The Burrator Inn — Restaurant in West Devon

I strongly recommend avoiding the Burrator Inn, due to the attitude of the host. They are unkind, greedy, unreliable and incompetent. I was shocked and incredibly disappointed to come across such an attitude in the hospitality sector, where I would expect some degree of care for the customer, rather than a blatant, shameless interest only in profit, mixed in with time wasting and incompetence.

I planned to stay at the Burrator Inn with a friend as a birthday treat, but unfortunately, due to a very serious emergency, involving a close family member, we had to rush back home at the last minute, when already nearby. Out of courtesy, I immediately informed our hosts as I would not have wanted them to be inconvenienced. While trying to organise a refund was the last thing on my mind at the time, which I said during the phone call, it was explained to me that I could get a refund via booking.com. When I contacted booking.com a few days later, they confirmed this and said that Burrator Inn also needed to confirm, and they would contact them to arrange it. After hearing nothing for a week, I contacted Burrator Inn, only to be ignored. I subsequently contacted them yet again, and they refused to give a refund, based on grounds they did not mention in the previous phone conversation, when it was agreed.

Belatedly, after several conversations, and wasting my time and misleading me, they reluctantly offered a room at a later date, not much use, as I was unable to take it up, besides after being messed around so much, it hardly appealed to stay with these people. This alternative offer might have been reasonable if made straight away, followed by giving the agreed refund, if I was unable to use it.

As well as the upset of the unfortunate family emergency, our spoiled weekend away being only a minor part of this, the whole episode has been compounded by the host of Burrator Inn’s greed and incompetence. I accept that technically the room was not refundable and technically they can keep my money, but they certainly should not have told me a refund was possible, only to later refuse it, ignoring messages, and coming up with new excuses for not giving it. This is completely unacceptable and an attitude I was shocked to encounter, especially in the hospitality sector. It is just not the right thing to do, to keep someone’s money in such a situation, with (as I explained) a life threatening situation involving a close family member, compounding things by messing me around, and wasting my time, adding extra completely unnecessary frustration to a sad situation. The hosts at Burrator Inn lack any decency.

I would like to share a vastly contrasting experience, to lighten up this inevitably extremely negative review, and hopefully restore some faith in humanity. A couple of years ago, someone I know was renting out their spare room. A young person, suffering from anxiety issues moved in, for her first proper job. The job did not work out, and within a week, she returned home to her parents. Realising this must have been a bad setback, the deposit and entire month’s rent were refunded, including even for the week she spent in the flat. This left the person renting seriously out of pocket, the rent being their primary income, but they felt that the most important thing in the circumstances was to be kind. It is sad for those of us who go through life, treating others with kindness, and placing personal finances as a lower priority in the grand scheme of things, to come across others who do not share these values, instead do the exact opposite, are motivated primarily by greed, are happy to mislead, and gladly profit from someone else’s misfortune.

Altogether, an extremely disappointing experience. I would neither want to nor recommend anyone else to stay at this establishment, with people who lack basic kindness and compassion, value only their own profit, are happy to take advantage of someone else’s emergency, thoughtlessly waste the time of a customer already dealing with bad personal news, and are unreliable in their...

An unfortunate recent visit for us. We arrived with friends and family (4 adults 5 kids)and let the kids go in thr park first, just outside the gate is a small sharp stump sticking out the ground, cut my toe, when i tripped on it, luckily my partner caught me. We then went inside to get seated, to order our food and drinks. We was unaware that the far end of the building is for "none kids" although the table we sat at, next to us had two children sat at their table. We was told to move to the other side, so we did to a seated area on the "kids allowed side" we had a look at the amazing menu already knowing that we was all keen for a top quality roast and the kids had there pick from the small plates option. We went to order, the girl seemed confused that we wanted to order separately, but we got there in the end with plenty of repeating, she was fine, probably just a hard day. 45 min wait what we was fine with. Food started to arrive earlier then we thought, obviously a massive bonus. Food came out in random lots, 2 roasts, then 1 kids meal, then another kids. And then a big pause, another 2 roasts and another wait, then 1 kids meals. Two kids was waiting for there meals for far to long. I asked for some mint sauce, the young female waitress never returned with it, whilst i waited leaving my food to go cold and share with one of my kids due to his food not turning up, we asked about the food to be told dont think we had anymore due, then another waitress appeared asking what we was waiting for. We then had to retell her the order. She said sorry and left. Never told us how long. Finally the 2 kids meals turned up, even though our party had pretty much finished there meals, leaving the two youngest eating. The egg was slimey and not properly cooked, so was removed from the plate and put on a finished plate, Asked for mint sauce again and before we could mention the egg she walked off. Never returned. This time we caught the eye of a waiter who went and got the mint sauce. HERO!I tucked into my lovely roast beef to then find hair on the beef and some on the veg. At this point i was past asking or mentioning anything, so i just pushed my plate away. To top it off my niece then fell, hit her head on a table leg hit her knee face hands etc, she was screaming as kids do, so we took her to the bar to ask for a plaster and was handed one relentlessly and then she made a point of saying we're not allowed to give them out usually? Although i understand it is the companies right to not include plasters in first aid boxes, there was some in there and again although you are allowed to refuse first aid to the public, i just think morally it is the right thing to do. Food was nice. Service was rubbish, attitude was poor and the lack of compassion towards a hurt child was disgusting. Such a shame as when i came her years back it was superb. Poor...

We called in here for lunch on May bank hol Mon, as we were in the vicinity. It was busy, but not greatly different from how you'd expect a popular country pub to be at lunchtime. Fortunately, we got a table relatively easily. The waiting staff who took our orders for food and drink were nice enough. We all placed our food orders. My vegan option that I chose was a mushroom bourguignon pie with crushed potatoes, carrots and gravy. But I must admit, upon ordering, I did feel a bit short-changed about only being given carrots with the meal, especially as the meal was £18. Being offered peas at the very least alongside the carrots, would've been better value for money. Before we received our meals, an older member of staff came out of the kitchen, bustled straight up to our table and without any preamble or apology, with a raised voice (that other diners can hear) she barked at me that I couldn't have crushed potatoes as they'd run out. Her manner and tone let her down so much; it felt accusatory - where I was left feeling that it was my fault for needing the meal with the crushed potatoes on a busy Bank Hol. She continued with a raised voice and said to me, "It's a Bank Hol and we're busy". Of course, I understand these things, but I found her manner most unfriendly - no smile and no apology. She then further continued with a raised voice and said to me, "You can have chips or nothing". We were all pretty shocked at her response (I even let out a nervous laugh). It felt as though I was being told off due to all this 'bother' I'd created. That's how it came across with her tone, and how it made me feel as a customer. If it's her usual manner when she's under pressure, then I'd suggest that she will need some customer training. My meal was sub-par. The pie was not too bad, but the sorry excuse for the carrots was laughable - they were all shrivelled. The chips were like a child's portion alongside my pie. We vegans can frequently get a poor deal when it comes to eating out - and this was one of those times. We're very used to receiving too little food/poor quality of food for the price we pay. It was an impossibility that my meal was ever worth the £18 paid. I would never have complained in person in the pub about my experience, as I hate confrontation - but at least I'm able to leave a review. The experience of dining here coupled with the staff member's manner, was a great disappointment. I will stick with my excellent vegan pie meal with huge amounts of veg/potatoes from the Hyde Pk Pub,...