Ship Inn — Restaurant in England

We visited the ship for a family get together of 14 on a Sunday afternoon. Arriving around 2.30 we were one of the only tables in the restaurant. The waitress came over to take drinks orders (we pre-ordered food) and refused to allow my cousin (18) to order a pint, as he did not have ID. After hearing this I stated to the waitress the UK law stating that 'if you're 16 or 17 and accompanied by an adult, you can drink (but not buy) beer, wine or cider with a meal.' and was told that although this is true, they operate their own house rules that supersede the law. Perplexed by this, my cousin was forced to have a diet coke. I (20) was last to order and asked for a pint of beer, again I was asked to provide ID, which I did not have on me. Although clearly over 18 and still well over 16 to fall within the remit of a family meal, I was told I would not be served. I was very disappointed not to enjoy a pint which clearly proved a point of amusement for the family, after always being served at previous meals.

Our starter arrived (we had the sharing board) and was very good. However when cleared it became obvious they were short for time and main course arrived without a pause to breathe. Although my pork belly was of a high standard (notwithstanding the singular carrot) the seafood risotto had clearly come fresh from a microwave container and was devout of flavour (and fish!).

Desserts arrived soon after, and the salted caramel sundae was fantastic. However the ice cream with chocolate chip cookie was sadly sparse in cookie, in fact upon inspection there was none. Upon asking the waiting staff they embarrassedly explained that they had no cookie available, and in fact she could not remember a time they had. It would have been far better to have been offered an apology and an alternative e.g. brownie.

Although my grandmother usually picks incredibly well when it comes to food, I fear she may have dropped her standards this time. I don't think we...

I stayed at the adjoining Premier inn for a space of 6 nights over a 2 week period, and I ate on 6 occasions at the Ship Inn.

Night 1 - The dryest "gourmet" burger I've ever experienced, and zero flavour.

Night 2 - Mixed Grill, tough chicken and a steak that had to be sent back because it was cremated and not mad-rare like I asked, next time it came back, it was blue, and was still cold in the middle, and I mean refrigerated cold.

Night 3 - Oily lasagna, the dish it was served in was boiling hot. Leads me to believe it was frozen and microwaved.

Night 4 - The Wagyu burger, being advertised as "premium" was equally disappointing as the first burger. Dry, tasteless and dull.

Night 5 - Jalfrezi, watery bland and unevenly cooked separate containers. Don't try and market a fancy curry if each individual pot is served at varying temperatures

Night 6 - I was stupid and running out of options to select, and I resubmitted my faith in the lasagna. Same story, oily as hell.

The breakfast isn't anything to rave about either. Barely cooked sausages on breakfast set you up for a dicey day!

The staff are quite clearly overworked. 2 waiters/waitress manning a full restaurant, and 1 person behind the bar.

The only reason why this place gets two stars is because some of the time, the chips/onion rings were cooked well.

The staff even admitted that the Lasagna and Curry were reheated, pre portioned, meals that aren't prepared on site..

Edit - after my meal on the 6th night, I was very ill. Sparing the details I was up from 2am through to the morning. Dodgy food backed up by dodgy hygiene.

Edit 2** - I contracted Norovirus from this establishment. Shocking how a pub/restaurant can be operating whilst spreading this level of sickness to...

This is a great pub. Comfortable and well finished and the food is excellent. The staff are friendly and helpful also. I have given it a lower star rating than I would normally because I visited as part of a large group recently. We we required by the pub to pre-order our menu selection at least a week in advance as a condition of the booking. This pre-ordering did not seem to assist the pub in any way. It took over 30mins for all the starters to be served. This ment that for the first 15mins the first to be served were politely waiting for the others to be served and their meals were cold before they finally decided not to wait any longer and begin. The main course was the same. It took over 2 hours for the Sunday lunch to be served. It appears that the pub has an established management system in place for partys to book in, but no management system in place to cater for these party bookings. I know there were some changes and a couple of mistakes, but a good management system would take this into account. It would probably have helped if the pub had dedicated a member of staff to deal solely with our party with just some assistance to serve the dishes. There were at least 28 of us so the bill must have totaled around £850 and probably more. The food was superb and mine was hot as I tucked in as soon as it was served, but many of our party had cold meals that day. The pub may have coped better if we had just turned up and not pre-booked. They do need to sort their party management as I think I would have rated it as 5 star under normal...