The Malt Shovel Inn

Stayed her for three nights for our anniversary. A family run pub where everybody chips in. The owners took over an empty and drab pub 12 months ago and have done a great job transforming it. Very welcoming and friendly (including dogs). Pub and food: 5 Star. Refurbished but old character retained. The food was excellent. Very tasty and well presented. They get their meat from a local butcher and you can tell. Knowing it was our anniversary they decorated the table and gave us a specially made fruit and homemade shortbread platter which was lovely. Accommodation: This dropped the rating from 5 to 4. Very nice self contained room. Bearing in mind the owners can't sort everything in such a short time, the room was basic and comfortable. Two heaters gave loads of warm for a January. The bathroom needs updating with a shower over a bath but loads of hot water. The bathroom however was very cold with no heating. As a result we were unable to dry the towels. No one came in to change the towels or the bin. We had to ask for more tea bags, milk, coffee and towels which were given freely and promptly. All in all an excellent stay and we have already recommended it to friends. Quick tip to get there, if coming from Bridgwater, don't take the first access signposted Blackmore Farm and the pub, carry on the A39 towards Minehead and take the turn about half a mile further on. A much shorter 0.4 mile journey along a country lane as opposed to 1 mile.

Lovely stay and really good home cooked food during a stopover half way to Cornwall. Convenient as not too far from the motorway. Accommodation was very comfortable and quiet for a good night’s sleep. It is slightly separate from the pub itself. We had dinner in the pub, my partner had a lamb tumbler which he said was delicious and I had the steak and ale pie which was homemade and served with mash and fresh vegetables… Breakfast which was a full English was delicious and very reasonably priced. Staff were very friendly and helpful. This is a family run business and we were made to feel very welcome. Would definitely stay here again.

If I hadn't prepaid, I'd have refused the room and gone elsewhere. It smelt overwhelmingly damp. It was a very depressing arrival. I had to ask for towels. To air the room I had the heat on all evening (in July!). The bed felt damp when I pulled back the duvet: it took a while to get rid of the smell, and rather longer to make the bed feel like I'd want to get into it. The room had very little privacy, its large window looking straight onto the children's play area, with no net or screen. It's nice to have the garden/tables outside the room, but the pub was hosting a large function, so I didn't really feel welcome in using them, and had to keep my curtains shut. I don't suppose this happens every day, but I'd paid for a room in good faith, not expecting it to be literally 2m away from a noisy party. The place's layout just doesn't seem to work when there's a function on and the rooms are in unrelated use. I retreated to my room but it was noisy - kids were being kids in the play area. I had to have the window open to air the place, so the noise almost drowned out the TV. About the TV: it had no remote control. But then, it had no aerial cable either. I'm not sure what it was there for. Happily I carried a WiFi TV stick, so I was able to watch Netflix. I booked by following the link on the pub;s website, which took me to *******. Beguiled by the description there of "bed and breakfast" I booked only to learn on arrival that no breakfast was being served. I have no evidence that I paid for a booking with breakfast... but it's really disappointing. Incidentally, the farm shop 2 minutes away serves a good breakfast: the pub could have mentioned that. The pub is half an hour's walk from the centre of Cannington, so your options for other food and drink are limited. In the morning, "check-out time" was 10am, but no one from the pub was around at 9.30am. So I left the key in the room and departed, deflated by the whole experience, and very glad I only booked one night. I've stayed in some basic accommodation before, but this is really the low end. I'd spent the week staying in the area in other pubs with rooms. By comparison, this was certainly overpriced, and poor all round. Would I come back? No, in case that wasn't already obvious.