The Rock Inn — Restaurant in North Devon

Arrogant owner running a pub, charging restaurant prices and living on its past reputation.

Was it really necessary to berate me in a threatening manner when I asked for a partial refund ? You didn't even understand anything of our experience when I explained it to you ? you asked me why I didn't complain to the waitress that served me extra sauce BEFORE asking me if the food was satisfactory... hadn't started eating by then....

The owner didn't seem to care, just wanted to be make sure no other customers could hear and ensure he wasn't losing out on the monetary side of things ...

I approached the owner/manager about the payment and explained that I'd only like to pay £8.00 for a £14.00 burger - he was rude, confrontational and argumentative (even though he told me he didn't want an argument and wanted to sort it out quickly) but continued to argue and even scowled at me when I thanked him sincerely for processing the payment.

At one point he told me that he'd never received a complaint and have never "haggled on our prices before" - strange since you seemed to be quite aware of your profit margin when you literally bartered with me on the price, stopping to explain when we reached a mutually agreed amount that; "this means I'll still make something on it" (the markup price)..

We were also made to feel guilty on our decision to eat outside.

Why were we given the option on multiple occasions to eat outside if this interfered with you and your running of the restaurant?

There were other people being served outside? Did they get the same treatment?

I checked at lease twice with you and on each occasion you reassured me was fine..

I'd really love to hear a response, I could really do...

Don't bother unless you've got hours to wait.

We had booked a table for 6.30pm and when booking we had been told it needed to be vacated by 8.30pm. That was fine as we had young children with us.

In reality, it took 2 1/2 hours (yes, until 9pm) to manage a two course meal. We ordered promptly and then waited an hour for food to arrive (which was tasty) and then by the time we finished dessert it was 9pm and the children were exhausted. Two and a half hours to get two courses!!

Not blaming the staff who were rushed off their feet - totally blame a useless manager who clearly can't organise a restaurant. When my partner challenged him about the time taken (and we had already mentioned it to the staff) he wasn't at all interested and came out with excuses of busy restaurant and large table - neither is a real excuse if you manage your restaurant correctly. He also told us that we should have told them it was slow (which we had) - it also shows he hadn't a clue of what was going on.

As we left a member of staff came outside and apologised for the slow service when we explained and also confirmed what the staff thought of the manager as well!

Decent enough food but I wouldn't bother going unless you've got time to waste.

(I am not someone who normally posts negative reviews - most are very positive- but the poor management and slow service means I feel I need to for the...

The food was lovely and the portions were extremely good. However, given the current COVID situation, there were a few things they weren't good at; when we arrived there was no ventilation in the conservatory where we were seated with 30+ other people and we were served by multiple waiters/waitresses not wearing masks. They do have a good one-way system in place, but I went to find someone to talk to about the importance of proper ventilation etc in private; my husband and I have scientific backgrounds and know quite a bit about the virus, so this was done in the spirit of public health, not just trying to be difficult. Thought that was the end of the conversation; the next thing that happened is that the on-duty manager came and spoke to us at our table, and was very defensive ('it was cold in here earlier so we shut the windows, we still want to have fun...'). I was made to feel in the wrong, my teenage boys were really embarrassed and I then got lots of strange looks from other people, which rather spoilt the evening. Let's hope Devon continues to have very few incidences of the virus, but if you're worried about COVID transmission risk, I would think carefully about visiting...