Boatswains at The Kings Arms — Restaurant in South Hams

I don't often leave a 1 star review, but I feel it's justified in this instance.

The good experience stopped pretty much as we sat down. We were put on a table where one side was a chair but the other side was a tiny bench built into the wall. I must say, I may be 6ft 2 and weigh 16st, but I cannot see how anyone would have found that comfortable. Being with the partner, we like to sit opposite because it's nicer to talk to each other. We couldn't do this.

Next up, the service! Probably the biggest reason I'm giving a 1 star review. Again, as soon as we sat down, we were totally forgotten about. We had to continually get the attention of the waiters by pretty much flagging then down. I've been in enough restaurants to know, you will usually have to do this if a place it busy. But we'd been tucked into a corner, away from everyone else. This probably because more apparent when we wanted to get the bill but more on that later!

The food. Meh. I had got the ribs and wings. It was £20, and the ribs might have been the only thing worth anywhere near that kind of money. The wings were very disappointing and the chips were burnt. The ribs were falling off the bone and tasted great which I rated highly as I do love ribs that are so easy to get the meat off. However, I'm not sure if there's a global shortage of BBQ sauce but if there is, I'm glad to see they are doing their part in keeping the usage low. Hardly enough to get any sauce on the chips the ribs were sitting on! My partners sandwich, was £8. We'd ordered the chicken and bacon sandwich and obviously what did we get? A prawn sandwich. We love to see it. Regardless, upon ordering, I thought "hey, if it's 8 quid it's gotta be pretty good. A bacon and chicken with mayo sandwich sounds beautiful and with that price tag, I can't wait to see how it comes out!" Well, it least it had all 3 of those things in, just about the only good thing about it. That's really about all it was, and I might have spent a fiver on it in a run-of-the-mill pub. I expected so much more. Again, a disappointment.

We'll nip back to the service now, getting to the bill. Once again, the problem really being we were tucked away in a corner by ourselves. The waiter came in a few times, and we had hoped they would see our knives and forks together and asked to take our stuff away. But, alas, this didn't happen! We left it a good 15-20 minutes before I'd have had enough and waltzed into the main room to get just anyone's eye to finally let me give them some money. Admittedly, I didn't think we had got even half the moneys worth out of what we were paying. After finally getting someone attention, the bill was paid and we finally managed to escape.

As always, I hope it was just poor circumstances that caused this. It was extremely busy, and we've got here for just drinks and had a lovely time.

TLDR : Unless you've got the whole evening free and a big wallet, don't order any food. Just get a...

Me and my family went here yesterday as we had an afternoon out in Salcombe. Unfortunately I doubt we will be coming here again. For food anyway.

I asked for a steak which at the time they don't give you the price for until the end - price is not stated on the menu, which I find quite sneaky to be honest and I had to wait until the bill came to know my fate of the price! Unfortunately the steak came with some garlic and herb butter on top of it, which I didn't ask for and made the steak not taste very nice. Also I had more gristle than actual steak! I didn't mention this at the time because I was hungry and didn't want to be rude but I gave half of my meal to my dog! Also the garlic butter for the steak wasn't actually stated that it would come with this on the menu. Good job I am not allergic! We were not even asked anything about allergies and from what I can remember it doesn't state anything on the menu either!

I felt as well as there was me, my mum, sister and my niece plus the dog we were put in the corner of the inside of the pub, ove the far side to be kept out of the way. Which in a way made us feel forgotten about and there was also some miscommunication about our table too towards the end of our meal.

I know u were short staffed but the service was still poor, and the staff were not very attentive at all.

This was probably one of the worst experiences I've had in a pub I'm sorry to say so I won't be rushing...

The problem we found with Salcombe is that the place has become infested with the kinds of entitled South Coast characters that have colonised many other small ports and villages wherever there is a glimpse of the sea.

We thought we'd escape the kinds of creatures we' last encountered in Poole however, on a couple of raw cold evenings in November this place was packed to the rafters with them. It's a pub serving food for heaven's sake yet here were folk complaining that the furniture in the outside area was not upholstered, being short with the staff because there were not vast numbers of them and chuntering about the peas with their fish and chips not being cardboard bog standard canned stuff rather the chef's exciting and tasty variant . . . and expecting to settle in and occupy precious space for lounging and chatting long after finishing their meal whilst smirking at the people who couldn't get a seat! Empathic not! We had a nice warm boat to retire to thank heavens.

As recommended by the Harbourmaster's office the food on both evenings was excellent, just so. One of our crew is a respected events chef so he was all over the tired staff for their trade secrets. The rest of us simply enjoyed the food and the well kept ales. From the selections we enjoyed I think we could recommend everything, especially the fish of course, the boats tie up a few...