Anchor Stone Cafe - South Hams

We took a small ferry from Dittisham to Greenway and stumbled upon this charming cafe/restaurant along the river Dart. We decided to book lunch for our return trip and we were glad that we did. The restaurant is in a fantastic location at the river's edge in a quaint village. Two of us ordered the crab tart and two of us had the fish and chips, both meals were excellent. We finished off our meal with a delicious plum crumble with ice cream. The wine was nice and the service was great, making it a wonderful lunch with friends.

We have visited this restaurant for the third year in a row. This time, we found it to be just okay, not as good as our previous experiences. The service was excellent as always, but we were a bit disappointed with the food. The fish pie was dry and lacking in sauce, while the crab tart was okay but not up to par with previous visits. Despite originally planning to return, we have decided against it.

The restaurant was costly and the fish did not meet expectations. Service was slow and the homemade quiche appeared tired, resembling one from a pre-packaged supplier.

Visiting Totnes with the intention of moving on to Dartmouth we were looking for a place to lunch. Tripadvisor came up with this place as the no1 choice. Granted not in Totnes or Dartmouth, and definitely a destination rather than passing, it was worth the effort. A quick phone call from Totnes to confirm dogs were allowed resulted in my making a booking. We could only get 3.30 but a late lunch suited us perfectly. This was one of those phon3calls where you know you made the right decision from the interactions during the call. We fortunately left ourselves plenty of time because this isn’t the easiest option for a meal. But good old Google Maps got us to car park and then the ‘cafe’. What a brilliant place, sitting right on the River Dart. Lots of seafood choices, exactly why we came. We shred a mackerel pate starter that was delicious. I had haddock that turned out to be one of the biggest pieces of fish I have had, and my wife had a huge dish of very large mussels. Both were excellent. This was definitely service with a smile from e everyone there. We noticed prints from our friend Chas Jacobs on the wall, so we were in good company. Fabulous meal and experience and would recommend The riverside had a real buzz and party atmosphere as we left.

The whole experience was outstanding, aided of course by the stunning location. We sat in the “loung” overlooking the river, on a lovely sunny day which helped with the experience, but it was still a little draughty. We had a small lunch, but all 6 meals were excellent. I had the scallops which came with bread crumbs which I was apprehensive about, but they were extremely tasty. We caught the ferry from Dartmouth and then the tiny boat across the river. A great way to spend a September Saturday afternoon.