Fishermans Return — Restaurant in Great Yarmouth

This evening we went into the Fisherman's Return for dinner. I was impressed with the cider menu and ordered a very tasty Summer Fruits cider. It was a good start to the evening. I saw what was described as a 'scrummy' Halloumi and Tomato burger with chips, salad and salsa on the specials board. I pictured fresh tomato, strips of fried Halloumi in a Bun with fresh salad and salsa. Sadly, what turned up was far less appetising than what I thought it would be. When it arrived I even said to the server "but we ordered the Halloumi burger", to which she replied, yes thats it. It was a sad, cheap bun with a dry veggie style burger in it. It was like a cheap frozen burger. I was hard pushed to find any Halloumi and there was only the faintest taste of tomato. The salad was squashed into a tiny bowl on the side, so I had to fish around for some leaves to put in with my burger, and the salsa, whilst actually quite tasty even though I suspect it was from a bottke, was also on the side, leaving the burger looking a little dry and lonely in the bun. Its very sad as this pub was once a place I would enjoy eating whilst on holiday. It was an old cosy pub with great homeproduced food and a warm and welcome atmosphere. Now it's clearly a place to pull in tourists and make a quick buck with a shiny and echoing cafe style extension, shiny new rooms and 2 fancy new vans parked outside. The character and charm has gone and the food is no better than the burger shacks on Hemsby beachfront, just more expensive. Clearly the owners are not expecting repeat business and are relying on the transient nature of tourists to eat just the once and never return. Such a shame. We visit Winterton twice a year and love the old Norfolk pubs. Won't be visiting here again...

Last weekend we went to the fisherman’s return pub, for what we would describe as a mediocre meal. Yesterday we received a parking fine for £100 for using the pubs car park while dining there. Somewhat puzzled to why we’d received this fine, I called the pub. Only to be told there were signs in the car park, informing us to register our vehicle registration at the bar. Unfortunately both my husband and myself missed these signs! When I questioned, why were we not asked at the time of placing our food and drink order “are you parked in our car park” the reply was “we are far to busy to ask that question” ……what 7 words in total, how many extra seconds does that take? We are local and have been to this pub before, but we’ve never had to register our vehicle previously. I don’t have an issue with registering our vehicle especially if the pub has been having issues with people using the car park without using the pub. But my issue is the attitude of the staff working in the pub, informing me when I called to ask why had I received this fine, to be told “they couldn’t possibly ask everyone if they are parked in the car park” We have appealed, but we have 28 days to wait until we know we are been successful with our appeal. But even if we are successful we will definitely not be returning. My main issue is the attitude of the staff, and the agenda of the pub to fine people for using their pub without good warning you will be fined! It’s left a very bad taste, we will not...

We stopped here for a meal a couple of weeks ago and parked in the pub car park. The grumpy woman serving wasn't very welcoming and didn't crack a smile but the food was quite nice. A week later I received a £60/£100 parking fine because it seems you need to register your car when you order. We were not told about this at the time and only found out after I rang the pub to ask about it. The very rude woman I spoke to said there were signs everywhere but there were three of us and none of us saw any of them. I've never encountered a system like this in a pub car park in my life. Why would you be looking for signs if you've not experienced this before? It would be so easy for the staff to just ask if you're parked in the car park when they take your order. How hard is that? Every time I visit John Lewis I'm asked if I'm parked in their car park. Easy. What is wrong with these people? We live locally and have visited this pub many times over the years but will certainly never return. I will also advise all my family and friends to not support them either. I see another review very similar to this on here. I can't believe they haven't got the message. I do have sympathy if non-customers are using their car park to visit the beach but they could fix this so easily if they actually cared about their genuine customers. They'll rightly lose more business unless they improve the way they treat people. I was told it was nothing to do with them! It's...