Pilchards at Port Gaverne — Restaurant in Great Britain

Incredibly disappointed.

We’d heard about Pilchards locally and were keen to eat here - I booked a table for my partner’s birthday 3 months in advance and we looked forward to a great meal right up until we finally arrived.

It’s the holidays. They were busy. I get it. But when you book a table months in advance you don’t expect to arrive, queue to be served at the bar to get a table, first drinks and menu - THEN queue for 10 minutes to order food only to be told they are not taking food orders and to come back in 10 minutes. OK, they are busy I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. We wait another 15 minutes and then try again - before I’ve even got to the bar I’m told again they’re not taking food orders...

Again, we’d booked MONTHS in advance and arrived on time and after nearly an hour of being there they refused to take out food order because they were too busy. If you’re going to have tables that by far exceed your capacity to serve then at least have the decency to accept orders - even if you admit there might be a delay in getting our food - from those who have planned way in advance to come to you.

Hugely disappointing given we’d looked forward to trying Pilchards for so long and had chosen it thinking it’d be a nice place to celebrate a special birthday.

Needless to say we cleaned our tab and walked straight into another establishment able to serve to capacity and happy to accept our custom. Perhaps we’ll try Pilchards again in a quieter season but we certainly won’t hurry to make an effort...

We have been bringing the kids here for years - a special meal out in a fantastic spot. But sadly, this year may be our last.

As recently as 2 years ago you could get 'tapas' style small plates from £6 - £9 each, this year we were a little shocked to find the cheapest plate (a modest serving of cured mackerel) priced at £13, with most small plates at the £17 mark.

In the past we have also enjoyed the large plates, most of which were priced from £16 - £18. Currently, they are priced at £70, £75 and £130 - perhaps the portions are larger than previous years, we did not order any.

The food is of course delicious, but on the whole, the small plates did not feel quite as varied nor satisfying compared to previous menus. The BBQ puffed bread was dry, the sticky ginger crab was disappointing compared to other fresher crab dishes, the Octopus not as memorable as previous years. It would have been nice to have been offered the option of some bread or rice to go with all the Panang Curry sauce leftover. The pork belly (the only meat option on the menu other than the £130 surf and turf) was possibly the dish that disappointed the most.

We tried all of the small plates and enjoyed the Prawn Panang, Red Mullet Tartare and the Cauliflower Kung Pao. £270 for a family of 6 with a few soft drinks and no desserts.

With Nathan Outlaw's up the road perhaps they feel the need to set the menu and prices in order to compete. But may well price out some families from enjoying this...

Nicely positioned looking out to the bay, very tastefully decorated inside and out; kitchen and crew on full display and all looks altogether agreeable for a cosy dining experience.

The menu is curious: it's relatively compact with about half a dozen or so items each from amongst a choice of small table-sharing, starters, mains, sides and puddings. This is good: they aren't over stretching themselves. However, the balance of choice was somehow off - and it felt that it is configured to encourage over-order, overeat and overspend.

The presentation was attractive, the food tasty enough, the service good enough- yet none of our party of six were enthused afterwards - despite having had a nice time amongst ourselves. I would try it again, but might first prefer to give the related next door pub a try.

Tip- there's very little parking to be had. You may find yourself accepting a lift from the electronic buggy chap who seems to have a weirdly arms length relationship with both venues. We tipped him, which seems to be a common outcome, but I couldn't say what the formal...