The Candlelight — Restaurant in England

Trying to be as fair as possible.

Start with the pluses.

1, nice decor and clean. Looks refurbished.

2, good atmosphere plenty of people.

3, Staff are polite although lacking experience.

4, The food does have flavour.

Now the negatives.

1, Pull the age old trick of would you wait at the bar while we get your table ready (it’s already available they just want to try and squeeze an extra drink out of you).

2, staff although polite lack any real confidence and experience. This would not be a problem if its pub prices they are pitching almost London pricing in Chard.

3, Although the food has flavour and well cooked the portion sizes are frankly ridiculous. I wanted a meal out, not two mouthfuls for a starter and four for main.

4, I dine out a lot. I live in the South Easy and frequent London regularly. The prices they charge for the quality and portion size is shocking. They are trying to be a Michelin Star restaurant without understanding what it takes to be one. Further more it’s marketed as a pub / restaurant which clearly is not the case.

The 2 bite starter, 4 bite main and a pint of beer set me back just over £45

I left bemused, still hungry and frankly angry.

I would like to say it’s a place to take loved ones for a special meal but sadly it’s not that good 🤷🏼‍♂️

It okay tasting, small portions and expensive along with a restrictive uninspiring menu.

I would give it 2.5 stars out of five but I can’t so rounded up to three instead of rounding down to try and be as fair...

Leaving a review for the Candlelight Inn a week after I stayed, reason being we are waiting for the owner to get back to us regarding having our Motorhome hit. Our first outing in our new van we decided to do a pub stopover. No electricity as promised and not warned of this prior to out stay disappointing since that's how it works. We went into the pub for lunch and dinner retired to bed at 11.15 only to be woken up to Motorhome being reversed into. My partner ran up to the pub to report this and the lady on duty knew which table, number had just left. No other cars came in or left at this time the carpark had been quiet for a while. Despite ringing 3 times and emailing the owner clearly decided not to help with enquiries and would not give us the name telephone number or car registration. Brushed the incident off with I rang around all dinners that night this is probably due to the amount of drinks consumed by the party at the table that night. There is CCTV at the front of the pub and finding the person responsible given the time of night and that they were the last to leave would be easy to do but I guess since we are talking about being over the limit the owner decided to cover this up. Very disappointed with our stay and I would warn anyone thinking of staying in a motorhome to be very careful, it has ended up costing us alot of money to have our NEW motorhome fixed and has totally put me off of staying out in it. I'm still badly bruised from the shunt in the dark and...

A stunning location deserved a stunning English restaurant. The Candlelight did not disappoint on any level. Meticulous effort to respect guests in this Covid time was just the beginning. A meal of such quality is difficult to find without some kind of official recognition by way of rosettes or Michelin stars. I've been lucky enough to eat at a range of quality restaurants over the years and The Candlelight is right up there. A stunning, well thought out menu offered quality and substance. My starter was the Gin Cured Salmon and it was simply stunning. The star of the show for me was the beetroot purée, amazing.

My main was not fish as I felt guilty not choosing all of the fish on offer so I went for the house burger. Beautifully presented again with light crispy multi fried chips. The balance was pretty much on the money. I'm running out of superlatives but is was lovely.

I could go on and on about the dessert and the quality of the beers and wine but I think I have made my point. This place should be on your bucket list of restaurants to visit before you can't. You will NOT be disappointed. I for one will return sometime in...