We are long time fans of the show.As fans to stay/experience staying in the Cottage was excellent.But describing where we stayed-the master ensuite bedroom as in a B and B is a bit misleading.Certainly the ingredients for our breakfast were provided but to access a provided cooked breakfast would have required a 15 minute walk up from the Cottage to the Shop/Cafe.And on 2 days of our stay the Shop was closed .Perhaps different if we’d had a 4 wheel drive.On arrival also it appeared they weren’t really ready for us.Both jams were almo empty and the front door key we were given was the w wrong key.On complaint though these items were promptly fixed.So excellent if you’re a fan not so if you’re not
JandM2308
The staff were very friendly and helpful and views stunning. If only the food had been the same. We took friends from France and we’ve been looking forward to it for ages. Very random menu where it seemed breakfast and lunch dishes were mixed up in one menu with not much choice of either. We didn’t expect an extensive menu however we did expect a decent lunch menu. Two of us had smoked haddock kedgeree which was delicious, however lacked very much smoked haddock! Dessert choices were cake of the day or affogato (made with yoghurt ice cream) three of us chose cake of the day which had obviously been sitting around for some time and was very dry and the outside bits couldn’t be eaten, it would have been slightly better with a bit of cream or ice-cream!! .However they make very good coffee!! We all felt that the place was trading on the celebrity name and we wouldn’t go back or recommend it. I’ve given the two points for the friendliness of the staff and stunning views.
Sian Davies
This is a review for the new kitchen and store at HQ.We visited in Spring and loved it, so returned this weekend and were highly disappointed. There were very few customers in the kitchen, a table of 4. But we waited a very long time, ignored by staff, to be seated. I ended up choosing my own table and sitting without invitation.The host then reluctantly took our order and ignored us for the rest of our visit.We were all keen to have more coffee and cake but left because we couldn’t get anyone to take our order. Even though there were only 4 other people there, the host spent no time actually serving but on her laptop and had no interest in being hospitable.I think for a place like River Cottage, service should be outstanding to mirror the food. It’s so important to a business such as this and really needs attention. Step it up please.Otherwise, we love the location, love the food and coffee, but the service left a bad taste in our mouths, unfortunately, such a shame.
Alexander Ose
Superlative experience staying three nights in the River Cottage farmhouse. As a fan of the show, it was fun to see up close how the place works. From the delicious breakfast menu to the beautiful gardens and pastures, it feels true to Hugh's philosophy throughout. The staff was excellent-- I especially enjoyed talking to the head gardener John about organic gardening. I would love to come back for one of the cooking classes.
Peter T
I went here last month as well and I hated the meatballs and my kids didn’t like the macaroni cheese - this time the scones fell apart when cut and the members of our group that had the brownie left it as there was a flavour of soil and vinegar. Feels a little like they have let the quality go. Staff are great but pricy hence the extra star
Jane royce
We stayed the night recently (twin room in the farmhouse, B&B) and had the most fantastic time - and food!The farmhouse is very comfortable, beautifully renovated and atmospheric. The kitchen is big and well equipped to put together a dinner (if you arrive without a car and need to eat on site, as we did). So we spent the afternoon, evening & following morning enjoying the buildings, farm, kitchen garden and wonderful views.Breakfast was AMAZING: roast garlic mushrooms and perfect poached eggs on sourdough and good (strong!) coffee. My friend had granola, fruit and yoghurt (might sound ordinary, but it was so good).Thank you to everyone at River Cottage, including Shaun & Inka, the welcoming cafe staff and the lovely woman who cleans the B&B rooms. What a fantastic place and very good value.Vegetarian options: We had breakfast and it was a feast - lots of options for vegetarians
Frank P
Long table Sunday lunch was a real treat. Lovely food great atmosphere and excellent service. Leisurely service added to the overall atmosphere of relaxed dining. Dietary requirements were seamlessly catered for. Nice to meet other guests, there were 45 in total. The surroundings are beautiful and the views from the farm are spectacular across the Devon countryside. If you have any accessibility issues make sure you tell them in advance as there is quite a steep walk to get to the barn for the lunch venue, they have a land rover service to assist any guest with difficulties.
Michael Chaplin-Kelly
We stayed in the Gardener’s Cottage and ate at the Chef’s Table experience. It is an excellent opportunity to taste new dishes prepared to a very high standard by experts. The ingredients are locally sourced and so fresh that we saw the picking some of them on the day. At seven courses it is filling so don’t fill up on the sourdough bread. Some of the paired drinks had ‘unique’ flavours and I wouldn’t buy it if I was choosing for myself. Well worth the cost.
jenefars78
Saved the best till last! Visited on our last day, and didn’t have very high hopes after listening to some of the locals, so glad we ignored them and took a chance. Friendly, attentive service in a beautiful location. We both opted for different breakfasts. I had the sour dough, with poached eggs, bacon and sausage and my partner had the kedgeree. Both were delicious. Was the breakfast expensive at £40 for two of us with drinks, maybe?! But it was served piping hot, the ingredients were of an amazing quality and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for a lovely couple of hours.
Andysaunders
Started with the lady very dark hair who greeted you as you arrived in the courtyard, friendly lovely chatty lady offering spiced rum welcome drink very nice. Sat at the long table next to the chefs father and mother very nice people then found out as non meat eater are reservation was for a meat meal agin lovely lady with dark hair sorted out no fuss came back to inform me it’s all been sorted service top mark,Barman young guy who trains with Bristol bears very informative about the drinks again top marks The bread baked on-site Amazing the home made butter again Amazing. The starter arrived squash etc this was without doubt best starter I have tasted in a long time! Main meal cod with a green sauce 10 out of 10 with lovely roasted new potatoes, such a good combination. Desert ice cream cake plum Omg. finished with truffles and coffee The service on the mark every time, Timing perfect, not too quick or too long between courses. Like to say the staff made this a great experience but it was beaten by the food along with great service.
purchased a voucher for £250 that we weren’t able to to use 3 years later after disruption during covid. Place used to be super friendly but clearly become a bit money grabbing and overpriced.
RICHER MUSIC Entertainment Agency
We supplied a band called The Stereo Jacks for Sarah and Ian’s wedding at the venue. The staff were super helpful and the location is perfect for a wedding! The views are stunning and it’s a great place to get married. We will be recommending it to our clients in the
Diane O
Disappointing . Although we were sat inside we were plagued by wasp’s coming in through the open doors. Some of the food was ok but the fish pie very watery and not a lot of fish, the macaroni cheese not much sauce , very disappointing. Two different chocolate brownies advertised one with beetroot at £4.50 one without at £3.50 only to be told it was the same brownie at two different prices. When we came to pay there where drinks added on to the bill that we hadn’t had . Service not very good . Looking forward to a treat for lunch only to leave very disappointed.
JustMeHerandtheDog
Excellent venue and very good service, My advice is do not follow satnave unless you are 100% sure it is accurate.
M W
Amazing setting and great to be able to take the dog. We went for the breakfast menu which reads really well, but left it towards the end of the service (11:15 when breakfast stops at 11:30). Food came out and looked really good, but was quite a mixed bag. I had the bacon/sausage/poached egg on toast - lovely sausage and poached eggs, but the single bacon rasher had clearly been cooked very much earlier in the day. My daughters had the garlic mushrooms/poached eggs on toast - again lovely mushrooms and eggs, but toast overdone with very tough crust and garlic skin in one of their meals My wife had the poached eggs/Kim kraut on toast as well as the granola and that was all good. Basically venue and menu are excellent, promises a lot, but haven’t quite got the execution right and doesn’t quite match the price tag. (£65 for the 4 items on toast and a few soft drinks/coffees).
We are long time fans of the show.As fans to stay/experience staying in the Cottage was excellent.But describing where we stayed-the master ensuite bedroom as in a B and B is a bit misleading.Certainly the ingredients for our breakfast were provided but to access a provided cooked breakfast would have required a 15 minute walk up from the Cottage to the Shop/Cafe.And on 2 days of our stay the Shop was closed .Perhaps different if we’d had a 4 wheel drive.On arrival also it appeared they weren’t really ready for us.Both jams were almo empty and the front door key we were given was the w wrong key.On complaint though these items were promptly fixed.So excellent if you’re a fan not so if you’re not
The staff were very friendly and helpful and views stunning. If only the food had been the same. We took friends from France and we’ve been looking forward to it for ages. Very random menu where it seemed breakfast and lunch dishes were mixed up in one menu with not much choice of either. We didn’t expect an extensive menu however we did expect a decent lunch menu. Two of us had smoked haddock kedgeree which was delicious, however lacked very much smoked haddock! Dessert choices were cake of the day or affogato (made with yoghurt ice cream) three of us chose cake of the day which had obviously been sitting around for some time and was very dry and the outside bits couldn’t be eaten, it would have been slightly better with a bit of cream or ice-cream!! .However they make very good coffee!! We all felt that the place was trading on the celebrity name and we wouldn’t go back or recommend it. I’ve given the two points for the friendliness of the staff and stunning views.
This is a review for the new kitchen and store at HQ.We visited in Spring and loved it, so returned this weekend and were highly disappointed. There were very few customers in the kitchen, a table of 4. But we waited a very long time, ignored by staff, to be seated. I ended up choosing my own table and sitting without invitation.The host then reluctantly took our order and ignored us for the rest of our visit.We were all keen to have more coffee and cake but left because we couldn’t get anyone to take our order. Even though there were only 4 other people there, the host spent no time actually serving but on her laptop and had no interest in being hospitable.I think for a place like River Cottage, service should be outstanding to mirror the food. It’s so important to a business such as this and really needs attention. Step it up please.Otherwise, we love the location, love the food and coffee, but the service left a bad taste in our mouths, unfortunately, such a shame.
Superlative experience staying three nights in the River Cottage farmhouse. As a fan of the show, it was fun to see up close how the place works. From the delicious breakfast menu to the beautiful gardens and pastures, it feels true to Hugh's philosophy throughout. The staff was excellent-- I especially enjoyed talking to the head gardener John about organic gardening. I would love to come back for one of the cooking classes.
I went here last month as well and I hated the meatballs and my kids didn’t like the macaroni cheese - this time the scones fell apart when cut and the members of our group that had the brownie left it as there was a flavour of soil and vinegar. Feels a little like they have let the quality go. Staff are great but pricy hence the extra star
We stayed the night recently (twin room in the farmhouse, B&B) and had the most fantastic time - and food!The farmhouse is very comfortable, beautifully renovated and atmospheric. The kitchen is big and well equipped to put together a dinner (if you arrive without a car and need to eat on site, as we did). So we spent the afternoon, evening & following morning enjoying the buildings, farm, kitchen garden and wonderful views.Breakfast was AMAZING: roast garlic mushrooms and perfect poached eggs on sourdough and good (strong!) coffee. My friend had granola, fruit and yoghurt (might sound ordinary, but it was so good).Thank you to everyone at River Cottage, including Shaun & Inka, the welcoming cafe staff and the lovely woman who cleans the B&B rooms. What a fantastic place and very good value.Vegetarian options: We had breakfast and it was a feast - lots of options for vegetarians
Long table Sunday lunch was a real treat. Lovely food great atmosphere and excellent service. Leisurely service added to the overall atmosphere of relaxed dining. Dietary requirements were seamlessly catered for. Nice to meet other guests, there were 45 in total. The surroundings are beautiful and the views from the farm are spectacular across the Devon countryside. If you have any accessibility issues make sure you tell them in advance as there is quite a steep walk to get to the barn for the lunch venue, they have a land rover service to assist any guest with difficulties.
We stayed in the Gardener’s Cottage and ate at the Chef’s Table experience. It is an excellent opportunity to taste new dishes prepared to a very high standard by experts. The ingredients are locally sourced and so fresh that we saw the picking some of them on the day. At seven courses it is filling so don’t fill up on the sourdough bread. Some of the paired drinks had ‘unique’ flavours and I wouldn’t buy it if I was choosing for myself. Well worth the cost.
Saved the best till last! Visited on our last day, and didn’t have very high hopes after listening to some of the locals, so glad we ignored them and took a chance. Friendly, attentive service in a beautiful location. We both opted for different breakfasts. I had the sour dough, with poached eggs, bacon and sausage and my partner had the kedgeree. Both were delicious. Was the breakfast expensive at £40 for two of us with drinks, maybe?! But it was served piping hot, the ingredients were of an amazing quality and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for a lovely couple of hours.
Started with the lady very dark hair who greeted you as you arrived in the courtyard, friendly lovely chatty lady offering spiced rum welcome drink very nice. Sat at the long table next to the chefs father and mother very nice people then found out as non meat eater are reservation was for a meat meal agin lovely lady with dark hair sorted out no fuss came back to inform me it’s all been sorted service top mark,Barman young guy who trains with Bristol bears very informative about the drinks again top marks The bread baked on-site Amazing the home made butter again Amazing. The starter arrived squash etc this was without doubt best starter I have tasted in a long time! Main meal cod with a green sauce 10 out of 10 with lovely roasted new potatoes, such a good combination. Desert ice cream cake plum Omg. finished with truffles and coffee The service on the mark every time, Timing perfect, not too quick or too long between courses. Like to say the staff made this a great experience but it was beaten by the food along with great service.
Restaurantji Recommends
purchased a voucher for £250 that we weren’t able to to use 3 years later after disruption during covid. Place used to be super friendly but clearly become a bit money grabbing and overpriced.
We supplied a band called The Stereo Jacks for Sarah and Ian’s wedding at the venue. The staff were super helpful and the location is perfect for a wedding! The views are stunning and it’s a great place to get married. We will be recommending it to our clients in the
Disappointing . Although we were sat inside we were plagued by wasp’s coming in through the open doors. Some of the food was ok but the fish pie very watery and not a lot of fish, the macaroni cheese not much sauce , very disappointing. Two different chocolate brownies advertised one with beetroot at £4.50 one without at £3.50 only to be told it was the same brownie at two different prices. When we came to pay there where drinks added on to the bill that we hadn’t had . Service not very good . Looking forward to a treat for lunch only to leave very disappointed.
Excellent venue and very good service, My advice is do not follow satnave unless you are 100% sure it is accurate.
Amazing setting and great to be able to take the dog. We went for the breakfast menu which reads really well, but left it towards the end of the service (11:15 when breakfast stops at 11:30). Food came out and looked really good, but was quite a mixed bag. I had the bacon/sausage/poached egg on toast - lovely sausage and poached eggs, but the single bacon rasher had clearly been cooked very much earlier in the day. My daughters had the garlic mushrooms/poached eggs on toast - again lovely mushrooms and eggs, but toast overdone with very tough crust and garlic skin in one of their meals My wife had the poached eggs/Kim kraut on toast as well as the granola and that was all good. Basically venue and menu are excellent, promises a lot, but haven’t quite got the execution right and doesn’t quite match the price tag. (£65 for the 4 items on toast and a few soft drinks/coffees).