Rifle Volunteer — Restaurant in England

First time in this wonderful pub, its a hidden (in plain sight) gem! It's a bit of a tardis - doesn't look much from outside but is massive inside and has a lovely decked outside area at the back. Comfy and beautifully decorated and furnished, the staff are very professional and friendly and the food is lovely. Below is my beef nachos and panko prawns! Prices are average. Will definately return.

14.02.23 Returned with my OH for a pre-valentine meal, and had another lovely evening. Despite being busy, the landlord fitted us in. Food was lovely and desserts were scrumptious! Staff were still attentive and fun despite being very busy. My OH had a slight issue with the heat of his mussels but they replaced the dish immediately with apologies from the chef and investigated why this happened. OH then thoroughly enjoyed them! Lovely place, lovely staff, can't wait for better weather to re-visit 😊

27.05.25 Oh dear, what has happened? Been back to the Rifle Volunteer today for lunch with a friend. We have been here twice before and loved it. Today, not so much.. The menu is quite restricted and has 'small plates', 'nibbles', 'small appetites' and kids meals as well as main courses! Why so many options ? I chose a chicken Keralan curry from the small appetites section. It does not come with bread so I asked for some. The curry was tasty, but had at best 2 small pieces of chicken in it. It was all chickpeas and vegetables. If you're going to sell chicken curry, put chicken in it! My bread was 2 thick slices, almost burnt and so crusty I could barely bite it. My friend ordered a chicken dish from 'small plates' (starter?) with a side of triple cooked chips. The chicken kebabs were great but the massive triple cooked chips were over fried and she couldn't eat them all. We decided today that we will not come back here next time...

A lovely pub with an attached restaurant area within a conservatory. Also a private dining room. Saturday night and we booked a table of 5 to celebrate a family birthday. We were seated in the back of the pub in the restaurant and enjoying it all. All was well, the food was great, but then our night was spoiled by a lack of appreciation, understanding and service.

During dessert they sat a group of 5 lads on the next table. A group of 4 others joined them standing and so we realised that they were not eating, just drinking. The noise level was such that we couldn’t hear our own family chat. 9 burly Guinness drinkers clearly having a great time on a Saturday.

It was unfortunately excessive though. We were not the only ones grimacing at the yelling and excitement, so we politely pointed it out to who I believe was the landlord. He couldn’t even hear us himself because of the noise level the lads were making. But rather than go over to them and say, “lovely to have you here with us boys, do enjoy your night out, but you are sat in the restaurant side and people are eating, so do keep the noise level down please for the diners” , instead, he turns to us and says, “well you are in a pub on a Saturday night” .. ( he may as well have said, ”I don’t care, bye”)

Well actually Mr Landlord we were IN the restaurant and secondly, you need to make your mind up if we were sat in a pub or a restaurant, because if you’re charging £30 for just an 8oz sirloin with chips - we were definitely sat in the latter. Rude!!

Clearly you prioritise drinkers and not respectful of a family dinner celebration spending £182 and btw, you certainly need some people skills.

Won’t...

Can not fault The Rifle Volunteer, we had to do a quick Plan B after a pub in Cotehele did not cater for my daughter very well at all. We need a safe gluten free menu. I noticed The Rifle Volunteer on our way to Louis Café (also GF) and suggested we tried there.

The staff were super friendly, even more so when we said we needed gluten free. They were able to make onion rings gluten free, they have a separate fryer for chips etc and there are many GF options on the menu or items that can be made gluten free. Three pudding options too!

The food was delicious, my daughter had fish and chips - the chips were excellent and the batter better than any muggle batter.

I had a vegan pie which was awesome (not GF) son had chilli nachos with all the toppings and husband had sausage and mash (but posher than what we do at home ) All of us enjoyed our meals and portions was huge...Good job we were hungry.

Excellent venue, amazing view, friendly staff, delicious and safe food - what more could...