Heanton Court — Restaurant in North Devon

I have been to Heanton Court many times as it is reasonably priced, friendly and the food is decent and at a lovely setting. You normally find even if it is busy they will have a table available for you.

I'm writing this review to talk about a specific experience Me and a friend went to Dine on a sunday evening and had booked a table. it was incredibly busy probably more so than they would have expected and that i've seen before. You could see the staff was running around and doing their best. The main course took quite a while to come out. me and my friend couldn't have cared less though and i more worry when food comes out too fast as it makes the quality seem more questionable. It was busy and the wait was to be expected. one of the waitresses came over to apologise which is never pleasant as you don't know how the customer is going to react but we told her we were fine and are quite happy. she offered us free drinks and we said we will have 2 mocktails but we will pay for them we don't want free drinks. we were going to talk to her and thank her for her hard work but she had left by the time we paid but we did pass on positive feedback while paying to also then see they hadn't charged us for the 2 mocktails. i said multiple times that i would like to pay for the drinks and they told us no. thank you we are very grateful but it wasn't needed. thank you for everyone's hard work and please say thank you to the waitress who served us, i don't know if you would remember us but you did a great job! I personally am the restaurant manager in a country manager hotel so generally am quite observant...

So, so disappointed. Lived in the area for 30 years and Heanton Court had always been a go to for us- not sure if we’ll ever be back again. Recent visits have gotten progressively worse but our recent trip on 29th December was truly abysmal.

Understaffed front of house, all of the staff were ran ragged. Food was shocking, starter (scallop and king prawn bake) didn’t resemble the dish we’ve had previous- scallop cut into thin shreds so probably only had 1-2 total, no king prawns in sight and a weird potato base, the ciabatta was absent and the kitchen sent out a piece of toast when asked where it was. Steak was grey and tasteless, no choice of sides given so came with a slimey gone off salad. My partner had seas bass with chorizo and the chorizo was hard little burnt black rocks on the plate, we thought they might be nuts- truly foul. The potatoes dauphoise side is definitely a pre frozen potato rosti you can buy at home.

Felt truly sorry for the front of house staff, cost cutting measures from the management need to be addressed. The “twixtmas” time is a lovely time to support local pubs, and Heanton is probably one of the best views in north Devon.

Sadly will not be returning until it’s under new ownership or management. Easily one of the best views in Devon so...

Tried this place for the first time as I love other Mitchell & Butler brands (Toby Carvery, Harvester) and from the outside I have always thought it looked nice and was keen to try it. But sadly, this did not live up to the usual standard I expect from this chain. It was disappointing to learn it was bar service, as other M&B chains offer table service and I expected the same. There is also an app to order food, which seems pointless as there were no table numbers and therefore could not proceed with using it. The menu on the app was also slightly different to the ones on the table. The food itself was by no means bad, but for the price you pay for it, I was expecting way higher quality. I couldn't help but compare the meals we had with other places locally such as Brewers Fayre, and in terms of value for money I have to be honest this place just didn't cut it for me. The decor also felt rather worn, and one of our ramekins was very chipped. Again, for the price you would not expect this. Overall, I am giving 3 stars because the food was more than adequate and the exterior decor was very nice, but I cannot give more than this because it was not value for money and while I am glad I gave something different a try, I wouldn't return for the prices they...