The Ship at Dunwich

Stayed at The Ship just over a week ago. The village is beautiful and the location is pretty special. Our room (overlooking the car park) was really good & very spacious. We had a couple of drinks in the garden and we were very much looking forward to our evening meal based on the food coming out of the kitchen. However, and this could be due to us probably being the last to be served that evening, but our main course was a real let down. What could go wrong with fish & chips went wrong. Everything tasted of burnt chip fat, including the fish. The chips were black & we couldn't get our fork into them. Sadly we had to leave everything. We mentioned this to the server (who was lovely & slightly embarrassed as he could see that practically nothing had been touched) but apart from a "sorry" from him, that was it. A 10% 'locals discount' was applied but absolutely nothing else was said. You can do better than this.

Didn’t stay here at The Ship, just came through on our return walk to Southwold, was rather hot and bothered when we arrived and was overwhelmed when we came in as the rooms are in and out rooms and wished we could’ve received some assistance and shown to a seat after I told the lady we already had walked around and was struggling… very confused with the prices… we had white bait (£7.50) + tomato and basil (£9) + fish and chips (£19), x1 coke and x1 aspals and the cost came to £46? I’ve been reading the comments about a service charged added but didn’t receive service as ordered at the bar, and no one came to ask how our meal was… left rather disappointed! Hubby had a salad with his fish and chips which came drenched in dressing so he didn’t eat it most of it and had maybe 12 chips? And large haddock? No that was definitely a small! I usually only have good things to say when reviewing restaurants but this place really misses the mark for us! Prices elevated and portions small! The building is lovely and well decorated. Dog friendly. Paid before we ate and won’t be returning.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this place, despite its beautiful location... firstly, we attempted to make an online booking, however we were only able to book for up to 9 people, I phoned up shortly after making the booking, and said it was more likely to be around 12, they said that would be fine. When we arrived, the staff appeared very annoyed by our presence. Huffing, puffing, and eye rolling like we were an incredible inconvenience to them. We were put on a table, and then moved. Again with much huffing and visible frustration. We were then put into a lovely looking room, however the service was quite simply shocking. Shortly after settling into the room, a blond lady came in, barking at us, demanding our drinks order. We were shocked by how she spoke towards us. She later came back again and demanded our menu choices, again loudly and directly barking at us all - clearly we were an incredible inconvenience to her, and she wanted to make that very clear to all of us. I have never experienced treatment like it, and truly hope she doesn’t treat all customers in this way. We were all shocked at how unwelcome we were made to feel, for almost the entire time that we were there. Customers can be frustrating we get that - especially a large group, but treating customers in the way we were treated and made to feel, is absolutely not okay. We had also booked a room here for the night, if we hadn’t have already paid for it before arriving then we would have just left and gone home - we had never experienced anything like it, and felt so uncomfortable staying. We were made to feel so uncomfortable, and like we were such inconveniences - despite spending upwards of £1000 with them that day (meal for 12, room for the night), not that the amount we spent should matter. We will never go back.