The Coaching Inn — Restaurant in North Devon

What an absolute pleasure! Working away all the while can have it’s downfalls but when getting back to our hotel (the George hotel, also lovely) and looking for somewhere to go for a drink and finding somewhere like the coaching inn makes it an absolute pleasure. We walked in to a lovely atmosphere to be greeted by the most lovely landlady. She single handled slashed the north south divide in half for me ( myself being a midlander and more often than not being taken aback by ‘some’ southerners mannerisms when living away from home) whilst being offered a drink we were met by hilarious banter and pandered to in regards to our random light bite requests. (Cheesy chips with something hot). We were always chasing the card machine to pay after each round to pay and the lovely landlady stated that as long as we weren’t fast runners she wasn’t worried 😂I’m rambling on as what should have been a quick pint after work turned into multiple pints simply due to the staffs attentiveness and fantastic service and being made to feel truly welcome. I have never left a pub feeling the need to leave a review. Until Now. Miserable git pub landlords/lady’s...

Now let me first say this place seems very popular and I can understand why. The food is acceptable and it is reasonably priced. The carvery was £8. However, service is very lacking. It's not that the serving staff are rude, far from it. It's just that they're poorly trained. We were a group of five and we hadn't booked. I accept that being squeezed round a small table is fair enough in this case. But we had to set up our own table with the help of a kind gentleman who was also a customer. I wouldn't mind but the girl with the bookings just stood at the end of the bar opened mouthed the whole time staring at us. We were offered no drinks and had to queue at the bar again. Despite making it quite clear the first time that we wanted carvery, no one told us we had to buy tickets. So we had to queue at the bar a third time! Then we had to queue for the carvery. I got back to the table to find the beer I'd got was flat. I could not be bothered at this point to queue a 5th time to complain.

In fairness this all stems from our failure to book. But this is clearly a local pub for local people and our type...

This is our third visit in 2 months. Every time (even our first) we were welcomed in, sat in a relaxed environment and offered a menu.

We opted for the carvery every time and what a treat it is too!

(Having formally owned and ran a family pub/restaurant/B&B that served a good carvery and catered for special dietary requirements) it is rare that we find an establishment such as this which cross the T's and dot the I's from start to finish.....

All home cooked / homemade, succulent meats, well cooked veg (great selection too) plus the creamed leeks and cauliflower cheese is gluten free!

Even managed to squeeze a pudding in today, a delicious orange viennese tart with ice cream!

Well done to all the team especially Jill, Jane and (ok I forgot the male chefs name, but he's lovely too lol).

We shall be returning...