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Tavistock Inn, Dartmoor Food review

Jill Pendleton's food review of the Tavistock Inn, Poundsgate, Dartmoor.June 12th 2009
Tel 01364 631251 Back to the Food Page. Back to the Home Page
Elizabeth daughter number 2, home for a few days, so we took her off over the Moor to check out the Tavistock Inn at
Poundsgate. Our flower chap Dave from Crediton had mentioned it at least 3 times as the place to visit, so I finally took the hint and we set off, encountering thick fog on the high ground near to The Warren House Inn we navigated our
way through sopping wet wobbly cyclists who probably wished they too were within minutes of a hot meal.

There's a dozen things I love about this pub, the main one being the overall look of the place, inside and out it is
every bit how a country pub should be. A hand painted sign at the front door makes it plain to any dog owner
what the dog rules are. The sign sits on the wall at the front door without giving offence at all. A great many pubs
these days act as if they are indulging their 14 yearold teenager- owner of a brand new laminator,
free reign with all the current Health and Safety guidelines. How refreshing to see no sign of corporate
makeover whatsoever, just low beams still bearing cigarette traces, tables and chairs fitting in where they can. Ornaments and breweriania (old pub tut) decorate the pub, along with an dried out hop bine tacked up above
the bar. On one beam a small collection of milk jugs and a blackboard sporting the more popular daily dishes.
The pub cat divides her time dozing on one of the comfy benches or sat just outside the kitchen door in the hopes
that she will be blessed with a tasty leftover. I love it !

The girl behind the bar isn't THE most friendly, but my Goodness is she good at the rest of her job. Folks pile in
behind us, and she calmly pulls pints, takes food orders, sorts out the till, credit card gadget, all the while getting on
with the job single handedly. She never pauses but to her credit, when I offer to write out our food order on one
of the scraps of paper they have as an ordering system, she gratefully accepts, noting with a smile that I have added
the chips or garlic bread options without prompting. Some chap, no doubt a regular, is pontificating about locals
being here to keep the bar going in the Winter months, and I am oh so sorely tempted to tell him that without the tourists the pub would most definitely not be here at all. He doesn't have a meal in front of him. He is nursing a

half pint for ages and most likely the poor overworked barmaid could do without him taking up half of the space at
the bar, and if he thinks for one single minute that his custom is keeping the pub afloat then he had better put his
'real glasses' on. This hostelry has been serving drinks and no doubt food to the passing trade since 1400 and
something. Put Tavistock Inn Poundsgate into Google and 798 results come up from websites all over the World.
Indeed we walk into the pub as a large Dutch family walk out and clamber back into their delapidated motor caravan.

The car park over the road probably fits in as many cars as the pub will take customers. The road it's on is the main Ashburton to Tavistock moorland route, so during the sunnier Summer months expect it to be even busier than

when we called in. Food review ? Well, we did enjoy or lunch, and yes it was cooked well. But it wasn't cheap. The scampi, chips and peas knocked us back a staggering £9.10p, the vegetarian lasagne, small bowl, not overfull was exceedingly tasty, again with boring peas and very few chips was £7.25 and Rob's Chicken Korma came in at £8.25.
A cheese ploughman's lunch is £6.75. BUT I accept that everything they serve has to be driven there, I suspect it's
a family outfit, staff in such an out of the way place might be hard to find, so despite all that, I think that the pub
does an excellent job, so I'm not going to moan about it.....
The proof of the pudding as ever..... Will we go again ? And the answer is yes... we'll nip out there in the
bleak mid winter warm ourselves by the real fire and perhaps join the boring bloke at the bar.
But I won't let him say a word against tourists. We'd be a sorry lot without 'em.