Ship Inn — Restaurant in South Hams

The Basil Fawlty school of customer service would be proud of you!

We brought our American guests to lunch at the Ship today, having had excellent eating/ drinking experiences here previously at it's delightful location.

We battled through: Long delay in serving food Told only sourdough bread available; No chutney or substitute available advised after ordering; BUT Served WHITE bread (guest doesn't eat this anyway) and stale brown bread stuff not resembling sourdough! Butter used when asked for no butter Sausage had no flavour. The caramelised onion turned up uninvited too!

Apology offered on complaint.

We wouldn't have been eating desserts or having coffees so a conciliatory offer of this was declined.

The not inconsiderable bill was not reduced in any way, until challenged, then reduced by the cost of 1 sandwich serving.

When the issue of the butter was mentioned, we were told they might have to dismiss the waiter if he hasn't recorded the order properly ( I asked if the chef would be dismissed if it was down to them!) ... we should not be a party to those comments or decisions!

Just before we left, the Lady who was managing said I hope you'll find somewhere better next time!...Just extraordinarily poor experience and customer service. If you could take on board the basic principle of being able to put yourself in the customer's situation/mindset, you could turn your business around! I doubt this will happen! Chutney is a preserve... should be loads in the larder, worst case scenario - get a jar from the corner shop! Have some half cooked bread in the freezer...freshly bake in an emergency.... not rocket science! If a customer isn't happy... think how would I feel if I was them, and what can I do to meaningfully make things up to them. Think about what you say in front of customers.... some conversations should only be had amongst staff!! Do whatever you can to get the customer back in.. A dissatisfied customer will tell the story tenfold, a satisfied customer to one other! You can so easily be the author of your own demise!

Read report below if you have the inclination!

A lovely young waiter, new to the job, served us...no problem with him. We were informed there was only sourdough bread We ordered 3 x cheddar and tomato chutney sandwiches and a ploughman's. No butter on 2 of the sandwiches.

We were told there was no tomato chutney only caramelised onion (not as chutney). So changed order to 2x sandwiches the ploughman's and a pizza. No caramelised onion, no butter. What came was WHITE Bread on the sandwiches (we would have preferred brown, but told there was only sourdough)...on 2 sandwiches and the brown bready type offering on the ploughman's tasted stale. The caramelised onion turned up uninvited. Th pizza was pretty...

Happily I am revising my previous review as after reading that The Ship Inn had come under new management since the visit below, we decided to give it another try. Hooray! It was like walking back into the old pub before it was sold, a warm welcome, Josh was a great attentive host as were all the waiting staff and the food was delicious. Very pleased that this long-time old favourite is back up to standard, it’s such a beautiful location it was sad to see its decline. Josh is clearly passionate about this pub and the experience offered to customers. Very pleased to be back to looking forward to visiting again 😁😁.

It does pain me slightly to leave a 1-star review, but on our recent visit we were spoken to rudely by the staff, made to feel as if customers were an inconvenience, and eventually had to leave without any food other very dry pieces of stale cake.

The Ship has been a family favourite for years, a top choice for any meals out. Sadly since the sale, Youngs brewery haven’t got to grips with the size of the pub yet. We’ve experienced one lunch with a very mediocre sandwich which was worse than something knocked up at home, and on giving it another try this week, we arrived to be told the kitchen were “having a break” and not taking any orders. They “might” take orders again in 25 minutes, but equally “they might not”. This was in the middle of the 12-2 lunch slot, the inside of the pub was totally empty but it was busy outside due to the sunny weather. So we duly ordered some drinks and sat and waited. In the meantime, a drinks order that was wrong was brought out. On pointing out that it was wrong the lady snappily questioned it before huffing “well I’ll have to go and make another one now!!”. On emerging again, we tried to offer some sympathy and ask if they had staff off sick. Her response and attitude was rude and unpleasant and essentially along the lines that customers were a massive inconvenience and who did they think they were all walking in expecting food. We finished up the awkward exchange by asking if the kitchen were now taking orders (30 minutes had gone by) to get a snappy response “no they’re not” before she walked off.

At that point, all of us decided that was sadly the last time we’d visit The Ship. A sad end to what was a really great pub. I hope the brewery take note of what seem to be a slew of negative reviews and improve their approach to match the size and covers of the venue otherwise I can’t see it surviving as a business when it’s not even at full capacity with the...

I have to say, we were really disappointed. The last time we visited, we had the most amazing meal. Pint of prawns and scampi for starters, steak, leg of lamb etc etc....it was top quality well presented tasty good food. Not cheap, but you didn't mind because it was good. This time, we looked at the menu and the first thing I thought was that this isn't what we saw online. Secondly, the choices were quite limited for all 3 courses. We decided to just order, and wished we hadn't. The starter was a sharing board, which looked good and was largely ok, but it was mostly chopped up cheddar cheese, mozzarella, some sort of hummus, pickle, lettuce, toast and 2 onion bhaji's. But I really wanted those prawns again. Menu's change, so we got on with it. Unfortunately, it went down hill. I and my daughter ordered the Noss Burger and my wife didn't like anything on the menu, so just had the Hot Honey Chicken pizza. The burgers looked like your average attempt to make a burger look posh. Brioche bun, fresh lettuce, cheese & extra bacon with a stick holding it together. There was no relish in it and the burger had no taste. It was almost like it was minced beef made into a patty with no herbs or spices added. Totally bland and tasteless. My daughter only ate half. My wife said she enjoyed the sweet tomato base on the pizza, but that was it. I tried a bit and the chicken on it was again, tasteless and bland. Basically no spices or herbs, not even a salty taste to the chicken. It was almost like it was boiled and chopped. One burger was £17.50 and the pizza was £18. This is not what I expect from what was one of the most sought after places for a nice up market meal. I understand that The Ship has been taken over by a brewery and that is exactly what this establishment is, a pub, selling bland pub meals at top restaurant prices. It's such a sad thing. I would have thought because of it's location and the clientele it normally attracted, the food would be of much higher standard. I would say it's an up market Witherspoon but I'm not sure I can label it that. I think a Double Whopper is tastier than that burger. I'm sorry, but thats my view. The lady who served us was wonderful, and the service was top quality. To the chef, it all looked good but did someone forget relish, herbs & spices in the burger and a flavourless pizza? The food we had was definitely not worth what we paid, it was my wife's birthday and this really was a disappointment. No atmosphere as we were...