The Fountain Inn Review

A traditional coaching inn, this is typical of a North Devon town pub, it is tastefully decorated outside looking clean and well kept. The coach entrance has had glass doors across it making a great feature. The bar is cosily warm whilst having the appearance of the door being open to the elements. Nice touch. The interior decoration is a touch sparser. It has wooden floors and mixed furniture but is clean and tidy. The bar is very small but has a good selection. Their speciality seems is bottles of flavoured vodka displayed across the back shelf. They also have quite an extensive cocktail menu but this seems to be more for fuelling Friday nights than sophisticated sipping. There’s a happy hour 6.30 – 9.30 with two cocktails for £8.

The outside.

 The bar staff were all young and seemed fairly apathetic to their jobs but were at least polite. Our German shepherd ‘Chuck’ was welcome inside and seemed quite a hit with one local. We had two pints of Thatcher’s which came to £6.80 which is about average. Apparently this is one of the more expensive places in Okehampton. The table we were at had quite a comfy leather sofa and was next to the bar. This brought about conversation from ‘local bar prop #1’ who was quite friendly and very interested in Chuck. He didn’t outstay his welcome and left us to our conversation.

Looks like it should be cold but it isn't. Clever.

 After he had gone ‘local bar prop #2’ arrived. He complimented Chuck and went to sit in the corner whereupon he proceeded to have an argument with who I assume was probably his ex wife. This would have been fine if she was actually there and not just in his imagination. Thankfully it was not loud enough to distract too much from our own conversation. The other people in the room didn’t seem to notice much either so I guess they were used it.

Sooty propping up the bar. Flavoured vodka just out of shot.

There is quite a large restaurant in the back but we didn’t eat. I didn’t manage to clock the food prices either, apologies. Must try harder. It was mid afternoon so there was no one eating in there anyway. The toilets were clean which is always a good sign. A few people were checking out from their rooms whilst we were there and all seemed to be fairly contented guests from what I could gather from their mannerisms. This would be an ideal base for walks on north Dartmoor. Not having been into any other of the Okehampton pubs I can’t make comparisons but having been in pubs in similar sized towns across mid Devon this is one of the better ones I’ve been in. It’s clean, reasonably priced and has a good mix of locals and visitors.

Cider, Chuck and Noel Edmonds on a fruit machine.

 Have you been to The Fountain Inn? Did you eat there? Please add your own impressions to the comments below if you can.

The external picture of the pub is from https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/08/df/1c/4f/the-fountain-inn.jpg