Ship Inn, St. Austell

A relatively small pub with a garden across the road. It is only the bar, to the right as you go in, and the garden that is dog friendly. Unfortunately, the inside tables are quite close together, so it all feels a little cramped. As with the Polgooth Inn, I had a couple of pints of St Austell Dartmoor. Once again, it was OK, but I am not a fan of West country beers so it would be unfair of me to comment further. The food is excellent value for money. I personally think the fish and chips is slightly better than the Polgooth. The staff are efficient, helpful and very friendly. A revisit when in the area is well and truly on the agenda.

Official site of Ship Inn - www.theshipinnpentewan.co.uk

Some relatives and I came here for an evening meal last week. They had on sandwiches for £5 - £7, plus loads of other pub grub type stuff, some displayed on a chalkboard on the wall between a couple of the bars. My eye was caught by the Desperate Dan class mixed grill, including a steak, gammon, pork or lamb chop, sausage, egg, onion rings, mushrooms, tomatoes, peas and chips, for £17.95. No black pudding though. I wonder how many of those they sell. Ales were from the St Austell Brewery, being Tribute, HSD and Trelawny. This pub is tucked away in Pentewan, which would once have been a fishing village, but now appears to serve the needs (during the summer at least) of the nearby caravan/campervan etc site. It's now a fairly large, but narrow, affair with three distinct inter-connected rooms, at least one of which I suspect is the result of expansion into neighbouring cottages. But they've made some effort to give the place a homely feel, with masses of nautical themed decor, including sails and oars on the ceiling, lifebelts, and even a couple of red and green lights, which my aunt helpfully informed me were port and starboard navigation lights. Doesn't mean much to me, but we don't get much maritime activity in Merton. Leave the pub (watch for traffic - there's no pavement) and over the road is a garden area with loads of picnic benches overlooking the small harbour. On a warm evening in June this area was very busy. I quite liked this pub, even though to some extent it was being used a family restaurant with its share of buggies. But tables were being cleared very quickly of the detritus left by said families when they left. I would be happy to re-visit this pub if I was ever again in the area.

Official site of Ship Inn - www.theshipinnpentewan.co.uk

Ship Inn pages at the St Austell brewery site - www.staustellbrewery.co.uk

Ship Inn pages at the St Austell brewery site - www.staustellbrewery.co.uk