Tom's Lyme Regis — Restaurant in England

Booked a table for 3 people to have the Early Bird menu for 6pm on 23/7/25. Called them at 5.16pm on the day to say we would be slightly late due to traffic in Exeter, the person we spoke to said that she would keep the booking for us so thought nothing of it, quite difficult to speak on hands free while driving. Got to the restaurant just after 6.15 and sat on a table outside which is fine by us. A lady brought us the menus to look at and we didn't think anything of it, as everything had prices but that's usually quite normal even for specials menus. Ordered drinks, starters and mains. Scallops were small and slightly under-cooked but others were OK. My wife had the 1/2 lobster, this came with salad, celeriac and chips. Too much salad and celeriac and not a lot of meat in the lobster, although she said it was nice, I had the Seabass, which was ok too. We didnt have puddings as nothing special on there. Now nobody came to check on the meal, was dealt with by 3 different people and then the bill arrived...... Wow, £154, we asked about this because of us booking the earlybird and was informed that we had ordered from the main menu and we should've asked for the earlybird menu when we arrived. Well, I'm sorry but if you book for a certain menu and arrive, albeit a bit late, of which they were informed about and said they'd keep that booking open for us as there was nobody after us, I wouldn't have though I'd have to ask for it. We have come away very upset at how we were dealt with, no apology or discount given as a gesture of goodwill, made to feel like a piece of rubbish in front of other customers. We were told our food choices wouldn't have been on the specials menu so it's basically tough. Well as there wasn't an Earlybird menu posted outside the place, how would anyone know the difference. I'm sorry but we won't be coming to your restaurant again due to the service we received and the fact that the food wasn't even to the quality that you would expect from a so called fish specialist, we came from looking at reviews and the menu when visiting a few days earlier. It seems other reviews show disappointment too, and leaving replies to some reviews like you have, doesn't exactly show good customer...

Yesterday me and my partner were rushing round trying find somewhere to have a quick meal and a drink while we had the kids . When we first walked up and we were getting the pram inside a member of staff which I believe to be the manager said “oh you’re coming in” when in there we were only offered a drinks menu which was pretty much slapped down in front of us and we were never asked if we wanted a food menu granted there price aren’t super cheap but we both had felt judged the entire time we were inside we was pretty much stared down by all of the staff. The atmosphere was awful we felt we didn’t belong there and that we were judged as young parents despite my partner and children wearing nice clothes (really not the point as u shouldn’t judge anyway) but the guy who said something to us when we first came in was rude and it felt the entire time he stared at us he thought he was better than us and that we didn’t belong there, so we quickly left after a drink and after feeding the baby I 100% wouldn’t recommend going here. whether the food is nice or not I don’t know, but if you want to go somewhere and not be judged definitely go somewhere else - edit from reply: there wasn’t a food menu placed at all we had one small drinks menu placed and weren’t offered a food menu - you’re recollection of events is incorrect I understand you didn’t mean to make us feel judged and unwanted there but we felt watched by everyone and if we didn’t belong but we we’re definitely never given a food menu nor...

I write this review based upon my general and specific experience of other restaurants both locally and in other parts of the UK. In terms of location you probably couldn't get a better location in Lyme - lovely views over the bay. Our greeting was good and we were able to sit at a nice table simply and cleanly laid out. On looking at the drinks menu, we selected a NZ sauvigon blanc... many peoples go to. Unfortunately on ordering we were advised not available. I therefore considered and tasted a couple of alternatives, but was not struck by either. Where to go from here? A Jeremy Villemaine Toumaine was featured and with the power of the internet , I looked up a review and price point. Priced at £40 , I decided to skip wine as I consider paying a corkage charge of more than 4 times cost ridiculous. The food selection which has regular changes was good, but with the price of drinks on my mind i became more conscious of what you got for your money. I did plump for a scallop starter and the lobster and steak combination as a main, all of which I shared with my partner. My overall view of the food we had was that it was OK. I felt that both courses lacked elements particularly in respect to presentation and some of the ingredients weren't best quality. When it came to the bill , my view is that the pricing was not reflective of the overall expectation of such a restaurant. In other words needs to balance offerings with value for money or raise game to a...