California Country Inn - South Hams

We spent the night here in our camper van and enjoyed a delicious fireside dinner. For campers, the pub is with the Britstop scheme and the car park is large, level and flat with a very useful Spar supermarket and petrol station opposite. Now to the Cali.. we were welcomed and enjoyed a very interesting tour of the premises then had drinks in front of the lovely fire. The pub has a fascinating history, dating from the 14th century and was a staging post until the early 1900 's. Now to the food.. Really good ham, egg, peas and chips (the best ever! and steak and ale pie with chips and peas. Generous portions, so much so that we couldn 't fit a pud in! The Cali is unusual in that it is not too done up , not a boutique pub (thank goodness! and lots of quaint features and charm. So nice to find traditional pub grub at reasonable prices in a proper country pub. We 'll be back!

Can't recommend this place highly enough! We've been visiting this pub now for a couple of years, tried most meals on the menu, food always arrives quick and freshly cooked, every time we score it 10/10. Has as traditional pub feel, a good selection of drinks and reasonably priced considering the quality. See you again soon!

The tone of the responses to critical reviews tells everything you need to know about the attitude of the Cali Inn's management. I'll keep things factual and maybe avoid being labelled a liar by the owner, who seems to believe that personal attacks on disappointed customers who speak up is a good strategy. The food (filled baguettes in our case) was pretty good 4½ stars for that. The premises at least, the small bar area we were in looked tired and unloved. Not an attractive environment at all. The response of the person serving (presumably the owner) to a very civil question, after quite a long wait, about when we might expect our food was rude and self justifying, bordering on the aggressive. The same person spent quite a bit of time standing behind the bar a couple of metres from where we were having our food and conversation, whistling to the piped music and playing drums on the bar counter and a large parcel that was on it. My companion reported that the female loo was fairly unpleasant. Given all the above, and despite the food being OK, our visit represented poor value especially at the slightly salty prices charged. Although the Cali is midway between our homes, we won't be using it again for our regular but infrequent catch ups.

Very nice genuine pub which makes a change, had a good healthy lunch, the meat pie was fine too much in fact and the curry was good. Prices reasonable mains £15,95 which is the going rate these days. Pleasant surroundings and staff. Plenty of parking

We visited on recent holiday, both tried the chefs chicken and leek pie. It was awful and certainly didn’t resemble a pie. It was over cooked chicken in soup with a piece of pastry dropped on top. The chicken was so dry despite the soup it was floating in. Would not return.