The Rock Inn Review

Situated in the beautiful Dartmoor National Park, The Rock Inn is a traditional pub with a lot of history, having been built in the 1820's. It also has a growing reputation for providing some pretty decent food; I was looking forward to giving that food a try as I visited for Tuesday lunch with my wife and young daughter.

The first challenge is parking; there's no car park for restaurant visitors but the pub is situated on a quiet road and we were able to find an on-street space without too much difficulty. Once inside we were greeted and shown to a dining room near the front of the pub; unlike a lot of gastro pubs today, it wasn't clean and modern; instead there are rough yellowed walls and lots of dark wood beams. But that didn't bother me at all; this is very much a local pub first and foremost so that classic look fits perfectly well here.

The service throughout was fine and this is a child friendly venue, complete with a children's menu which was appreciated. Lunch for me began with the goats cheese mousse; it was actually a very enjoyable dish, the smooth and flavoursome mousse complimented well by the poached fig. My wife's sweet potato soup wasn't quite so good, but my daughter found her sausages and chips very tasty.

Next up for me was the lamb, served with creamed potatoes and a red wine sauce. It was a hearty dish, nothing spectacular but a perfectly decent plate of good quality pub grub. My wife's venison burger was also tasty. Desserts weren't as good unfortunately; my espresso creme brulee (served with not great petit fours) wasn't a great consistency and my wife's chocolate mousse trio, although a perfectly edible dish, lacked any kind of pizzazz.

Overall, this was a perfectly acceptable meal with decent food and friendly service but based on the awards the restaurant holds, I was expecting food of a higher standard. Nonetheless, the food here is still well above bog standard pub grub and if you're looking for a solid, good value, pub lunch, you could do a lot worse than visit here.