Fine dining in East Devon

Started out at the chipper in Budleigh Salterton. A busy place with the cod & chips very fresh and nicely presented. Benches available nearby with a fine, summer evening's view of Lyme Bay. Only marred by the cod being a bit damp and mushy to my taste: I like it a bit drier and firmer.

Second stop the Fox Tor Café in Princetown, a place we visit from time to time. Biker and hiker ambience, complete with bunks out the back and also complete with washing machine instructions which had been washed, a process which had made a right mess of the inside of the machine. About on a par with my having once cooked a whole of lot expensive woollen sweaters by turning the washing machine on when they were still wrapped around the drum for the purposes of removal. Service friendly. Rock cakes good if not of the freshest. My pasty a bit dry and overcooked - perhaps reflecting the surprisingly veggie. orientation of the menu; one might have thought that the exercise people would be more into meat.

Then to the Salutation Inn, having returned to Topsham to inspect the 'Invincible' (not much progress visible to my untutored eye, beyond a drape advertising the Otter Brewery) and the second hand bookshop (still there and I was able to make an interesting purchase, of which more in due course. Management desk equipped with the largest Apple screen I have ever seen in such a place). The Salutation Inn really is a fine dining place and were able to offer us the finest egg sandwiches we had ever seen. Light on the crisps which was good, and a touch heavy on the mayo. which was not so good. But overall effect very good and the staff quite happy to serve a sandwich rather than lunch. Perhaps they have learnt the hard way not to be sniffy about any kind of revenue. See http://www.salutationtopsham.co.uk/. Maybe we will get to stay or to fine dine one day.

Lastly to the rather different Salterton Arms back at Budleigh, a pub which serves food, mainly in a pleasant upstairs dining room, while managing to retain a proper pub atmosphere around the bar downstairs, complete with decorative bar maid and with most of the drinkers sounding as if they lived there, that is to say in Budleigh, rather than being holiday makers such as ourselves. Warm beer looked OK even though we were on the wine. It was also OK for us to take the remains of our wine away with us - a necessary proceeding in these days of drinking lite. A rather odd soup - described as leek and potato and which I like when it is made by BH, but tasting here rather of tin - followed by a rather good lasagne - described as beef, belly pork and bacon. Not altogether clear where or how the thing had been made but it was served in little white boats so I suspect the pub keeper's wife of knocking out batches of boats for the freezer. Not the sort of thing you can cook to order, nor, to my eye, the sort of thing you could buy in, ready boated.

In the round, a very satisfactory establishment, with the only pity being my present inability to make proper use of it. Doesn't appear to run to a web site; clearly too busy with the lasagne for that sort of thing.