Betty Cottles - West Devon

I went to Betty Cottles for a carvery today and thoroughly enjoyed it. The meat was cooked perfectly, the roast potatoes were crispy with a good flavor, and there were a nice selection of vegetables, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing balls, and gravy. For dessert, I decided to have a cream tea and the scone was fresh and warm. The service was good and I will definitely be returning.

The food at this restaurant is delicious and reasonably priced. The staff are friendly and went out of their way to accommodate my two picky children, serving them exactly what they wanted instead of just sticking to the menu. I will definitely be returning in the future.

The restaurant has a modern and clean decor, with excellent toilet facilities. The staff and locals are welcoming. The Sunday roast was a generous portion and the steak was cut with an axe, making it a bit tough but overall excellent. When I took my son later for steak, it was also a bit tough and we didn't have steak knives, but apart from that, it was an outstanding establishment. I would recommend it. Cheers, Betty Cottle.

Why was it poor? Where do I start? We went for a Sunday roast on Father’s Day. We booked ahead of time. Our table, for 10 only had 6 places, so we had to move a table ourselves because they were so ‘short staffed’. We ordered, having confirmed childrens potrions, small roasts and large roasts. Gravy, by the way, is £2.50 extra. The food came. With all but one having the wrong meat on it. They took the order back. Except for the correct one, which then went cold for the next 12 minutes while we waited. Then the food started to come out with the correct meat, but it seems that the child portions and ‘small’ and ‘large’ roasts are very similarly sized. More on this later. Some plates had three slices of meat, some one. Some had 4 (small) roasted potatoes some had only 2. None had any gravy on them. At all. The food was half decent, if not spectacular. I’ll give them that. Good Yorkshire puddings. Then the ‘chef’ (wearing civvies and an apron) came out to see us, I guess to apologise, but only brought excuses about ‘new staff’. When challenged about the gap in food and the poor service, he just shrugged. When it came to pay, we determined, as a group that the service, food and overall visit wasn’t good enough, so complained. We then found out the following: The only new staff was one person, washing up. There are no small or large portions for roasts. Despite our order and confirmation by the same staff member. In their view, all plates were ‘the same’. Staff didn’t like your complaint and he lost his cool, becoming frustrated and telling me ‘I’ve given you a deal so what more do you want?’. Classy. That our order on the ‘system’ was still incorrect. We received a discount of £9 on the meals and some of our drinks (almost all half soft drinks) gratis. In fact, all drinks except one Guinness. He couldn’t remove this from the tab, I guess. I appreciated their half hearted effort to make things right, but rudeness, a lack of awareness in serving food and a less than pleasant stay mean that I think it is only fair to share our experience and give our reasons for why we will never go back.

When we arrived we were taken to a very basic room, which was more like a cheap cafe, with awful wooden tables and chairs, and a pool table. None of the food we wanted was on the menu despite it being on the Facebook page menu you are directed to from their website. So we decided to finish our drinks and find somewhere else. We were charged £27 for four drinks! I asked if they’d got it wrong, and was then given back £10 as they’d apparently made a mistake. The couple at a table behind us had both ordered a meal, but the waitress only brought out one for the man. He’d finished his and his wife was still waiting for hers. Turns out they’d forgotten it! Awful decor, awful surroundings, terrible service, nobody seemed to know what they were doing.