Lobster Pod Bistro — Restaurant in South Hams

Visiting Devon for hols with the family and went to Hope Cove. Amazing scenery, stumbled across the Lobster Pod Bistro. Eat In was fully booked so decided to get a takeaway. Joined the queue along with 15 or so other people. Waited for half an hour, we were all completely ignored by the staff. Nobody in the queue knew what was going on and some people started walking off in frustration. I absolutely appreciate the staff shortage due to covid but really there's no excuse for a staff member not to fill us in or even tell us that they can't take orders etc, so we knew where we stood. Eventually we managed to get the attention of one of the staff and asked if we will get served which made them finally pay attention and start taking takeaway orders. But up till that point we were all completely ignored with waiting staff walking past us, as if we were a nuisance. Terrible service. Placed my takeaway order and was told 30 minutes wait because, in the words of the staff member (a pleasent enough fella) , "we are giving priority to all the dine-in customers". Charming, considering we're all paying the same price for takeaway. Collected food 30 mins later from the other side of the building through the kitchen window. I asked for some salt sachets and the person told me I'd have to go back to the other side where I placed the order, instead of him shuffling 3 feet into the other side of the kitchen area to pass me some salt sachets. Seriously? I'd just spent £60 on some sandwiches and chips! Anyway, I overlooked these shortcomings because we were looking forward to the food given such great reviews. The food itself did nothing to redeem the experience and was utterly underwhelming, especially considering the price. I'm more than happy to pay a premium for good quality seafood but this was taking the mickey. £11.50 for a crab roll which was literally a tiny bread roll, and two small scoops of crab in mayo with a bit of lettuce and cucumber. Same with the prawn roll at £8.50, tiny. The seafood was fresh so no complaints there (although I guess that's a bit like praising my car wheels for rotating in a circular motion), but everything was under seasoned. The next kick in the balls - and bear in mind by now my balls were already losing their rosy tint - was the "loaded LOBSTER fries", at £9.50. If they were honest, the menu would read, "some tasty fries (which they were) with a bit of chilli flakes and spring onions, a bit of melted cheese and shavings of lobster so small, looking for them was akin to the hardship of finding Bigfoot or the Lochness monster". The family next to us ordered the same fries and were laughing with us about this too, but didn't want to complain because, like us, they'd probably never visit this part of the world again. In summary, total and utter rip off. So, overall, very underwhelming and poor, poor, if slightly arrogant service. I absolutely hate and hardly ever give bad reviews because I wish people well but the whole experience was bordering on piss-take. I can only rationalise the great reviews down to the fact that as a nation we are so used to mediocre food (and service) that as soon as something comes along which is distinctly average, people get excited and sing and dance about it. I wish the guys there the best of luck because they look like they have good intentions, but just don't take the piss because despite the amazing sea views, a few more reviews like this and the tide could...

As you can’t make a reservation apart from the pods (see website), we went to see if we were lucky enough to have dinner at the bistro due to a friend's recommendation. We kindly asked for a table for two and were told by the manager that there was no free table within the next hour (7-8pm) but we could sit outside (in the light rain) if we wanted. We went further up hill to check out the outside tables and met another service member who offered to get an outside table ready for us, as well as providing us with a menu to have a look at. We learned the kitchen closes at 8.15pm. Us, still undecided because of the really unstable weather condition, checked out a small inside seating area up the hill where more than half the tables were empty. As we were aware of the booking policy, we asked another service member whether all of those tables were really actually taken. He told us no, they weren’t. He was still hesitant to have us seated and it turned out it was because it was just the two of us while the table was suitable for around 4-5 people. We said we also wouldn’t mind other people joining our table and he agreed. He also informed us that the kitchen closes at 8.30/40pm. After sitting down for 3 minutes he came back, telling us that he spoke to the manager and apologised for the “misunderstanding” (us not telling him we were already declined and made aware of the “fully booked” bistro). We were told that five people were currently on their way to exactly this table (strange, isn’t it? - “first come first serve”?) and we were asked to leave the table. Goodbye...

As a South Hams local, I've been to the Lobster Pod many times. Its a fantastic setting sitting in your own pod, overlooking the sea. Even if it rains, it doesn't matter.

However, our last visit was a little bit of a let-down. Not sure if its changed management since we were last there, but this time, despite our rather large bill, a service charge was applied. I was asked to take a look at the bill and told "this contains a discretionary service charge". Now I don't like this. It puts you in an awkward situation. You either look hard-faced asking for it to be taken off or you have to accept it. I would much rather it be voluntary and that I pay a service charge when I think a place deserves it.

To be frank, the menu isn't that great, it's just pizza, fish or burgers. The service is "ok" but nothing special. If they have a problem paying their staff adequate wages, I'd rather they put their prices up than put a service charge on.

Back to my particular issue and the comment "this contains a discretionary service charge", well it didn't. The discretionary service charge was added on to the bill amount. So when I thought I was paying £xxx inc the charge, my receipt and bank statement showed a further 10% more.

In hindsight, I should have been hardfaced and asked for it to be removed as I thought the price was already quite high for pizza and drinks without the shock of seeing it was actually even more!

Suffice to say, it has put be off going again and spoiled the birthday meal we were...