Neil's Restaurant in East Devon

Perfectly cooked fresh fish served by a delightful waitress we had a meal to remember!

Small, excellent fish restaurant with lovely staff and well presented quality fish and shellfish dishes. Recommended.

A wonderful fishy experience. This delightful bijou restaurant serves fresh fish dishes very well indeed. Service was as charming as it was attentive. Recommended.

Very good set price menu. Busy little restaurant on the edge of town - probably the best in town.

Wonderful experience, great set menu. Service was superb. This restaurant is a real asset to the town.

Great food and friendly service

Had the 3 course set menu for £39. Everything was delicious and beautifully presented. Staff were friendly and helpful. A lovely evening out.

Really good unpretentious delicious food with great service. So many restaurant experiences are over priced and disappointing these days, they should take a leaf out of this restaurant's book and serve local uncomplicated beautifully prepared food with unobtrusive friendly service. Well done, highly recommended

Neil's offer a three course meal at a very reasonable £39 and the menu gives a wide range of choices - several fish options as well as meat and vegetarian dishes. The food was beautifully presented and excellently cooked and the overall meal outstanding. A little staff training on customer service would make the experience even better.

Had an outstanding fish dinner. It was pure first meal there but we will be back soon

We were very lucky to get the last walk-in table without a booking. The service was excellent, and the food was delicious. This is one of the best seafood restaurants I've been to. Can't wait to go back again. Thanks Neil!

The best meal I have ever eaten Staff felt like family

A visit to Sidmouth is not complete if you do not dine at Neil's Restraunt. The quality of the seafood served, the friendlness of the staff and ambience I would describe as second to none,

Really want to like this place but the cooking is a bit average. E.g. the side of potatoes with each meal are deep fried roast potatoes. Very strange dish.

Absolutely first class in every aspect, a great night.

Busiest restaurant in Sidmouth and for good reason. The food never disappoints, but make sure you book a table.

Made our special evening even special. For a set 3 course meal. Plenty to choose from.

Had an excellent meal this evening. It has maintained it's standards since our last visit in 2017. Congratulations to Neil and his staff.

The food here is good and the service was excellent, but it all felt rather staid and old fashioned. Very plain vegetables, wrapped tabs of butter with the bread, etc and quite an senior demographic.

So happy we have found that place! Absolutely delicious food! It's all so fresh and cooked to perfection. The owners and team are lovely. Our meal was a true highlight of our few days stay in Sidmouth. We are thinking we might come back just to this restaurant again. It will absolutely worth two hours drive. Thank you!

Always a pleasure. Fantastic food and amazing service. We love it here and will be back. Thank you for another lovely evening xx

Fantastic food and service. A little gem! Updated 2023 Been back again several times. Always fantastic, staff are super friendly and food is simple but perfectly cooked. Will be going back next week!!

Lobster was great and service was superb!

Lovely small intimate restaurant, set menu great quality food lovely service nice in this day and age where everything is ordered via an app! Highly recommend but I would book

Better than expected from several recommendations, stunningly good sea food, excellent service. It was a brilliant meal for the last night of our holiday. Thank you

Classic fish restaurant. Superb!

Lovely food and service, although limited choice of wine and the atmosphere was rather lacking.

Absolutely outstanding, some of the best food I have ever had in my life and most certainly the best sea food I have ever had. 100% recommend eating here

Arrived at Neil's on a cold, wet Saturday night, our first visit to the restaurant & to Sidmouth. The restaurant was busy & continued to fill up during the 2 hours we were there. The decor is calm & comfortable. We were warmly greeted & seated , our wet coats taken away & we were given menus. A bottle of tap water was already waiting in an ice bucket at the table. So a very good start. The menu is a set 3 courses for £39.95 & as you'd expect from a fish restaurant, reflects local produce. We were asked what we'd like to drink & chose a well priced bottle of South African chenin blanc. This arrived swiftly & after tasting, proved to be ideal with our meal. I could have chosen any of the starters to enjoy, but went with tempura crevettes with soy & sesame dip. My husband had smoked mackerel with horseradish cream. A plate of sliced bread arrived, which was plain home baked white & tomato flavoured. I would have preferred not to have butter pats wrapped in foil, but I'm picky! The starters were delicious & enjoyed by us both. 0ur mains consisted of scallops with mushrooms & bacon for my husband & pan roasted John Dory with mussels & samphire for me. A dish of sugar snap peas, carrots, broccoli & green beans & another of fried potatoes were brought to the table, to accompany our main courses. The mains were beautifully cooked & presented, especially my John Dory, which came away from the bone, with ease & tasted beautifully succulent. My husband's scallops were sweet & flavoursome too. Having cleared away our plates, & looked again at the menu, we chose our desserts, vanilla panacotta with rhubarb d ginger compote for me & rum & raisin icecream for him. My panacotta was beautifully set & the compote had a strong kick of ginger. Good strong double espresso coffee followed. Overall a fabulous meal, which without service was £107 for the two of us. Not expensive for the quality & service we received. We would definitely recommend Neil's, he is obviously a chef with skill who loves what he does!

Food extremely good, a relaxed atmosphere. Very well looked after by all staff. Highly recommend.

Great food, attentive staff and reasonable prices. We always enjoy going to Neil's.

Very nice restaurant to visit, serving staff are super friendly, food is very pleasing. We've been 4 or 5 times now and will not hesitate to return, enjoy!

Great food. Good service. Discovered too late to be able to schedule another meal out there just to get a full portion of the Christmas special bread pudding desert! Never mind, the excellent fish starters, will no doubt not disappoint.

Excellent seafood, found none better.

Lucky enough to get a last minute cancellation yesterday so treated my wife and I to Neil’s three course menu. Wow. Each course was perfectly served and delicious without exception. I cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough.

Delicious tasty food! Highly recommend 👌

Using local produce and locally caught fish, Neil's has a daily fixed price menu. We had Lemon sole, simple but perfectly cooked. There is always one vegetarian and one meat dish besides the 3 or 4 fish dishes. Staff are attentive and friendly.

Brilliant food, brilliant staff, lovely atmosphere. Best food we enjoyed all week.

We booked a table at this restaurant due to the good reviews. Unfortunately we never got to try the food as the restaurant itself was terrible. We were greeted by friendly staff who were unfortunately wearing face masks which is something I personally find very off-putting and unhygienic in a food setting due to staff repeatedly touching their faces to adjust their masks. The restaurant itself is very small with guests crammed in with little space between the tables. The atmosphere was very hot and airless despite having the small windows open, there was no air conditioning at all. The whole place seemed incredibly dated, from the decor to the terrible music that was playing. It felt more like an old people's home than a restaurant, looking around the youngest guests appeared to be in their mid 70's. Part of the restaurant experience for me is sitting in a nice environment and enjoying the lovely food, unfortunately the environment was so stifling and unpleasant that the thought of having to endure it for a couple of hours whilst eating food was untenable and my wife actually started to feel ill. Despite paying a £20 deposit we had to leave and never got to experience the food.

Lovely fish and friendly service.

We ate at Neil's when we were in Sidmouth a year or so ago, it was great then and I'm pleased to say it still is now. You'll need to book.

Delicious! 😋 great value for money. 3 courses for £39.99.🤩

Very pleasant experience. Nice service, well cooked and presented food. Reasonable prices. Three of us went. Three courses each plus wine about £142. Would happily return

Great fish restaurant friendly staff excellent food.

Another great meal at Neil’s, excellent seafood cooked to perfection. Relaxed atmosphere, and great service, certainly won't be long before we are back!

Fantastic meal in comfortable setting. You would not be disappointed.

Best Fish Restaurant in Devon if not the UK. Set Menu but lots of choice, generous helpings super quality all freshly cooked by Neil. Realxed atmosphere, helpful and friendly, great.

Bloody brilliant. Make sure to book in advance, and good luck fighting off the seagulls on your way in. Seems like every beast is after a bit of Neil's, if you know what I mean 😉😉

Gorgeous food and great service. A little compact inside, but overall a very pleasant dining experience.

Lovely little place at the top of town. Amazing fish dishes cooked to perfection. Will definitely go again next time I am back in Sidmouth.

Great service, attentive and polite. Iced water waiting at our table. Seafood and fish cooked to perfection. Lovely bottle of wine. Good company on the next table. My wife and I had a wonderful evening. Will recommend and return. Thank you

A great experience. Food and service superb. Go twice at least.

Good food, nice atmosphere and really great staff. Not the cheapest place to eat but worth it if you like good seafood.

For a mass catered Christmas do this was excellent. Staff were lovely. Must try it just with the 2 of us

Lovely atmosphere, lovely food, all round good place!

We spent a few days in Sidmouth catching up with friends . We pre booked Neil’s for the second night . We thought £37:50 was about right for 3 courses in a fish restaurant . Well money well spent . The meal was delicious ,my starter monkfish with garlic mayonnaise was to die for . We all agreed great meal . I’ve been telling all my friends who visit Sidmouth to go there. The lady who said she’d had better meals for the price should let us know where she’s going ,cause I find that difficult to believe . Thank you .

Delicious food, crab n mango salad followed by the scallops. Excellent service, will definitely return when next in the area.

Really enjoyed our meal out. Great food and the staff was very polite and friendly.

Always great. The best fish restaurant in Devon.

Well that was amazing. So glad I booked well in advance, which is what you need to do. Yes, it's a limited menu but sometimes that is advantageous. I couldn't fault anything that I had the pleasure of consuming. Service top notch. I have no idea how Neil manages all those covers per day on his own. Highly recommended. If I know I shall be this way again I will be booking in for certain.

Absolutely amazing food. The staff were extremely professional and very thoughtful. Highly regarded as the best restaurant in sidmouth

Really can’t recommend this place enough. The menu changes daily, the food is mostly local and it is excellent value for money. The mackerel is probably one of the nicest things I’ve ever eaten (they have their own smoker on the premises). The service was great.

Excellent. Fabulous Dover Sole. Great chips. Will be going back soon

A great place to eat, speciality is sea food.

What a place. The staff were super friendly and helpful, the food was perfect. If you come to Sidmouth this is a must. Make sure you book early as Neil's is popular. FANTASTIC

Superb! Great food, delicious fish, good service - friendly staff. £35 3 course menu was excellent. Very good choice of wine. Overall, a very good evening.

I booked to go here 6 months ago ready for when we visited on our holiday. It was worth the wait. The staff were friendly and the food delicious. Although the menu was not big compared to other restaurants, the dishes were still varied enough. We went for the £35 there course menu was ideal and the wine was tasty. We loved the pâté and found the size of the dishes just the right amount. A great evening out and will recommend to friends and beyond!

Fabulous fish restaurant with friendly helpful staff . Really enjoyed our meal here - excellent choices on a three course menu . Fish was all local and freshly cooked . Highly recommend .

Excellent food, service was very professional. It's a must if you appreciate fish cooked to perfection.

I must admit I was a little disappointed with this meal after reading the reviews. The staff were lovely and friendly, great service in the nearly full restaurant. The let down was the vegetable curry which was quite basic and expensive for what it was. No complimentary mints or chocolates with the bill and the veg and potatoes with my partners fish were again quite basic and bland. The atmosphere was like being on a cruise ship. Just not what you would hope for a £100 meal.

Excellent fresh cuisine, booked a return visit, good value you must try.

Booked after being recommended by a friend and wasn't disappointed. The food was fresh, well cooked and very tasty. Service was excellent and the set menu was wonderful . We will certainly be back. Thank you

Excellent set menu food very well presented

Three courses for £35 and woth it. We had plaice and soul, both served with sauté potatoes and vegetables. Service was friendly and efficient, a good atmosphere and plenty of space between tables. The food was cooked to a high standard and presented very well. I would recommend booking weeks in advance if you want a table. Great restaurant.

We tried to book in person and was told fully booked till august. However advised to look at website and struck lucky with a cancellation. Well spaced good quality restaurant with linen table cloths and serviettes. Menu changes daily according to what the catch was. Service was excellent though hurried towards end as the table had a second sitting. Food was tasty and well cooked. Vegetables come as standard.

Lovely restaurant. Great food and excellent service.

Neils is an unprepossessing little restaurant in Sidmouth but that belies a wonderful culinary experience ! We has to book weeks in advance and it was full on the evening we visited. Fresh crab and mango salad, lemon sole and scallops made for a memorable meal. Well presented and served by very pleasant staff - it was worth every penny! You must visit here if you are in the area. Covid protocols were all observed.

Visited Sidmouth just to go to Neils again. Made a booking as soon as we knew they were opening. We also pre booked food on the day early so that we were not disappointed. Had a fantastic meal, sardines to start and crab salad, then scallops and Lemon Sole. I could not resist the summer pudding with clotted cream. The staff are lovely, COVID restrictions are taken very seriously. Lovely relaxing setting. Wish we lived closer. Thank you for a really wonderful evening

We were very lucky to get a table after the opening of this restaurant and we were not disappointed, the crab starter was simple but so fresh, the main, scallops, again simple but incredibly fresh and delicious. Staff were attentive and friendly, felt safe in these uncertain times. Would highly recommend this restaurant.

Great location, local fish from Brixham. Excellent service from friendly and welcoming staff, so what's not to like!👍

Delicious meal and excellent service

Had another wonderful meal here. Crab and mango salad, moules mariniere, linguini with monkfish and prawns adapted for a mussel allergy and crab and coriander crumbed hake. Served with lovely veg and followed by Christmas pudding and a divine cheesecake with blackberry whisky. Generous portions and everything cooked to perfection. Nothing to complain about. Very Covid savvy too. Set menu at £35 per head is great value for the quality and quantity of food.

Had a fabulous meal with my wife. The food was delicious. A wonderful enjoyable atmosphere with friendly helpful staff. Food locally sourced. A pleasure to watch Neil in the kitchen cooking and serving on the pass. A wonderful dining experience.Thank you.

Beautifully cooked food, limited choice because of the impact of the dreaded Covid-19, but with friendly and quick service this was a very pleasant evening.Why not 5 out of 5? Maybe unfairly because of the limited menu choice but have not doubt, this was well executed food for a wet and chilly December evening. If there was any criticism the sound track was repeated twice during our meal, and the dessert which was lovely was too big.... so we are picky.....but we will look forward to our next visit.

We had another fabulous meal at this Sidmouth restaurant, good choice, fantastic flavours beautifully cooked and presented. Served by 2 lovely ladies. We really enjoyed our evening, thank you.

The seafood is very fresh, tasty and nicely presented. Decent 3 course set meal. Would eat here again. Pleasant staff.

Neil's is the best fish restaurant in east Devon good service excellent food cooked very well with minimal fuss good wines n excellent service

Food and service were excellent, will definitely be back!

Really tasty food, Squid Tempura to start with was just amazing, as was the main of Sea bass with prawn and lemon risotto and a very tasty dessert 💖 excellent place for a celebration or a quiet meal with friends.

Great meal and friendly service , highly recommend

Mango and crab salad - divine, lemon sole - delicious, coffee ice cream - unbelievable. This is fabulous food, service great too. If you are able to get a table when in Sidmouth then do, as this is an experience not to be missed.

We had a lovely time hear on the first of our holiday. Good food, friendly service and a nice atmosphere.

Lovely meal, great value for the quality of food and lovely ladies that served us. We really enjoyed

Booked online. Food was superb! Crab and mango salad was delicious- salad leaves so so fresh! Main course was Cornish hake - so good! Staff were friendly and helpful- can’t wait to go back . Do pre book as very popular!

A small restaurant but a big impact. Lovely welcome from the staff. Nicely informal but still very efficient. The food was superb. Every order was cooked to perfection - lemon sole, hake, scallops, sea bass. The wine list is great and far better value than most restaurants with a good choice around the £20 mark. Considering the limitations of the current circumstances the evening, the food and the overall value (and covid safety) couldn't have been better. Would definitely return if in the area.

What can't we say food excellent staff excellent all good would are him 10 out of 10

The food and service in this small restaurant was outstanding. My Mango and Crab salad was amazing and the Sea Bass main was to die for. Very good value for such high quality food. I wish we lived nearer.

Best restaurant in Sidmouth by a mile. Beautifully cooked food, wonderful local wine, attentive staff and lovely atmosphere. Neil an Anne were charming and welcoming. Can't wait until our next visit!

The best meal we've had in forever ..... fabulously fresh ingredient, prepared and cooked to perfection and served in style! Can't praise this restaurant enough as a former resturanteur and dad to a chef this is just bliss!! Already booked to go back. Thank you for restoring my faith in British food!!

Starters were very simple, with little or no cooking required. I had the mussels which were ok, but the sauce was average. My husband had crab, again ok, but just cold crab with sliced mango and salad leaves. I had Gurnard for the main course. It was well cooked and a reasonable sauce with it. My husband had scallops with mushrooms and bacon. The scallops were overpowered by the mushrooms and smoked bacon. All the main courses came with the same vegetables. Sautéed potatoes, courgettes in a mustard sauce, broccoli and carrots. This was a shame as there are so many lovely vegetables and salads that go so much better with fish. Including samphire which is so readily available now. The lady sat near us paid extra for fresh lobster and she had the same vegetables. Really, with lobster? For dessert my husband had summer pudding with clotted cream, which he said was the best course for him. I had the cheese board, with cheese straight from the fridge. When I asked why it had been served straight from the fridge, I was told it was because of the “virus” I asked why it couldn’t be out of the fridge with cling film, was again told this wasn’t possible because of the virus. As a nurse myself what a lot of nonsense. The cheese tasted of very little due to it being cold. In summary, service was good, but there was nothing served that could not be cooked easily at home, which is a shame when you go there hoping for something different and special. Wouldn’t go back.