The Ship Inn — Restaurant in England

Turned up for lunch just as it was opening. The place seemed clean and was adhering to covid guidelines.

My son ordered a Ploughman's lunch. He asked what it came with and was told it came with a selection of meats and cheeses. It came with ham, a slice of pork pie, a savoury cheese mixture and salad and pickles. It was ok, but my son isn't keen on savoury cheese so wouldn't have ordered it had we been told the right ingredients.

I ordered fish and chips which was a let down. The chips looked like they'd been cooked from the previous evening, as we were very early. How they had the nerve to serve them the colour they were, I don't know. They didn't taste as bad as they looked, but they had a slight burnt taste to them. If paying full price (we had the Eat Out to Help Out discount), and had we not had a busy day, I would have complained.

Other things I didn't like about this place was that for some unknown reason, cutlery was brought after the meal was served. We were sat there, dish in front of us with no cutlery. I had to go ask for it, before the waitress came back to give us it. Same happened with a couple who came in after us (he ordered fish & chips and his chips looked fine).

The parrot in the cage. Please tell me that poor thing doesn't spend its entire existence sat on a perch in that tiny cage being poked at by little kids? That looked cruel. Why can it not have a decent sized cage?

Also, while there, I could hear a staff member ringing up customers who had booked for that evening, telling them that they weren't honouring the Eat Out to Help Out discount on evenings, just on lunches. Nice way to reward your 'loyal customers', some of which won't be on social media. Not sure why it should make a difference to the pub. They can still limit people and they would still get paid, and loyal customers get their discount.

My final thought is that I am very glad I didn't pay full price for the meals. It was worth 50% of the cost. I wouldn't go back.

Edit: What a mature, well thought out response from the owner, calling me a clown (has since deleted the response). I think that indicates how management deal with complaints. I was right not to complain at the time then as we all know how childish people respond to food complaints. A well-mannered apology addressing the complaints would have looked a lot better.

P.S. Do you get your parrot to write these responses, as the amount of grammatical skill used looks about the right level from the...

Stayed on a nearby caravan site for a few nights and decided to eat at the Ship Inn after having a takeaway pizza from there. The pizza was nice so we had high hopes of having a decent eating-in experience, how wrong we were. We arrived on time and was seated quickly by a young man who was pleasant and polite, but didn't seem to know the layout of the pub as he took us through various rooms before seating us in the first room he took us in. It wasn't explained to us that we had to go to the bar to order our meals, we only realised because the table behind us asked if a waiter could take their order and he told them they had to order at the bar. Our table was filthy, not exagerrating there... i had to use my serviette and hand sanitiser to clean it and the serviette was filthy after...the people on a table opposite also had to wipe their table too. We placed our order and all i could see that interested me was the Pork and Apple pie. It only took about 20 mins to arrive, and after letting the pie cool a while i found a mushroom (i hate them), i couldn't find or taste any apple, but i did find probably around 30 slices of mushroom. Mushroom wasn't mentioned on the handwritten scrap of paper that the waiter handed me when i asked what the specials for the day was. Anyway, i ate the chips, the pork and pastry, as i was hungry. A young lady came to take our plates and as she asked if it was ok, i politely told her that it was ok but nothing more as I'd expected to find Apple in my pie, not Mushrooms. Due to the poor standard of hygiene and information available about the food we ordered, i can't give higher than 3 stars, I'd have given it 2 but the staff were polite and pleasant, just under-trained in things like hygiene, not their fault as they were mostly teens, management should arrange a training day for all...

We were served at the bar by a very nice bubbly girl who had only been there a couple of days and were then seated by a very pleasant bespectacled young lady, who explained that we would be called forwards for the carvery to ensure the food was fresh, (great idea in principle). We duly got the call and selected our food, which outwardly looked ok but not extensive. There was plenty of meat, but the vegetables (Roast potatoes, green beans, cauliflower cheese, cabbage, carrot and turnip and boiled carrots) were very watery, tasteless and disappointing. The yorkshire pudding was the smallest I have ever seen in a YORKSHIRE pub and it had either been microwaved or under a heat lamp for far too long as it was rock solid and inedible. This review is not primarily about the food, but the attitude of the landlady, who when I spoke with her about the pudding was particularly dismissive and disinterested, but was later heard by us, being particularly derogatory and mocking our observations. This is a very popular pub because of its location, but there seems to be little care for the customers, not only regards the above, but the toilets absolutely stank, to the point that it was discussed openly in the toilets. Sadly, this makes me question the hygiene elsewhere. However, I would return for a drink but not food.

This is an update to the review following the owners comments, attached in an image should it be redacted.

I am saddened by your response as we have supported you and sung your praises since your B&Q burger van days of 20 years ago. We did continue to drink in the garden, but at £8 for a large wine, we did pay for it. I do believe that it is a fair and honest review, but it is obvious from your arrogant response that you have little or no concern for...