The Dolphin — Restaurant in North Devon

Knowing that coastal destinations can sometimes be difficult to get into on the day, we had called ahead of our holiday to book a table. We we’re advised that parties of our size (8) needed to pre-order and pay a £50 non-refundable deposit, again, not uncommon for holiday destinations.

We pre ordered from the menu sent to us, it later transpired that this was only half the available menu.

We called ahead twice more to arrange payment of our deposit however our calls were not returned.

We arrived on the Tuesday evening, and were seated. Food quality was mediocre with a number of the starters, mussels, prawns & mushrooms all appeared to have the same sauce with either chilli, herbs, or garlic added prior to service depending what the menu stated as their accompaniment.

Starters were cleared whilst some diners were still eating, and the first main courses arrived shortly after I’d finished chewing the last mouthful of starter, no chance of a breather between courses. The remaining main courses arrived over the course of the next ten minutes.

We opted not to stay for desserts.

In summary, the food was palatable but overpriced, atmosphere was lacking (Sky News on the TV and Capitol Chilled on the sound system), service was poorly executed and beware the 12.5% service charge that is applied to parties of 7 people or more, which, had we known about in advance (it wasn’t on the menus we were sent), might have avoided the awkward, fumbled responses from the management about it after our bill was presented.

We would not return, and subsequently found better places to dine a short drive away.

EDIT - in reply to the 'owner repsonse', we were asked for a non-refundable deposit, and we never paid it despite our best efforts to contact the establishment and pay it. We left a message, we called again and were promised a call back, it never came.

I'll happily share the email sent to my wife asking for the deposit in case anyone is interested in whether or not my...

I don’t normally write reviews for places but after our visit this evening was so bad I felt I had to. At 6pm we rung the pub and was told to get there for 7pm. So we got there early expecting to have a drink first. We walked in to be greeted by the waitress and said we would like to sit outside. The waitress told us to find a table and she would bring menu’s out. Anyway after getting our own menu’s, I went in to order at 7pm. To be told that we couldn’t order for another 45 minutes as a big table had come in. Baring in mind we had already waited an hour to go down with a 3yr old to get dinner. I mentioned this and all I met with was rudeness. My partner who phoned went in to speak to them to be told the big table of 8 were 30 mins late. We ordered anyway as by the time we found somewhere else and ordered it would have taken that long if not longer. The food was in my opinion average at best. I ordered the mushroom and wild mushroom starter, there was no wild mushroom in sight. Just plain mushrooms in a watery sauce. My partner’s prawns were overcooked, rubbery and also in a watery tasteless sauce. For my little boy we ordered the “fresh chicken nuggets”. They were about as fresh as Mcdonalds. The mussels were also watery and curdled. My honest opinion is avoid. Rude staff below average food. Don't waste your...

Hmmmmm not getting the sea front fun times vibes on the tastebuds I was looking for.

Seafood stew was fairly average and it came with warm crusty bread which was a room temperature baguette from supermarket. To be fair, 2 of the 4 of us liked the stew. But then I questioned whether it was frozen seafood. We don’t know if it was but was a bit buzz killington ya know

Staff came to table to ask if we had empties. We didn’t. Staff member walked back into the pub past two unmanned tables which had at least 12 empties between them… maybe it’s some sort of mind games… if so it worked.

Utensil madness was rife. Seafood stew was a liquid but served with a fork whaaa.

I might be a London w**ker (and probably am because I ordered a Guinness zero) but the 440ml can came with a half pint glass. And then the same thing happened to my mate. Was it power play from the bar staff… we’ll never know.

If you try and book a table here within 48 hours of your planned visit, the staff will tell you it’s not possible and find it slightly amusing that you thought it...