The Clipper Shaldon — Restaurant in Teignbridge

As a local who has visited and had meals with family here multiple times, I was extremely embarrassed by the disgusting service my sister and I received today.

After standing waiting patiently to be seated outside ( only three tables occupied) Jo a very quietly spoken waitress came and told us to go take a seat anywhere except where plates and glasses were.

Now unfortunately we misheard her, I thought she had said to sit where the plates and glasses were as she was cleaning it, and apologised when it became apparent we had it wrong, even offering to clear the last few things away ourselves, in fact my sister moved a teapot and cup on to the next table & we were about to sit down when the she flew towards us waving her arms not so quietly this time, & said ‘ that’s the one table I just told you not to sit at’ then she screeched also I’ve just sanitised that one !

At this point we decided we’d had enough of being spoken to so rudely in front of the waiting queue, so I said let’s just go elsewhere actually we won’t eat here after all, both waitresses rolled their eyes at each other.

Feeling rather embarrassed at being the main entertainment we asked to please speak to a manager, after locating her we were most surprised when whilst speaking to her Jo the waitress came flying in announcing quite proudly it was her who we had dealt with, she basically called us liars, saying we had in fact been rude to her and another customer would vouch for her, clearly the other customer didn’t witness the whole debacle .

The manager didn’t really bother to hear us out once jo interrupted, she simply turned to us and stated, “well we’ve never had a problem with Jo before” ! We left in disgust that a manager would allow her staff member to interrupt preventing us addressing the issue, clearly the manager / owner of the clipper only wants to hear positive feedback and is in denial about some of her staff.

Thankfully the staff at The Ness Shaldon were much more professional, the food was also superior, so our advice would be “give the clipper a wide berth folks”, try The Ness for better food, service, and waiting staff who deserve a monatory tip rather than a tip about how to treat customers.

Having been in the hospitality industry myself I fully understand how frustrating customers can be, however it’s not professional to allow them to see it or to be rude and obnoxious which Jo was in spades. We get the feeling the manageress was intimidated by Jo rather than leading...

What a great little place, after visiting Shaldon Wildlife Trust (which is also well worth a visit) we had walked down the hill into Shaldon village to find somthing to eat, we stumble across The Clipper Cafe, we were greeted by a very pleasant member of staff and shown to the veranda with a lovely view of the harbour moorings as the tide was turning, we had the Mediterranean platter which tasted very nice, the salami was exceptional and accompanied it with a side of chips, to follow we had the Banoffee pie which was insanely good, my partner had a couple of glasses of wine and I'd ordered a coke and a coffee, everything we had today including the service was impeccable.

While we were there a very rude couple of ladies came onto the terrace and after being told to wait while a table was cleared for them they ignored the instruction and proceeded to clear the table themselves and put all of the used cutlery and plates onto the table next to it that had already been cleared down and sanitised by another waitress, when the ladies were told that they should have waited the "Karen's" came out and started shouting for the manager and rushing into the restaurant shouting like some petulant children, the waitress was polite and everyone around could see what had happened and couldn't belive how rude they had been even though they were on the terrace for all of 2 minutes, it wouldn't surprise me if they posted some sort of scathing review painting them as the victim as on the way back to the car while we strolled along the beach we overheard them elaborating the story to someone up on the road with the addition of a lot of untruths.

Great little restaurant, quality food, fantastic attentive staff, if you are in the area definitely...

A late afternoon lunch in a lovely spot with beautiful views.

Although the cafe seemed popular and busy throughout the day we managed to catch that afternoon sweet spot after the much rush but before evening dining.

The downstairs is bright and clean and welcoming with an outside terrace serving ice cream, overlooking the harbour. Upstairs also had seating and an outside balcony with tables offering an elevated view of the estuary - beautiful at golden hour.

The classic burger we ordered is a LARGE portion with a big juicy burger cooked perfectly accompanied by plenty of chips and salad. All the food was prepared fresh on order but didn't take long to arrive.

The service throughout was friendly and welcoming and I would while heartedly recommend a visit to the Clipper Cafe..., if you can find your visit just right on a late-summer evening just as the light begins to turn (with a glass of their own Clipper Gin if you like?) then you won't be...