The Bucket & Spade — Restaurant in Teignbridge

We booked in a birthday with this place for 6 children aged 7, 7 children in total. The staff acted as though they are unaware of our bookings, wanted to charge £1 extra for plates and napkins for birthday cake. I thought she was joking. She said she didn't book the reservation and was not aware it was birthday! Why would that matter? Your staff took the reservation and it does not count? How stupid and unprofessional. If you are not a suited place for birthdays, easy, say it upfront. Ruined the atmosphere for us and for the kids. Some member of staff clearly very nice. The manager not so much.

Then comes the actual manager. Tries to not admit that their staff does not link online bookings and face to face confirmation of a birthday part. Rewires and rewires the narrative, totally unapologetic. Tells me we expect them to serve us extra for birthday. Struggling to understand that it is their lack of comms that we did book for a birthday. So I tell him that he is not convincing me and end the chat.

But then think about it, if a customer spent a lot of money £££ [£200+] in the entire establishment, would you as an establishment ask £1 per plate per child for cake cutting and ruin the atmosphere and say you don't see it as a birthday booking (even though we booked it as a birthday). And lose 7 other potential families that initially was talking about a spa day there and then of course dump the idea? I guess some establishments are smart like that and earn themselves a lovely and a genuine 1* google and TripAdvisor review.

Despite all, the spa lady downstairs is amazing...

Its unfortunate to have to write a poor review on the Bucket and Spade, but due to staff mannerisms and quality of the food it feels necessary. We arrived on Sunday morning, checked in and sat to our table, a member of staff came to take our order, insisting we ordered our food and drink right away as they were expecting another big table to arrive shortly, it felt like there was a lot of pressure to pick something to eat in a short amount of time having only just taken my jacket off. We all ordered and thought nothing more of it, until I overheard the same member of staff ask another table of customers if they would be ordering food or just drinks as they were expecting " another big table to arrive shortly". The food arrived in good time, the avocado was hard and the pancakes and waffles that were advertised to come with maple syrup and sugar dusting, came without the dusting, they did come and add the dusting at the table, not in the cleanest of fashions. we finished up and went to the till to settle the bill, we paid in couples, each couple being charged a 10% service fee without notice. I also never saw the "big table" arrive in the time that we were there. All in all we felt a bit pushed to order and it felt the food was rushed. Shame because it has the potential to be a...

A bit of a strange place as when we got there it only seems to be a place for the caravan park, no real directions to the entrance though we did find it in the end, the staff were very friendly and welcoming on entering We ordered our food and drink all was well as we were the only people there so automatically I thought we cannot go wrong as the chef was only cooking for us, I was rite the food was cooked to perfection and was delicious, I will say though, I had the seafood linguine that was advertised as a main meal but when it arrived it was really only enough on the plate as a starter, luckily I asked for chips and blue cheese sauce as a side so I didn’t go hungry 9/10 from me would be happy to...