Review of: The Steam Packet Inn, Totnes, Devon

2/5 (minimum 1)

by Paddy on 01 Sep 2007

Summary: Good location, nice surroundings, service and food likely to be hit or miss depending on your luck. Generally going downhill?

I’ve stayed and eaten here a few times now. It’s an interesting building which has recently been refurbished in a contemporary style and quite nicely done, think neutrals and decent furniture in the bedrooms. The location by the river is great and is just a few minutes walk from the town centre. There’s waterfront dining or you can eat inside in the bar area (which smells of stale beer) or in the conservatory. The menu is ambitious. Having eaten breakfast in the conservatory I’ve seen local quality suppliers deliver the food in the morning, so they’re going for quality and charging premium prices. Some of the food I’ve eaten there has been great but I get the impression the place started out well when it opened after the revamp and has been slipping since. This time I chose the beef burger in a ciabatta roll (at the end of the August Bank Holiday many of the choices (which were already limited) were unavailable. It was very much a disappointment. I don’t mind paying £10.50 for a decent burger, but this was surely a meatball in a dry, mass produced “ciabatta” roll. A genuine chunk of ciabatta dressed with salad/mayo/cheese would have cost negligibly more to serve. Perhaps the £10.50 may have been appropriate to Burger v1 but I suspect mine was a later, inferior version and the price hasn’t been changed accordingly.

I suspect that since it’s re-opened the owner no longer oversees the quality and that’s why things are going wrong. Or perhaps they no longer care. Some of the staff are friendly and attentive. Others (including two of the principal front of house staff) are rude, dealing with them makes the experience uncomfortable and I believe they’re seriously damaging the reputation of the Steam Packet Inn. They’re setting a dreadful example to the less experienced staff and I can sense the culture shift – in the wrong direction.

Judging by what the kitchen is turning out I think there are problems there too. We had a great meal a few months ago but it wasn’t just the burger that was a let down this time, the service was appalling. Apart from being dreadfully slow, the apparently senior waitress seemed incompetent and frankly rude. Some of the more junior staff were at least trying hard to please. It’s important to understand that I was at the same meal which is the subject of another review here – yes, the one where an earthworm was found in a salad. The recipient of the worm salad was offered £40 of vouchers for a return visit. Since we all suffered the dreadful service there was some negotiation so that every member of the group would be compensated. The outcome was that the recipient of the worm was not billed, all deserts were complimentary and a discount of £2 per person was applied. I thought this was a fair outcome.

I know of others who have had great meals there recently.

As I left, there was hip-hop music blaring from the open kitchen door and a group of youngsters in chef whites messing about. That answered a lot of questions in my mind.

I’d already booked in for B&B a day later. When we returned the room was good, breakfast excellent and service friendly. We ate elsewhere in the evening.

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The Steam Packet Inn, Totnes, Devon

1 Other Review, by... tom
Tags: beer devon eating-out food ice-cream inn pub real-ale restaurant st-peters-quay steam-packet-inn steamer-quay totnes waterside-dining worm
Homepage: http://www.steampacketinn.co.uk/