Shipwrights, Padstow — Restaurant in England

I don't like giving negative reviews as times are tough but I've been asked by email to review my visit from the 11/3/23 so I hope the team take this as constructive criticism rather than a moan. Me and my wife have enjoyed visiting the Shipwrights for donkeys years, we enjoyed the food and the piece and quiet in the upstairs eating area and the lovely views overlooking the harbour and river. There used to be a good selection on the specials board too including a very nice fish pie. However, that's all changed now as there were no specials and no fish on offer (except fish and chips) which I find unusual for a pub in a fishing town. The menu seems mainly burger based with quite a few high calorie alternatives. I could have gone for the chilli or chicken salad as a 'healthier' option but we chose to pay for our drinks and eat elsewhere instead. I think the main 'tipping point' for leaving was not just the lack of fish on the menu and no specials but having the TV's in a room that used to be such a nice escape from the busy streets and bar below, a place to wind down and relax and have dinner. Yesterday we tried to have a conversation but the additional TV speaker was right above our table blasting out commenting of the Crystal Palace v Man City game, while whatever direction I looked there was a TV showing the game. I like football but I booked the Shipwrights to have a relaxing evening so we left and found a nice restaurant instead. I noticed that everyone left the upstairs room as soon as the football was over too with no one left dining - I think that tells you something. My advice would be to remove the TV's from upstairs to restore the ambience and have some alternatives on the...

I was grateful to be able to book a table, as all other restaurants in the area were booked for two months. The pub is a local's pub which is a nice escape from the tourist hot spots, but it's not glamorous! There was a reduced menu of pizza only which wasn't indicated when we booked on the website, only on one page of the website that I didn't look on. We called to say we would be a little late but it turns out that the time I had booked for (and was on my confirmation email) was not the time they had on their system anyway, so that's strange. Unfortunately, we waited over an hour for our two pizzas when there were only two groups (us and a group of three) in the upper part of the restaurant. When the pizzas came they didn't have any of the ordered toppings on them, and although my pizza was delicious, my partner's Meat Feast was very cheap looking and tasting - he described it as a £1 pizza (£14.50 is the price) and it looked a bit like my dog's food. Sorry! The waiter was good and he compensated us, so that helped the situation but by this point it was well passed 9pm and we arrived at 7.50pm. Probably won't go back but a good atmosphere for families and the staff were giving it a good shot. Third star is for the staff,...

My partner and I came here for a drink a while ago and found it a good little pub - friendly lads behind the bar, good range of drinks etc. We ate here this week and it was very disappointing - we had the pizzas, which were OK, but nothing special at all.

The server also kept pacing up and down the room (emoty apart from one other table of people) which made us a bit uncomfortable.

There is also an office upstairs that I walked into by accident thinking it may be the loo, no sign or anything and the door wide open, with a man sitting in there who didn't even look up or acknowledge me.

Apparently the pub has a music ban while the country is in mourning for the queen - they apparently had been told they could only play BBC news on all of their TV screens, which made for incredibly depressing background noise to our dinner. I would understand it perhaps in the immediate aftermath of her death, or like the first 24 hours, but 3 days later? Really? We could hear music blasting from the kitchen, so it felt like we were just being subjected to a depressing experience on purpose.

Such a shame as after reading some reviews we thought the pub would be great, but it was just a surreal, slightly...