The Smugglers Restaurant — Restaurant in North Devon

Between us we ate Whitebait, Swordfish, Soup and Gammon. The food was delicious (other than undercooked chips on one plate) and we were all satisfied however as a Restaurant Manager myself in Birmingham the service was absolutely atrocious. First we were turned away with no remorse when there were kids just playing at a table, we commented and then their parents asked them to rejoin their own table so we sorted ourselves a table and they could have lost £60 revenue. Wrong drinks were bought. Plates were half cleared, it took ages for our bill. The waitresses were just gathered at the bar and even when they were 'going to tables' they were not overchecking the rest of the restaurant and would go straight back to the bar even though we were trying to catch their attention. If it wasn't for the quality of the fish and meat, this would have...

The atmosphere and decor is dated and felt like a time capsule into 1970s british dining and I think that is reflected in the customers that go there, being older or holiday goers that haven't tried it. The staff were lovely and very attentive but the food wasn't good enough to make up for the strange atmosphere. We had the king prawns to start, plaice and fish pie for main course. You couldn't find the fish in amongst the fish pie and I'm not sure whether the plaice was fresh (I didn't ask). In terms of the wine, I was quite pleased to see that it was sourced from a cornish distillery but unfortunately it didn't taste good (but maybe that can be personal taste). Finally, the bill, two of us, shared a starter and a bottle of wine and had a main course each and it came to £60-£65, I think that is very...

Tried phoning to book and was told all the bookable tables had gone, but they were still taking walk-ins. So we took a chance and when we arrived they found us a table. The inside is full of nautical items hanging from the roof and the walls. The menu was large with a good selection of seafood. We had surf and turf (8oz steak and garlic prawns) and a fish pie. The steak and prawns were very good. However, the fish pie was lacking taste. Maybe if there were more varieties of fish or some prawns, it would have given it a better taste. Chips were good, and garden peas were a little on the hard side. We had a sherry trifle and a floater coffee to finish. A good evening let down a little by the fish pie, but we would happily return and try something else...