Embankment Bistro — Restaurant in South Hams

Rude owner and we were not the only ones left disappointed. The food is good but at this price point the staff seem really poorly trained. Slow service for an empty restaurant and whilst they were all nice and polite you can’t be positioning yourself as a high end restaurant/Champagne bar (with a price to go with it) without delivering in more than just the decent food. Also, the wifi miraculously failed (whilst they were playing Spotify on the same wifi ??) and we were told we must pay cash for our £160 bill, they did the same to the table next to us who also had a hefty bill and it left a bad taste in our mouthes as they didn’t at least show us the card machine wouldn’t/wasn’t working. I like to give the benefit of the doubt in these cases but it didn’t seem to add up and it felt like it was going in the back pocket of the owner, tips and all! What they have also got, which is unique to Dartmouth, is distinct lack of interest in being open past 8pm. They have a virtually empty restaurant but turn away people on their droves saying they’re ‘fully booked’ - only for nobody else to turn up. We had tried to get in the empty restaurant ourselves earlier in the week and we’re told we can only sit outside as the restaurant was expecting lots of bookings, only for nobody to show up. It’s a shame as there’s huge demand for people who aren’t in bed by 8pm on a Saturday who might want a drink and some dinner. Rockfish and others do this too and it’s really bizarre. Any restauranteurs looking for an opportunity to cash in on hoards of hungry tourists would do well in Dartmouth so long as they stay open after...

While on a day visit to Dartmouth we wanted to get a bite to eat in a restaurant with outside seating. Seeing the Platform Champagne Restaurant, we weren’t expecting haute cuisine, but the outdoor seats overlooked the river, so we decided to try it. We were surprised that the menu was varied and appealing. They even had vegan burgers, something unheard of in a standard restaurant just a year or so ago.

We ordered Scampi, salad, mushy peas and gourmet thick cut chips, and vegan burger, gourmet thick cut chips, garnish, salad and at £13.95 each we should have quality meals. Unfortunately that was far from the case. The service was friendly and efficient. The food arrived in a reasonable time but left things to be desired. The scampi was okay but the mushy peas were cold. The few chips that we had were average frozen specimens. Interestingly one portion contained a single french fry. Not sure where that came from! Neither of us received the promised salad and the garnish consisted of a few limp lettuce leaves. The vegan burger was supposed to be based on beetroot but was mushy, fell apart as I tried to pick it up and was absolutely tasteless.

When the waiter came to ask us how our meals were I pointed out our disappointment our initial disappointment and he did offer to replace them, but we had only just started eating and so we said we would continue.

At the end of our meals reported that all the food was average to poor and that I could get better at a National pub chain for half the price. No effort was made to compensate us and I felt that there was no real concern...

My 2 year old son and my parents visited today, for a lunch to celebrate an occasion. We wanted to sit outside as the weather was beautiful but there was initial confusion over where outside we could sit and eat. -Only certain tables were allocated to table service, the rest were drinks only, this wasn't clear in the slightest. Throughout the meal we could hear the waiter (possibly owner) tell customers to move to other tables as they weren't eating, no apology and no assistance finding another table. It was embarrassing to overhear. It took much longer than necessary for anyone to take our order (it wasn't busy at all at this time and lots of waitresses around the bar) Took nearly 20 mins to then have two coffees be brought out to the table, and they were cold. When my mum told the waite that the coffee was cold, no apology, just took the coffees to the bar. Followed by an older blonde lady who quickly put two fresh coffees on the table without comment. Felt very abrupt and rude.

The young female staff however seemed very pleasent and polite, one admitting today was her first day. The blonde lady who gave us our bill was so lovely and friendly which helped us walk away a little happier (chatting to my two year old and said she had a young child too etc)

It's such a shame the service was slow, felt disorganised and the male member of staff was so rude (don't feel he's in the right job, for business maybe, but not customer facing) Unfortunately won't...