The Rockpool — Restaurant in Gwinear-Gwithian

Birthday ruined. Regretfully, I nagged to book here for a birthday lunch with my husband and mum as I'd been meaning to try it out, I'd been before but just had a coffee which showed promise. We spend an awful lot of time at Godrevy, Gwithian and Hayle surfing, kitesurfing and walking and live nearby. Being a self promoted seafood restaurant it seemed ideal place for a treat and I wanted to try it out to see if it would be good to come back with some friends as we use sunset surf cafe a lot and it's nice to mix it up. We turned up at 12 as booked and given a menu to order from. Having chosen what we'd like we were told the menu had changed and we'd be given a new one to order from soon... So we ordered some drinks and waited for the menu... we asked twice for it as it just took so long.

Needless to say, I will NEVER step foot in that place ever again. As I said, I spend a lot of time in the area but will not return. Totally ruined my birthday lunch and made me spend good money on a pile of crappy food and over priced wine. I am saddened to think that mostly tourists will come here with their kids and also get massively ripped off. Take it from a local guys, avoid! There are some excellent seafood restaurants in the area, just not here. Have a bowl of chips instead, hopefully they'll change...

Avoid / beware of the carpark which lets this place down. We legitimately parked, followed all parking instructions and paid appropriate fee on machine. Displayed ticket. I kept the ticket, yet still received a £60 PCN through the post from the car park management firm. ARMTRAK Security Services manage their carpark and are a bunch of thieves (refer to their google reviews!) The machine in this instance failed to print my full registration despite me entering it fully. So despite being able to prove I paid they are clearly set up to catch innocent unsuspecting customers out to boost their profits. I really urge you to avoid the carpark and probably The Rockpool, as they are not prepared to consider who runs their car park more carefully. ARMTRACK have received 70 one star reviews due to their disgraceful antics in Cornwall and won't budge. I tried to contact the manager of the Rockpool a few days ago to discuss the issue but didn't even receive a reply, I wanted to be fair and wait for a response before I posted this review, but a few days later and not even an acknowledgment of my email. I know they do not manage the car park, but I wanted to express how I felt this would really be damaging to their business if they keep using this firm. Anyway, I want this review to be a warning to others as I read at least two other reviews on Armtrak Security google relating to The Rockpool car park with similar circumstances. The Rockpool itself is okay as a venue, lovely setting, beer was good. Decor a bit tired, and didn't try the food so can't comment there. But for me even if it was the best venue in Cornwall, I just wouldn't risk it so we won't visit again...

Me and my partner went to the Rockpool recently and ordered a breakfast. However as there was no specific vegan breakfast option - we asked them to make us a couple of vegan breakfasts based on their version of the full English or the "Cornish Rockpool". This would normally include hogs pudding, sausages, bacon and egg - plus what you see in the picture below. I had hoped that we would get double the vegan items but when the food came out, although it looked good, there wasn't much to it. Half a tom, one mushroom, two hash browns, a slice of toast and a handful of beans doesn't really cut it for me - I'm not a 7 year old! I actually went back to the bar to ask for more items but was told there would be a long wait as there were many orders now. Fair enough I suppose. Upon asking for the bill, we were initially asked to pay full price for the "Cornish Rockpool", but on questioning this, I had to politely argue my case for a discount (twice!) and ended up eventually paying £6 instead of £8. The summary from their guy (I presume was the manager) was that surely the price should have been established prior to ordering. Point taken but I was hoping a bit of common sense would prevail! I was also hoping for a bigger plate of food so that I would at least have walked away with my belly full. At least the coffee was great and to be fair the staff up to that point were friendly.

I understand that there are business costs to meet, so next time I suggest that you load up the vegan breakfast so that customers can walk away full and satisfied and you still make...