Old Market House, Brixham — Restaurant in Great Britain

We visited Brixham today, myself and my mum fancied just looking out over the harbour and this place looked perfect for that. We entered with our two assistance dogs who had their harnesses and badges showing. We went to the lift due to my mums disabilities to be stopped by a man saying that dogs were not allowed upstairs. We politely told him that the dogs were assistance dogs and explained how they go into hospitals, restaurants etc with us. He said we had to wait whilst he asked his manager, whilst my mum who has mobility issues was struggling and needed to sit down! He didn’t offer her a seat, he just went off upstairs even though we knew we would be allowed up stairs as they’re medical equipment! Would they stop someone in a wheelchair or someone with an oxygen tank? Probably not! Well assistance dogs have the same rights! He came down and said we was allowed up (which we already knew). So already at this point we felt very unwelcomed and embarrassed as people were looking at us wondering what was happening. Your staff need teaching basic disability laws like the disability act 2010. So we went upstairs, and a lady with pale red hair showed us to a table, we explained we wanted to sit outside on the balcony and she said we had to wait to see if anyone had allergies (!?!?). Again, training is required!! Guide dogs are mainly Labradors which malt massively, would she have said the same to a person with vision disabilities? Her attitude and customer service wasn’t great and she made us feel so unwelcomed. She came out once we had sat and said if we needed to order and a lady wasn’t at the bar we would need to go downstairs to order, and then 10 minutes later came out and said if we was ordering food we must eat inside due to the weather in case we wanted to go in if it started to rain. We have never had this before in any establishment! We was under an umbrella and further down there were people with food and drink, for some reason she only said it to us, it felt like she was just trying to make us feel uncomfortable so we went inside due to us having assistance dogs. So we decided to go downstairs as we couldn’t be dealing with being made to feel uncomfortable in her presence. We sat outside and I went in to order giving the outside table number, no issues with ordering food and drinks with the gentleman. I carried our drinks out and waited for food. He then came out and apologised and said the manager (again!) had said we wasn’t allowed to eat outside and had to come inside. So again we had to move! All we ordered was a bread board. Mobility is a big issue for us especially my mum and it just ended up being a pain where we was moved numerous times. All we wanted was to relax outside looking over the harbour. My mum was in pain hence why we stopped for a drink and this experience didn’t allow her to relax, instead ended up being the exact opposite! Stress both physically and mentally! Once we had eaten we went outside and finished our drinks. We have spoken to some of the locals and they have said they do not go to this place due to bad customer service (I wish we had known sooner) the building is lovely, and the positioning is nice! But it’s not worth it when you’re made to feel uncomfortable and like an inconvenience due to having disabilities and having assistance dogs. So if you have disabilities that cause you to need an assistance dog, avoid this place as all that happens is you get upset and embarrassed. I wish i didn’t need a medical alert dog, I wish I didn’t have health conditions. Daily I struggle, and this experience hasn’t helped anything. All that it’s done is make me feel like a problem, and uncomfortable. Please, give your staff training. The harbour light in Paignton (another of their chains) is great! Amazing with assistance dogs and people with disabilities. They can’t do enough to help and are genuinely warm and fun people! So if you have the choice, get yourself to the...

Place is completely badly run, if I could give MINUS FIVE STARS I would. We went for lunch and had to give details of all three people for Covid, even though we had already checked in via the app. Shown to a table and waited for a menu. Waiter appeared, said he only took drinks orders and would get someone to us. When the waitress arrived she did not know what the fish of the day was, she had to ask Brendon, who had to radio the kitchen to find out. The waitress also didn't know if you could swop potatoes for chips. Any good manager, should ensure that the staff all know what is on that days menu, how many of each item available etc. We waited over 30 minutes for simple fish and chips, no cutlery or food arrived, I asked Bredon how long food would be and he did go and see, he hurridly said food would be with us soon, that they were short staffed and very busy. Another 15 minutes passed and my husband went to the kitchen, he was told for would be soon, but had not been started. After another five minutes my husband went back to the kitchen and cancelled order as it still had not been started. Brendon offered no apology at any time, he just said in a gruff tone, that they had to throw away the food now as it was already cooked. Well if it was already cooked why hadn't we been given it, and we know for fact that the kitchen hadn't even started it. He just said we hadn't waited long, well I believe a simple dish shouldn't have taken more than ten minutes, certainly not 45 minutes. Yes they were busy, but it certainly wasn't due to the kitchen being busy, it was full of people drinking. Also if they were so busy, why weren't we told there would be a delay with the service. I have to blame this on lousy management, lack of staff training and not being competent to delegate say, for example, 2 staff to serve drinks only and 2 staff, himself included serving food. While we were leaving we heard other people complaining about the service. We left there and went to Simply fish. I explained there that we were now in a hurry due to the delay at The Manor House and we were served freshly cooked skate within the ten minutes we were told. The Manor House could learn a lot from them. The ladies at the Manor House had a large bucket of what looked like urine behind the door, it was very off-putting, as was the large soggy toiletroll in one of the cubicles. Perhaps its time you gave up serving food at all and just served drinks instead, which is all you seem capable of doing. I never did...

Very nice building with lots of potential and it's in a prime location however the service and food really let it down.

I was in a party of 10, we came here for lunch and it was practically empty bar another table of 5 and 4. Having ordered food, we were told (one hour later) that they weren't able to make one of the dishes as they had only just come to realise that they didn't have enough mussels for one of the mains. With this in mind, my friend was offered a plate of chips - hardly an appropriate substitute for a lunch. Although she was offered a dessert I feel that this problem should have been noticed and addressed well before an hour had passed.

The waiter told us the delay was because it was "very busy" today and that one of the chicken breasts was very "much larger than they were expecting" and so it was the reason for some of the delay. This seemed like a poor reason given the restaurant wasn't even half full, and this reason for this so called mammoth chicken breast (which was of a completely average size by anyone's standard) seemed like a nonsense.

My homity pie consisted of more side salad than pie and the bacon and brie sandwich had only lukewarm bacon and cold brie in it. This isn't really up to scratch considering the prices on the menu.

As a consequence, all ten of us locals were very disappointed and are unlikely to be recommending the Old Market House to...