The Village Inn — Restaurant in North Norfolk

Very disappointed with our food. I had 'proper steak and ale pie' which was obviously reheated. It was a square piece of pie which was stuck to the bottom of the round serving dish. The gravy was congealed around and in the pie. It said on the specials board that it came with peas, which I'm not keen on. My husband asked if there was an alternative and was told by 2 different bar staff that actually it came with mixed veg - great, no problem......except it came with peas. The chips were frozen ones and not that special. My husband asked for sausage, chips (instead of mash) and onion gravy. The gravy was obviously made from a packet and there wasn't a bit of onion in sight - I tell a lie, there were 2 onion rings which weren't on the menu and no veg at all. All in all it was a real shame. No one asked us if everything was ok until they took our plates. I said that I was sorry but I didn't think the meal was that special and explained why. The lady started to explain that the pie was made fresh but it certainly didn't seem like it. The fact that our food was served really quickly was a bit of a tell tale sign that the food wasn't cooked fresh. The Village Inn has so much potential - a deep filled freshly topped and baked pie with home cooked chips or at the very least homestyle chunky frozen chips would have been so much nicer as would a lovely thick rich homemade onion gravy. If the food had been served with fresh veg too it would have been lovely. Does that seem like a lot to...

(Please note this review is based on treating The Village Inn as a pub, not a restaurant!)

Unfortunately average if you're looking for a pub. This isn't one.

Hoping the new owners would improve it (they couldn't really fail, as it was awful before) but they've just turned it into a restaurant that happens to serve alcohol. If the weather is bad and you can't sit outside there are now no tables inside where you can just sit and have a pint, they're all set out for food service.

I understand this is where the money is now but it is depressing that yet again there is another 'pub' that puts the quality of keeping beer second behind food. Tried a pint of the Lacons Legacy and it was definitely not fresh. Stale and off. Tried the Golden Jackal and it was watery and nothing like it should be. Why can't someone who works in a pub actually know what the beers should taste like!

Food was alright/good but very overpriced for what it was. £13 for ham, egg and chips....? Hmmmm! On the plus side the pie that was special of the day was very good. Just not sure the campsite massive that will mostly frequent the place are too worried about artisan pies and artisan prices.

It's also worrying they have retained one of the very unwelcoming / miserable barmaids from the previous setup. It shows the current owners don't understand what some of the problem was with the place before they took over and are just sleepwalking into the same old...

This comment is for whoever owns this pub/restaurant. The food we ate was lovely and the two ladies who served us were very pleasant, so too the young man who was the manager for the evening. The problem comes with accepting too many food orders and the result being we had to wait the best part of an hour for fish and chips, two steak pies (specials board) and a salad and chips. All good quality but why should we have to wait so long, particularly when we had booked a table in the restaurant weeks ago? Surely walk ins must be served after bookings and they can be told that there might be a wait for food. We had booked but were not told this. The staff were extremely busy and working very hard, but not able to cope. Too many orders. It smacked of a desire to make as much money as possible with scant regard for the customers and, to be fair, the staff. Whilst we are visiting, our friends live locally (Cromer) and were disappointed for all of us. They are less likely to return. When we next visit I would choose another option. As I said, the food was lovely but the owner/s ought to decide whether they want to cram as.many people in for food at the expense of enjoyment or if they want to have happy customers who will return. We were offered complimentary drinks because of the long delay and we cannot fault the staff who served us but they need greater support and empathy...