The Lyme Bay Reviews Summary

Service

Pros:

• "Fantastic service."
• "The food and also the coffee were excellent and so was the service- very friendly and very prompt."
• "Very impressed, all the staff were excellent and professional."
• "Staff were welcoming and very attentive."
• "The staff are very attentive and the contactless system for ordering food is very simple to follow."
• "Very friendly and efficient."
• "Staff were attentive and polite."

Cons:

• "Incredibly inattentive staff."
• "Great looking bar/restaurant but staff awful."
• "The waiting staff are clearly poorly trained and poorly managed."
• "Complete abandonment of social distancing which caused us to drink up and leave :("
• "Waited by the 'wait here to be seated sign', no-one spoke to us."
• "Service is slow, and very disorganised."
• "We queued outside for 30 minutes, and then we advised food would be around 45 minutes due to staffing issues."

Food Quality

Pros:

• "The crab was full of flavour and enjoyed every bite."
• "Fish and chips par excellence. Crispiest batter ever."
• "The food was on par if not better than our last visit and everyone left feeling full and satisfied."
• "Top quality food and drink, freshly prepared and cooked to order, hence sometimes you have to be patient and wait a little longer for your meal, but it is worth it."
• "Exceptional food served by pleasant staff, eaten whilst overlooking the beautiful bay."
• "The chefs definitely know what they're doing, we were very impressed!"
• "The food is great and it's worth it in my opinion."

Cons:

• "Only marred by the fact I ended up with horrendous food poisoning 🤮."
• "The price was £8 and it was very disappointing."
• "Not the best fish and chips I’ve had near the sea front."
• "The 'real' baked beans were nasty, the sausage grizzly, and the soda bread toast stale and chewy."
• "The fish and chips was less than average I am afraid with well over fried fish."
• "Food is nothing special & was way too expensive for a small lunchtime bowl of chicken Caesar salad and cup of tea £17.50."
• "The breakfast was very poor and the 'real' baked beans were nasty, the sausage grizzly, and the soda bread toast stale and chewy."

Atmosphere and Location

Pros:

• "Neat outdoor seating looking out to the sea."
• "Nice atmosphere."
• "The view out to sea was lovely and the outside area pleasant."
• "The vew from the garden is also fantastic."
• "Beautiful location, delicious food, great atmosphere."
• "A perfect place to sit and look at the waves with a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere."
• "The location is wonderful. You can sit inside - the decor is contemporary and beautiful, arty, - or outside on the terrace overlooking Lyme Bay. Gorgeous!"

Cons:

• "There wasn't any access to the garden area for disabled people. A couple of steps down into it."
• "Parking is difficult, need more bins, especially with the staycation. Rubbish everywhere, due to lack of bins, with the amount of people visiting."
• "Can get a bit overcrowded in the season."
• "Not possible to socially distance safely here."

Value

Pros:

• "Both times our choices have been well presented, expertly cooked and reasonably priced with good portion sizes."
• "Fair prices."
• "In comparison to other restaurants this was very reasonable for the area and very much worth it!"
• "Truly amazing and well priced."
• "Moderate cost."

Cons:

• "The food was delicious a little pricey."
• "14 pounds is also quite a lot for that and as someone who has been to other beaches across the UK and also lived in London, it is overpriced."
• "Small portions. Expensive. About £15 for fish and chips."
• "Spending over £100 I would expect more for my money."
• "£45.95 for 4 sandwiches is very pricey. I would expect to pay around £25 for what we had."
• "Prices are incredibly expensive (£3.50 for a small Orange Juice, £8 for a breakfast bap)."
• "Fair selection of beers and spirits, although quite expensive (£5/pint)."

Accessibility and Covid Measures

Pros:

• "Ordering on our phones was quick and easy, social distancing was maintained, and all staff wore masks at all times!"
• "I think this venue had good social distancing measures - checked into the NHS app, ordered food via an app but we did have to collect this."
• "Great friendly staff, lots of good communication re social distancing."
• "Friendly welcoming place Well thought out system for dealing with current covid restrictions."

Cons:

• "The rules here are wrong. To have to go to the counter to pick up food and drinks is wrong."
• "But the other staff didn't appear to take Coronavirus seriously, and I did not feel it was a comfortable experience because of it."
• "The government guidance and regulations state that 'in venues which sell alcohol, food and drink must be ordered by, and served to, customers who are seated'. It should have been 100% table service, but in this bar it wasn't and nobody explained why."
• "This is not table service and the ordering from a website is not service of any kind - What a dreadful experience."