Smith's Brasserie At Bovey Castle

We chose this place for our 15th wedding anniversary meal (not that the restaurant knew this) and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Great, attentive, and fast service from the team and wonderful food. No complaints here. Thank you Bovey Castle and Smith’s Brasserie for a memorable night.

Massively disappointing considering the price. Focaccia was sourdough. Got wine order wrong twice, asked for bottle of red, still waiting after food presented. Chased up. Was brought a bottle of white as bar waiter said “yeah, we’re running out of that one”. I repeated that we wanted red wine and he just froze. I suggested he brought us the wine menu so we could choose an alternative. Chose a dearer bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. He comes back with a bottle, flashes the label at my husband, opens the screw top ! pours and puts the bottle down by me where I picked it up to check and saw it was a Malbec. Wasn’t even Malbec on the menu! Cost of this screw top bottle of red? £44. No one checked on us during our meal. My husband couldn’t finish his dish, said it was giving him stomach ache both had venison Ragu pasta , mine was tasteless, I didn’t finish it either. When the restaurant supervisor finally checked on us when clearing plates, I explained the wine debacle and she said she would discount us. When I saw the bill, they’d charged us £4.50 for table water, taken £6.60 off the £44 wine and then charged us 12.5% service charge, totalling £120 we each had a main and a side, no starters, no desserts . Second night found The Ring of Bells in North Bovey, a mile away. Food was amazing so went back the second night.

With friends we enjoyed a friendly meal in the main restaurant of the hotel. I had a simple meal comprising the burger for my main course followed by a cheese plate. My friends had a wide variety of salads, pasta and more substantial meals and all were enthusiastically devoured. Although all of the choices were very good. I am not sure I would go out of my way to eat at the hotel but if you are staying in the hotel you will be perfectly happy with the options and service available.

Went here for Sunday Lunch only to be told the Sunday Lunch menu wasn't on today because there weren't enough bookings ???? How bazaar !!! I asked to speak to a manager who explained that they don't always run the Set Sunday Lunch menu but it is clearly shown on their website!! He agreed and offered us a choice of three courses (as long as we didn't order Scallops) for the fixed menu price. We agreed and preceeded to order. The starters were okay but massively over priced. We had the Roast Beef Dinner that was really nice followed by a couple of severely over priced deserts. All in all the food was okay but nothing special at all. The setting is wonderful but really let down by clutter outside the main entrance. There were dirty bread baskets and trays piled up outside the kitchen window. Some of the flooring was lifted up on the terrace too and looked awful. This place could be stunning if it was run properly. They've got the makings of a fantastic hotel and restaurant but it needs to be staffed correctly and there needs to be attention to detail regarding the cleanliness and presentation of the public areas. Would we recommend? NO, we would however return if we heard things had changed for the better. Overall rating 4/10

Outstanding front of house staff. Food just about OK Fillet steaks were ordered by two of the group (both requested 'medium ' but both were well done, so they were on the tough side). these would normally have been returned but it was a birthday meal for my mother so did not want to spoil it. It was a good job steak knives were given to us because we needed them.