Dartmoor Inn, Merrivale — Restaurant in West Devon

Booked for Sunday lunch time, had phoned about an hour prior to our booking to explain our party of 4 was now a 3 and that we would be about 20 minutes late, the person on the phone was super relaxed and said it wasn't a problem and that they'd see us when they us (we were 25 minutes late). As you walk in you are immediately smacked in the chops with the gorgeous smell of beef roasting on the bbq. We're in for a treat I thought, the pub super cosy and the bar staff very friendly and smiley. Then the issues came. Only 1 draft pint on offer, I can normally forgive that in a restaurant but a pub, wasn't the best start. Then we were shown to our table walked through the pub and into the tin roof shed out the back, and it was freezing, they have a wood burner in there but it heats only the table closest to it and even the people sat there had an electric heater. If I had of been told this when I phoned to say we were late I probably would have rearranged for another time. Our waitress came to the table, she was lovely, smiley and polite. Next came the next bad news, no fondue. It clearly says on the menu both online and on the printed menus, available only on Sunday Monday and Tuesday, nowhere does it mention evening as that is when the waitress informed us its only available in the evening. Gutted. So we had a roast, we ordered a bottle of red wine to go with it. The waitress then came back super apologetic saying they didn't have the bottle we wanted. We ordered a different one. She came back and said the same again. Ends up there were only 2 bottles available and we tried them both, unfortunately neither were to our tastes. Then our food came, tomahawk steak medium rare, was overcooked and chewy. Cauliflower cheese, cauliflower underdone. The cabbages however were delicious and and the potatoes and gravy very very good, but, because of the seating area it all went cold within about 10 minutes, like actually stone cold. I sat there pretty deflated and felt very sorry for our waitress who clearly had no direction or guidance from management. Overall a pretty underwhelming and overpriced experience. This is pretty sad because all I had heard was rave reviews but good service and a gorgeous location does not make up for average food and...

We spotted this on Google maps while wild camping near by pork hill car park. The second day we decided to try and fill our empty bellies.

Wondering down towards merrivale you can't see the Inn until you are right in the dip. It does exist, so keep walking! (Just over a mile from pork hill).

The team are making good use of the covid situation to do a complete redo (maybe new owners?) of the main pub and facilities however their organic food shack is open for business.

There's a welcome wide selection of drinks, various ciders and beers, the berry cider was like a fruity scrumpy, delicious. Plenty of juices and things like elderflower cordials.

Food wise there was a selection of home made style cakes, pasties, sausage rolls ready to go, around £4 each. Had a beef pasty and was exactly as wanted, flaky short crust pastry, peppery innards, hot!

There is also an organic picnic menu which we initially felt was a tad expensive (but on later thoughts probably wasn't) so we picked our own. It came with a full packet of really good Scottish smoked salmon, a pack of salted beef and a full slab of brei! Given the sizes we were quite happy to pay this (each item was around £5 + sourdough bread at 50p for two slices and butter). It came with paper plates, bag, napkins etc so you could take it away up the hill.

Better still it's part of the eat in scheme so I'm August Monday - Wednesday you can get up to £10 off per customer!

The only downsides are being rectified as follows BBQ wasn't running yet, would have missed the picnic however if it was The toilet didn't work very well, flushed as I went in, wouldn't flush as I was leaving (slow water) The main pub is closed while they build it!

There's also not much space for parking, but plenty of seats inside (which are usable already) and outside (maybe a dozen benches on the grass and four or so booths under cover).

The staff there were friendly and we saw dogs and even horses stop for some lunch!

When the loo and BBQ are in better order (there's people working there currently so imagine they will be soon) it will be a prime spot to rest either walking the tors (come down the far side of the quarry) or as you go in or out of...

Attended the Inn for dinner and a night’s stay for a birthday celebration on June 28, 2025. There were hits and misses with our experience at the Inn. Check in was fine. Our room was basic with an ensuite. No television. Had to request body wash, as our bottle was empty. Room clean enough, but needed a rug cleaning and painting touch ups. Went for our dinner reservation and were promptly seated. A little confusion as to whether it was table service for the bar, or head to the bar for drinks orders, as we weren’t told which it was. It was table service. Put our drinks order in and waited 15 minutes or more for our drinks. Fair dues to our server who said drinks were on them for our wait. Ordered our food with a starter to share and our mains. Fairly promptly our mains were set up on our table. We then asked that the starter be canceled as it was obviously forgotten. My partner ordered a Sole dinner, and sadly it was below standard, since it wasn’t cleaned properly and was incredibly bony. A fellow diner close to us had the same issue. Again, fair dues to the staff for removing the sole from our bill. My ribeye steak was very nice, as were the accompanying sides. During our dinner, no server asked how our food was until we brought it to their attention. Dessert was a shared tart. We waited 20 minutes for the tart, and then asked after it. It was a nice tart. All in all, it was a somewhat disappointing experience. We had a seat next to the bar, and I was able to watch the staff work and interact. My impression was that the service team were understaffed or inexperienced, or both. There was a really polite young man working behind the bar who was obviously so new he didn’t know where to find the bottle opener or proper gin shot glass. I hope he sticks in and learns the ropes. The young lady who checked me in seemed to be in charge of the service area, but was overwhelmed with managing phone calls and the other two servers, so she couldn’t be effective as a server. Kudos to the chap cooking at the pit fire, as he seemed to be dialed in. He also served us breakfast the next morning and did a good job. I hope this review helps to guide management and improve other diners’...