The Dolphin @ Dartmouth — Restaurant in South Hams

Don’t go if you’re not a local.

To be frank, really strange place ….

Me, my GF and my father went there to play a game of pool upstairs. We had one drink each before hand (from the Crab pub by the bay which was great, go there over here!!) before going there. So we arrived, ordered a drink, had one outside, then ordered again and went upstairs to play pool. All was good. My father has been to Dartmouth a lot, and he was looking forward to going there. No one was upstairs, we were by ourselves the entire time. We played a few games of pool and a few games of darts. A bartender came up and took away the darts, we asked why and she said her manager said she had to, she was visibly uncomfortable about it. We shrugged it off and carried on playing pool. A few games later (us not ordering another drink or talking to anyone else) she informed us this would be our final game and we had to stop playing. We were quite confused, we said okay and thought we’d go downstairs and have a drink outside and just keep to ourselves. I went to the bar and tried to order a drink, I was told I was barred? I was not drunk or acting outlandishly, so I was quite confused. I asked her why we were barred and she said “sorry, my manager has just said so” she look visibly uncomfortable. I said I understand she is just a staff member and I wasn’t going to give her grief, so we just left. We were on the upper floor by ourselves and talked to no one in the pub, so I was confused if we made anyone feel uncomfortable or unwelcome. It was very confusing. I felt bad for the bartender because she looked embarrassed more than anything else. She said the manager was looking at us on CCTV, and told her we had to leave. I asked if we did anything unacceptable, she said no. Honestly, if you saw this CCTV, it was so vanilla, you would see 3 people playing darts and pool, that was it. To be frank, this place strikes me as a local pub, which I understand you may want to keep that up, but we weren’t arguing or pushing any locals out of the way. You also have to remember this is in the height of the tourist season - and it strikes me as odd that you would open a pub in a town famous for its tourism if you didn’t want non-locals coming in. We weren’t difficult (this is also our 5th time to Dartmouth so we’re not massive tourists, we know the culture) We were literally playing pool by ourselves on the upper floor. We had a pint and went upstairs and didn’t talk to anyone the entire time. We are well travelled, been to a lot of places and many bars, and know what is acceptable and how to act. Don’t go, I’d get it if you’re a local bar, but we literally didn’t talk to anyone and didn’t stop any locals from doing anything. We are also white English. So further don’t understand any prejudice towards us. I’d like to speak to their manager directly but they seemed too cowardly. Shame they had to send an embarrassed bartender to do their work.

In regards to your comments: she is 24, no “younger” needed. She threw darts at a dart board (directly in front of the board, not across the room) while only our group was there. No one else present. Please release the footage, as I said, it’s vanilla. Furthermore, you took away the darts when you felt uncomfortable, which is fine and your right. You still barred us for no reason, after we just tried to order a drink and keep to ourselves. We asked why we were barred and you wouldn’t tell us, which is just strange. Had to write a review to get an answer of out of you. Also, some people in the pub were plastered, and you pick on 3 people playing pub games by themselves? Really?

And if you had any suspicion she was underage (which she is not) why didn’t you ID us? Which you should have done, if you felt that way. You served her directly 2 rounds of drinks, if you felt this way, you should have challenged her. You could have also just told us any of this while there and we would have cooperated. But was just told to get out of nowhere. Making weak excuses how we were being dangerous, just not true, instead of owning up...

From the outside this pub looks like the sort of well worn and seedy little sailors tavern that I'd been searching for all my life. Inside didn't disappoint. It's covered wall to wall in flags, pictures and sailing memorabilia and all sorts to keep the eyes entertained (especially the gents toilet fellas 😉). The ancient decor and the wooden seats and benches make you feel like you've just landed after a long voyage and staggered into the first pub you can find. The bar staff are friendly and allowed us to charge our phones and batteries while we enjoyed a few pints of inches cider. We didn't eat here but the food on offer was like you'd find in a British boozer from the 1980s. Meat pies, cheese rolls, pickled onions and eggs etc. It really did make my heart fill with nostalgia. I absolutely love this pub and will definitely return when I'm down this way next year. The only reason I have four stars instead of five was because I was charged £14 for a double brandy which I thought was very steep. Otherwise a cracking little boozer that oozes atmosphere. I'd love to visit when they have entertainment on. I'm sure it will be very...

We saw the food chalkboard outside and the pub looked ideal for mine and the wifes one night stop in Dartmouth to watch England v Scotland. Walked up to the bar and asked the barman if they were serving food, he looked at us as if we were from another planet then flatley said NO! We actually thought he was just been dry then when I said 'oh, we saw your board outside ' he said 'it stars at 6! It was all we could not to laugh at him. Well we walked and he missed out on about £70 worth of beer sales and a bad review, . Shame cos the pub looked good and we thought we might have found a great place to settle in and watch the match. At a time when pubs are suffering for sales too. Maybe they don't need the business. I can't give it more than 1 star cos this is based solely on first contact with the grumpy man...