The Abbey Inn

The venue is lovely and the Sunday lunch was very good quality, but the service needs improvement. Staff were busy and polite, though I think they need more training, and the dress code could be better. The menu directed us to a specials board for the roasts, but it hadn’t been written up and at first nobody knew what meats were available. We were eventually told beef or gammon. Cauliflower cheese arrived about ten minutes into the meal, after we’d started eating. When our plates were cleared, no one asked about dessert or coffee, so I went to ask after roughly half an hour. We ordered three coffees and one decaf, then were told they didn’t have decaf. Improve the service and we will return.

I’m here for two nights while visiting the South Devon Railway diesel gala, and the location beside the River Dart is lovely. I’ve eaten here both evenings: excellent fish and chips last night, then rib eye steak tonight. There’s a small but good range of St Austell Brewery beers, and tonight I’m having Devon red cider. Breakfast this morning was very good, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s.

The Sunday lunch was delicious, served hot and full of flavour. The staff were so friendly and couldn’t do enough for us. We’ll definitely come back, 10/10.

The room had electrical problems, the plumbing wasn’t good, and there was a bug in the bed, so it wasn’t a good start. I was offered a full refund, but couldn’t find anything else to book at short notice, so we stayed one night and had breakfast, which was acceptable. When the tomato sauce arrived, it was just the dregs being drained from the bottle, and messy to handle. The front-of-house standards need attention.