Pig and Olive, Westward Ho! — Restaurant in Torridge District

We had heard good things about the Pig and Olive and thought we would give it a try. As a group of 5 we were offered two separate tables - no worries, not the end of the world... and as it turned out, a couple left, so we managed to merge two tables together (although in theory we could have just been offered an extra seat for the table of 4...?!)

Pig and Olive is happy to have children, so that's a win, although they don't really cater for children in terms of the drinks and menu - so no kids options, and if you want them to have a juice then it will be the nice stuff... which is great tasting, but it does increase the price of the total meal some what! Unfortunate as well that on our visit they had run out of apple, and that's pretty much all one of the kids want when they go out for meals..!

We eventually ordered, choosing some garlic pizza nibbles and some pizzas. The drinks came and then... a massive wait... we had the waitress over apologise and tell us ours was coming, but still quite a wait. Certainly not anywhere near the 60 seconds it takes to cook... when food did come we got everything together - garlic pizza breads and pizzas! In terms of taste the best was (quite surprinsingly) the garlic bread with cheese and marmite. Really nice! The normal garlic bread with sea salt was nice and the pizza with salami and hot honey was good too. The margherita pizza wasn't anywhere as nice as the others.

Having been there for some considerable time (and the kids getting a bit fidgety), we chased the waitress up for the bill (no receipt as something wrong with the machine?!) Thankfully, they were happy to box up the remaining pizza. There was a small thank you for being patient comment - and as we left, we got the impression that perhaps they had accepted a few more orders than they could handle. I suspect our experience would have been a bit better if they had not been busier, but that doesn't really change the experience we...

We came here not long ago and were really looking forward to coming here after reading the countless positive reviews, but sadly left rather disappointed.

The restaurant has no waiting service, so you're required to dispose of your own paper plates/cans/etc. This would be fine if the waste bins weren't so close to the eating area, and it'd be much more hygenic if they were pedal operated.

Drink glasses were not properly cleaned. There was some kind of dirt/powder on the rims.

But the main issue was the pizzas, which were quite bland with a meagre amount of toppings. The crusts were rather burnt, and the pizzas weren't that warm upon serving, meaning they went cold quite quickly. We also had to waste time cutting them ourselves as they were really poorly cut. Most of the slices were barely separated. It wasn't easy to cut them with a knife and fork either due to how dry and tough the base/crust was.

Dessert was not much better, either.

At least the pesto crust dipper was quite nice, and the staff were friendly and accommodating. Maybe it was...

Really really really really disappointed with this place which is hard for me to say because this is our 3rd year in a row visiting Westward Ho and this place is one we look forward to. However this year has been awful. We made a couple of visits because our children love pizza and they are fussy, but love Pizza and one has an allergy. First visit was OK but pizzas cold and not to standard. But tonight we also asked for garlic bread but with vegan cheese (we had a vegan pizza for our daughter) Considering the national news about a young girl dying because she was given milk in a Costa Coffee shop recently, you'd think food businesses would be extra careful.

Guess what? They didn't use vegan cheese and our 2 year old had a reaction.

We used to LOVE this place and it's the one place we always plan to visit before anything or anywhere else on our visit here but there's no way we could ever trust them ever again.

If you or a child has a food allergy, this is NOT the...