The Old School Tea Room in South Hams

Visited The School House today, they were extremely busy, just the chef and 1 girl FOH….. both were run off their feet. They smiled the whole time, service was great and I didn’t wait. The food was the best food I’ve eaten in a long time, everyone around me were also saying how amazing their food was. Really well done….. I’ll be back soon!

Had breakfast before heading to the beach, was tasty and about average priced for a breakfast around here. Portions could have been more generous. The mushrooms were exceptional. Had coffee and cake on the way back which was pricey double what we have paid elsewhere. If none the less delicious.

The food is good (not excellent)... when it arrives. On a weekday lunchtime, we had a considerable wait (40 minutes) for a pizza and a portion of chips (although we were warned about this at the time of ordering). The service is below average. Customers seem like an inconvenience to most of the staff members. Prices are top end for the fairly basic menu. A margherita pizza was £16. These prices might be ok for tourists visiting from more expensive parts of the country but, compared to other nearby venues, unfortunately the only redeeming feature is the beautiful location. It's a pity it's not better otherwsie I'm sure we'd visit every time we were nearby.

Ostentatious. I think it’s trying to sell itself as a trendy surf shack theme, which is fine, but then it charges £16 for a main fish fillet dish that would have qualified as a starter. It was overly presented in sauce dribbles and a sprinkling of toasted debris. I complained, I thought the dish was lacking considering the price I paid, but the waitress just smiled. Not interested. I will NOT go there again. A conventional pub would have served better.

Great coffee and cake, enjoyed rustic atmosphere, staff were lovely, but food/drink was vastly overpriced. My husband and I were dismayed to receive a bill for £18 for 2 slices of (excellent) carrot cake, plus 2 lattes. They had slapped on an additional 50p each for oat milk, plus an extra 50p as one coffee needed to be decaf due to my husband’s health condition/medication - (he can’t have lactose or caffeinated drinks). I thought for customer goodwill they shouldn’t charge extra. They only had one toilet working plus there was debris and broken bits all over the backyard of the cafe.

Barbecue night for Father’s Day. The duck was amazing served with a delicious warm veggie salad. Cooked to perfection and for someone with a big appetite I aren’t away feeling comfortably full. Great atmosphere and friendly staff.

A delicious lunch, the chips are the best I have ever eaten. Pizzas are generous and well priced. Chicken and Fish options were both delicious and we were delighted with the tiramisu. Both chef Charlotte and manager Bryony were incredibly welcoming and professional. It was great to hear their recommendations. We will be visiting again!

Change for the worst! This was a lovely place for lunch, coffeeetc. I thought I’d walked onto a building site. It was the scaffolding that fooled me. I live in London and I’m quite used to shabby chic. This was just very shabby. A beautiful part of the country, why destroy it with this urban pretention . Staff were quick to tell us where we couldn’t sit and we’re dismissive. Have been a customer every summer for years. Not any more. Also, expensive.

The coffee was nice, but only had whole milk, or oat milk for 50p extra, the latte was very small, particularly for the £3.50 price tag! We were told we weren’t allowed to sit in unless having breakfast, but they hadn’t lit the fire in the outdoor area so felt very cold and unwelcoming after a lovely walk!

A few years ago this was an adorable place. Well-kept, Pretty and served wonderful cream teas. This time we had no cream tea which was very disappointing. I did order a tea to sit and enjoy the scenery which ended up coming in a Takeaway cup. Such a letdown compared to before. No way I would go out of my way to gain and drive to this place

The School House was recommended to us so thought we would pay a visit and to be honest with you I wish I hadnt. The breaded prawns were lovely, couldnt fault them at all, however the chips had so much salt on, that I couldnt eat them. Also didnt really cater for special dietary requirements. My husband who is celiac could only have a salad as everything they served either contained gluten or was cooked in the same oil as Gluten products. Tables were not cleaned in between use and paper cups and food boxes were left on tables ready for the wind to blow them away. Such a shame as it came highly recommended

Watch your hot drinks especially on a windy day Ordered ours popped on the table to collect sugars wind blew them right down my front all over my belongings (camera and phone saturated)no help from staff or even a offer of a new drink I followed up with a email as it had actually scalded my leg really bad no reply

Had been put off by latest reviews but daily local and wanted to visit the beach here. Service was brisk and the food really good. It’s not cheap but also not expensive considering the location/captive audience. Only Criticism there is very little for kids on the brunch menu - it’s all a bit grown up. Throw a bacon bap on there at least guys

£14.50 for a house burger (that actually had a few chicken nugget pieces in it and not a burger at all). Another £5 if you want a small portion of chips with it. One for second home owners only

We were looking forward to the Feast night tonight but I have to say that the staff and management all seemed to be completely out of their depth. After previously being told we couldn’t book a table and then being told that we couldn’t order the bbq food in the overspill area we were surprised to find that the 1 1/2 hour delay in our food order was partly due to a group of 18 that had booked a table in the overspill area who were having the bbq!!! We had small children with us and chose a bbq night for speed and ease. We got neither. Staff were unable to cope - I had to keep asking for an update and nobody knew what was going on. Even taking and delivering a drinks order took an age. It isn't acceptable to keep guests waiting for 90 minutes for their food. That food, while OK, was certainly not worth £20. Definitely won’t be returning. An experience not to repeat and judging from the complaints around us tonight, we won’t be the only ones.

This evening 13 of us were looking to the £20 barbecue and live music evening at The Old Schoolhouse. That’s £13 x £20, so £260 plus drinks. So we all order from the (very) short barbecue menu. We’re talking about 2 options here, fish or falafels. The food was okay, but overpriced for the amount that was served on small tin plates. One of our party did not fancy either option and asked if he could have something from the takeaway menu instead. This was flatly refused. After some debate we were told that he could buy a sandwich but would have to EAT IT OUTSIDE THE CONFINES OF THE CAFE’S BOUNDARY!!! There was no changing the mind of the manager and eventually we felt so annoyed and disappointed by the situation we cut our visit short and left. Our whole evening was spoilt by this display of meanness and we will not be returning. Appalling.

Over priced. Poor selection. For meat eaters. They rely on being trendy but there not. Been a while since I was this disappointed. £5.00 for parking. Not disabled friendly in any way.

We come here after a lovely walk on the beach. There were 4 of us, who were looking for coffee and some lunch. We had looked on their website, and although overpriced, they had a nice selection of sandwiches. However, when we arrived the menu was very different. Unfortunately, one member of our party did not like anything on this new menu. We noticed that they also did takeaway sandwiches so asked if we could order some of these instead. We were politely told that these were for takeaway only - not sure why as the came from the same kitchen? I requested a tap water but was told I had to use the water fountain as the manager did not allow a glass for this. I’m not sure how this fits with the current COVID guidelines? Finally, We decided to order 2x chicken burgers. They were £14 each, which we thought was a little expensive, but understood you pay for the view. For the price, we assumed they would at least come with chips. However, when they came out it was simply a slice of what looked like birds eye chicken in a sub roll with one but of cheese. Very disappointing. Our waitress was very friendly and helpful, but we couldn’t help feel embarrassed for her as the quality no way reflected the price. What a shame.

The location and car park is in a perfect spot to explore Mothecombe and the surrounding beaches / bays. We had a great time walking around at low tide. Unfortunately, our visit to the school house for lunch wasn't great. I'm not sure if we were just unlucky but starting with the good point... The coffee was nice. The bad points are that, although it wasn't busy (maybe 4 other tables had people on) it took over an hour to get a sandwich. Other people were also asking what the hold up was and the response was that the kitchen is very busy today?! This place will really struggle I think when it actually gets busy in the summer. Anyway when our food finally turned up, the order was wrong and the salad had bits of fluff in it. We did get an apology for the delay, which is why I haven't left a 1 star review. Hopefully, once the people here get some more experience this place will get a little better but until then I won't be returning.Also, there is only 1 vegetarian option, so any vegetarians / vegans... I'd recommend a packed lunch.

Great location , a relaxed atmosphere and great food. A great conversion of the old school house cafe that we had frequented for almost 50 years, very tasteful upgrade with great food . Haven’t attended the barbecue nights but look great fun. An institution after a walk down on the beaches both in summer and out of season.

Whilst you could sit there and say it's good to be somewhere and feel like it's not going on, I'm afraid it very much is and this sort of irresponsible attitude is why we are possibly heading towards another full lock down!! As lovely,friendly and professional as the waiting staff are, they were not wearing masks neither was the chef that we saw in the back ground, there was no sanitizer in site, the tables are too close together with less than a metre between us and the person sat behind me....there were bottles of sauce and salt and pepper pots on the tables,then the person manning the car park hut wandered in and was behind the bar chatting to the staff again unmasked. I'm sorry but this is not good enough with the latest restrictions that have been put in place, as a previous review from August it's a Covid 19 disaster waiting to happen!!!That said we did have a nice lunch, the food was good, tasty and nicely presented but very pricey and on top of the extortionate parking charge of £5 for an hour and half parking it's not a cheap lunch out!!I'm afraid I would not go back if they continue to flout the rules as they are...it's just too much of a health risk.

After a very poor experience at The Crabshell Inn @ Kingsbridge, it was a pleasure to visit the Schoolhouse nearby @ Mothecombe Beach.Service was excellent, and the food was swiftly and carefully prepared, and served.Excellent, fresh fish dishes, steak and sandwiches.Seasoned to perfection and served by knowledgable and professional staff.

We did a cliff too walk from Noss Mayo to Mothecambe as this place looked really good online.However, we arrived at 1.15pm on a midweek day for lunch and unfortunately they had already run out of most items on the menu. There was just a couple of items available so it was either have them or go without.The staff were friendly and the portions were generous but it was crazily expensive. We spent £44 on calamari, Arancini balls/chips and an alcoholic drink each. The bottle of beer I ordered was flat and warm. The alternative bottle I replaced it with was also flat.Given that the business has had months to prepare for the reopening and must have anticipated high demand on sunny, summer days I was shocked that they didn’t have sufficient stock and the stock they did have wasn’t fresh. Bad planning perhaps?Despite friendly staff this was a poor experience and certainly didn’t justify the 2 hour walk to get there. (Was a nice walk though).

If you’re even slightly serious about avoiding the coronavirus do not go here. No staff were wearing masks. There was no evidence of signage for management nor any efforts made for social distancing. Sauces and cutlery were just outside on a self serve basis. Perhaps not surprising when I saw the owner/manager greeting friends with kisses. We went for a visit at the beach (which is lovely). Parking at the only nearby car park is £5. This cafe has a captive audience and it could have been great given the location. Instead it’s shabby chic was just shabby. It took over 30mins to get our takeaway order despite them not being busy. We stood waiting outside where the floor is stained by liquid that oozes from the rubbish dumping point.My burger was ok but greasy, the chips were good, my partner’s mackerel club sandwich was inedible. It was so overwhelmed with tartare and mayo that it wasn’t palatable despite us being starving. The combo with over-cooked smoked mackerel was just nasty.I would love to see a small enterprise like this thrive, particularly in these times. But some places are just plain bad.£27 for two burgers, 1x chips and 2 diet cokes isn’t surprising given the location, it felt very expensive though given the quality.On a positive note, the staff were friendly and polite. It’s the management and delivery that is sorely lacking

Went for coffee and a slice of the beautiful cake we always had but was told they are no longer stocking the locally made delicacy, in place are mass produced tarts. We settled on lemon curd muffins and sponge muffins which were very good.Coffee was barely tepid.Needs attention for us to go back.

Birthday walk then takeaway Fish and Chips and a Cup of Tea. Two Lads running the Cafe were doing a wonderful job with lovely friendly attitude. No sitting down because of Covid and all keeping social distancing. I really enjoyed the food, fish was a tad on the small side but well tasty. I don't like cups of tea in cardboard cups but have to be fare it was a lovely cup. On the whole good but little pricey but it is what its is for the location. Hard times at the moment but well done

During a recent off-season visit to the Flete Estate we came here for breakfast after a lovely walk on the beach. Our dog was more than welcome which was great. We all went for the full breakfast, three of us having the smoked fish and bacon, the fourth just the bacon. The breakfast was really good. Well cooked and the fish was super smoky and flaky. The coffees were delicious (so good, in fact, that we got another round to go and came back for takeaway coffees a few days later!). Prices were reasonable, considering where we were and what we had.The only thing we weren't keen on was the bench seating and the shared tables. Not particularly comfortable and we felt a bit awkward sharing with others.

Food was fabulous, Young men who were working, we're spot on, fast service and they were very professional. Would highly recommend going hear, whether for a meal or a coffee after a walk on the beautiful beach.

Tables that may look trendy but need a good scrub, one outdoor toilet shared by staff and visitors that was disgusting.

First visit but certainly not the last! We had brunch which was delicious. Amusing host and friendly, attentive staff. A treat on a damp winters morning.

We have stayed at the Whitehouse, eaten at the Beachhouse at South Milton. Felt the need to collect the set. We had lunch outside - mackerel club sandwich and the brisket burger - coffee and cake too. All lovely. friendly staff, who you could tell were working really hard. Lovely atmosphere. Will definitely go back, if we are close by (but we did drive for an hour to visit so ‘close by’ is all relative).

With ages ranging from 6 to 70 this was an ideal location to keep everyone happy with the service and food being exceptional. Very informal and there was plenty of outside space to keep our younger members happy.

Popped in for coffee and cake after a lovely walk on the beach. Polite and friendly, nice coffee and very nice cakes. Food looked good and will definitely try another time. Dog friendly as well which is excellent.

Visited Mothecombe beach and spotted this place just off the car park. Thought we'd pop in for a cuppa but got inside and it was just gorgeous. Cosy and quirky and the menu looked too good to miss.Despite being busy, they squeezed us in for lunch and we loved everything. Friendly and welcoming customers and staff. We will definitely be going back!

Fantastic spot for a great meal for all the family. On a cold winters day it's great for a hot chocolate too. Wish the prices weren't so high, otherwise we'd be eating here everyday!

We came with a party of 6 a month ago.At this time of the year during the week they do not open in the evening. Because our friend had booked some time ago for our visit to the Salcombe area they kindly kept the restaurant open.Have to say food was great Bang bang prawns ,squid,shellfish all the food was excellent.Nice service and a good chat with the Chef who also worked at another beach restaurant we usually use but were not so impressed with on our last visit!!All good ,nice service, pleasant surroundings maybe a little bit pricey.Will come again.

After an afternoon on Coastguards Beach, we retired to the Old School House with dog in tow for an excellent meal.Can safely say that the dirty fries and Bang Bang Prawns were utterly delicious.Good selection of food and drink - seafood obviously is a specialty given the location.Staff extremely friendly - all part of the same chain as the beach hut at South Milton. It's a slightly bohemian set up with regards to furnishing - if you're sat inside you may be sharing a long bench with other diners - outside you'll be on mismatched tables and chairs under a large tarpaulin - all adds to the lovely atmosphere.Keep it a secret though as we don't want everyone to ruin the special nature of the place!!!

Great location ... shame about the prices and the young staff who seemed disinterested and bored with being there.

Myself and partner came with friends - a family of 4 with two little ones. We loved the quirky ness of the place. Great service, great food!! We’d all recommend the ‘bang bang’ prawns and dirty fries. The trivial pursuit cards on the table were a nice touch. Spent a large part of our rainy afternoon in here. Thoroughly enjoyed our trip here!

Great service from Rachel. Food good although main fish dish not available or the crab. A far cry from the sausage roll, pasty, bucket and spade haven it used to be. Our sense is that the next generation of the Flete Estate family are milking things too hard. The beach and the environment is suffering. The quiet country lanes are now far more congested. A great shame.

To visit such a remote location my expectations were high.

Our first visit following the refurb. What was once a fairly tired and basic beach cafe has now transformed into a much more upmarket offer. Much more a relaxed restaurant now than a cafe.

Very interesting experience. The building is quite small and seating very informal on benches and long tables. We booked otherwise not sure we would have got a table. It was absolutely packed and very cramped and my elderly father had trouble getting seated. The kitchen is open so you can see the chefs cooking which was interesting. Lovely menu with something for everyone however we ordered far too much food. We had the antipasti plus bread and olives which were also on the antipasti, the waitress really should have flagged that. Also had squid for starters which were cooked and served whole fine for me but a bit over facing for some. My son had prawns for a main and there must have been around 14 on his plate they were lovely. We also had the linguini and clams and scallops. It turned out to be a very expensive lunch. Next time we will know our way round the menu better so will order less and share more.

We hiked from Noss Mayo to Mothecombe Beach. At the end of our hike, we stumbled upon this beautiful oasis. The most difficult part of the meal was choosing what to order as everything looked delicious. We settled on the arancini, king prawn po boys, mac & cheese, and coffee and walnut cake. Everything was perfect and accompanied by a beautiful view of Mothecombe Beach. We are taking our friends back later this week. Highly recommend this restaurant. Our best meal in the Plymouth area.

What a pity that we got no further than the car park! Having read the reviews we looked forward to a well presented lunch. But just wait a minute. At the entrance to the vast and almost empty parking area we were expected to pay £4.50. We said we had come for lunch but that was met with a stony stare and an outstretched hand. Folks, I am not short of a few pence, but to be charged a large sum before entering the building! No thank you. There is no alternative parking area so we will never know the joy of eating at this place. How can we rate service, food or value when we have not had the opportunity to try?

Fleet Estate who own most things around here, ensure that the Erme valley and estuary is extremely well looked after and unspoilt. They graciously allow public access to the Mothecombe private beach. There is parking at an above average price easy walking distance from the beach and for a long time there has been a simple effective affordable cafe in the old school building beside the parking field. Comparatively recently the cafe has metamorphosed into a high end eating place which has attracted flush South Hams residents and high end holiday folk for some first rate seasonal food in an informal setting, benches etc in an almost unrivalled coastal spot. The prices are too much for most families, the food, however delightful, is well above what most folk making their way back from a day on the sand require or could justify, and the general feel of the the okay suppa yah rich kids, their ladies who lunch mothers and even the urbane polite but flush families are still a deterrent to everyday folk. Sadly if you are not giving your kids a last lunch out in the countryside before putting them on the train back to prep school then you might do better to sort a hearty backed lunch picnic to take down and have on the beach.

Recently refurbished and an off shoot of the beach hut at South Milton sands. The décor is contrived ,cluttered and takes the school house theme a tad too far. Can't believe this lovely building was not listed and protected from having one wall removed. The food is good but very pricey, I hate it when you pay a lot for a main and then to get a decent meal have to pay extra for veg etc. Wine a reasonable price. You would need to be affluent to bring the kids here for snacks/meal after the beach. Toilets were fine for previous in carnation but needs more effort to keep clean when you are paying £50 a head. We had an elderly party member and he struggled with the internal benches. Staff were friendly and enthusiastic. I preferred the 1940's Blyton like tea room with pop and cake and it is a shame this could not have been retained whilst still appealing to the moneyed holidaymakers.

Having visited the (Old) School House many a time on family holidays for afternoon tea after spending time on Mothecombe Beach, I was surprised to see it had been transformed into a fashionable and trendy eaterie. And what a transformation!!