The Honiton Inn - East Devon

Dropped in whilst driving past, owners opened up kitchen for us, and presented great plates of food, excellent quality and very fresh. Were made to feel very welcome. Thoroughly recommend stopping here.

The rudest staff possibly anywhere in England? The owner in his 50's sitting at the bar drinking a bottle of Bud told me a my partner to F##K Off. Never again.

I checked on line for opening times and it said 1200hrs. I went on their website to look at menus and it also said open at 1200hrs. We got there at around 1215hrs on Thursday 8th to find a sign saying not open till 1600hrs. No point having a website if it shows duff information. If Covid or anything else alters website info, then alter it, it only takes two minutes, if you value your potential customers that is We moved on to the Otter Inn at Weston and very nice it was too.

We booked a table for 5 people for a Sunday lunch birthday meet up. Booking was made a month before the date; we were travelling from both Cornwall and Hampshire and wanted to be sure that a table was available. At no point in the booking process were we given any information about limited menus on a Sunday. There is also no information about this on the website (no Sunday menu at all) or on their Facebook page, so we assumed that it was a standard menu each day. The first issue was when two of us wanted sparkling water – we thought a fairly standard request in a pub/restaurant. No, they didn’t do sparkling water, would soda water do instead? We declined and all had other drinks. No menus were brought to the table, and it wasn’t until the chap came to take our order that we discovered that on a Sunday it was ‘turkey or beef’ and that was it. Not ideal for the vegetarian with us. She was told she could probably have something from the normal menu, but there was no garlic bread to go with the lasagne and they had no pizza bases (there are signs all over the pub and outside it, advertising their pizzas) but he could do one ‘on naan bread’. This was the only viable option. The meats in the roast were plentiful. However, the roast potatoes were overdone and the selection of vegetables watery and very overcooked, with cold cheese sauce over the mushy cauliflower. Once plates were cleared, no dessert menus were offered. In the end, we asked about dessert and were told that they had ‘2 sticky toffee puddings and 1 jam sponge’ and that was it. We decided we wouldn’t bother. Given it was only 3pm at this point, and there were only a couple of other tables occupied the whole time we were there, we weren’t impressed. Not a great birthday meal for my mum, in the first meeting up with two of her children since pre March 2020. There should be some mention on the website, Facebook page, or in the messages when people are booking about the lack of choice on a Sunday. We won’t be visiting again, however convenient it is being only 5 minutes from Honiton High Street.

This village pub is fantastic with a tranquil atmosphere. The owners, staff, and customers were all very friendly and welcoming to newcomers like us.