St Petroc's Bistro

St Petroc Where to start? We arrived on time and the table wasn’t ready…fair enough. Things started badly as the next table were clearly unhappy as they had asked for a dessert wine menu some time before and it had not arrived. When it did the member of staff failed to open the bottle, not once but twice. We were given a menu, wine list and drinks menu. Around 15 minutes later a member of staff came to take our order and we attempted to order cocktails. However, the overly confident and inept staff member decided we had to order our food at the same time, not ideal. We also ordered a bottle of wine. This was borne out by our starter arriving with no cocktail or wine, totally unacceptable, and we complained. The manager arrived with our cocktails, explaining that they were out of an ingredient for one of the cocktails and had to send out to another restaurant. Maybe telling us that would have been good? When we finished our cocktails we poured our own wine as no member or staff was in attendance. The starter was good but we noticed we both had redundant side plates; should we have been served bread? We were told they were there in case we ordered a dish with bread, which sounds rather odd. Shortly before the main course arrived we were given half our cutlery, our forks arriving after. When ordering my fish I noted that no potatoes were mentioned so asked if I should order some and was told I should. I was therefore surprised that it did. We sat with dirty plates for around 20 minutes as tables were set around us and, when they were finally cleared we were asked if all was OK. On saying that service was non existent the member of staff was extremely sarcastic and also spilt food on the floor and made no attempt to clean it up…totally shocking. We spoke with the manager, who was quite accusatory saying this staff member claimed I swore, which was totally untrue and I presume him covering himself. I explained the whole experience was far from fine dining but was corrected, saying it was “relaxed dining” and the other restaurant was fine dining, implying we should have gone there if we actually wanted good service. She said they were short-staffed and the staff member in question usually worked in the cafe and knew “some of the menu”. Goodness knows how they will cope with the season? As we left another couple were being apologised to for the “mix up on food and drink” and I now see reviews are going downhill. I last visited St Petroc’s over ten years ago and remember it fondly, although a visit a few years ago to the restaurant in Falmouth was far from good, and a number of places, such as Porthleven, had closed, maybe a sign of the direction they are taking. There is only so far you can go with a name, as Jamie Oliver found out, you do have to deliver, and this place really isn’t. We are on a tour of the UK coast be motorhome and have spent the past month dining out. This is by far the worst experience we have had.