention was a familar face plastered everywhere you look. From the car park entrance to the pub foyer and on every table,advertising "The best ever pub pie". It was none other than Tom Shepherd. He has done a collaboration which allows the wider public to try food a Michelin Star chef has created.

We took our doggies and sat outside on the garden benches. To order anything you are encouraged to scan a QR code on the table. We prefer to order at the bar.

We ordered a couple of starters. Prawn Cocktail £7.79 King prawns dusted with paprika, Marie Rose sauce, little gem lettuce, plum tomatoes, cucumber, lemon mayo, rustic bread & salted butter. Crispy BBQ Cauliflower Wings £6.99 Spring onions, red chillies, chives, roasted garlic mayo. These arrived at our table in double quick time and were surprisingly pleasant.

Onto the mains. Pan-Fried Sea Bass £20.79 Two sea bass fillets, garlic King prawns, rosemary & garlic-roasted potatoes, kale, peas, green beans & mangetout, grilled lemon, with a white wine sauce.

We had to have the Best Ever Pub Pie £20.79 A triple layer pie, made with rich hand-pulled beef cheek and pulled beef shin, sweet and garlicky caramelised onions, separated by a thinly sliced distinctively savoury, seasoned roasted potato layer, all encased within a deliciously textured beef fat shortcrust pastry. Served with creamed mashed potatoes, honey-roasted carrots, kale, peas, green beans & mangetout, and a rich red wine sauce. The pastry was more hard crust than short crust but the filling and the sauce more than made up for it.

The prices for the mains we thought were a bit punchy. But they have a great offer on the website. If subscribe,you get a 30% discount code to use off all mains. Overall,we enjoyed our visit. The staff were very nice and friendly. The food was as expected. It's a lovely pub in a great location and it's very...