Blue Ball Inn, Sandygate, Exeter

Hotel

Been to the Blue Ball a few times this year, manly before a rugby match, but to day my hubby and I stopped for lunch. The food is great, good selection of beers, but most of all the staff are ALWAYS happy and joyful always up for a bit of banter, so lovely to walk into that kind of energy, we'll done guys.

Just had Sunday lunch here for daughter in law’s birthday the food was excellent and so was the service, would definitely recommend the Blue Ball and will be going back, thank you for a delicious lunch 😊

Lovely place and good atmosphere, nice staff.

The Blue Ball was a nightmare. The staff on the bar were nice and they were working very hard because they were short staffed. The person who was presumably the manager was unpleasant to the staff, even though they were doing their best. Lots of people were complaining of waiting a long time. One chap sent his beer back twice because it was flat, while we were waiting at the bar. Totally stressful for them. However, it’s no excuse to be so rude to us. While my sister and I were at the bar our partners in the garden were approached and asked to leave. They explained we were inside already ordering. We spent £25 on a round of drinks to be told that they would not serve anyone who didn’t have a table booked for a meal and to drink up and leave. It wasn’t just what was said it was the way it was delivered. Felt very unwelcome. Went to the George and Dragon and made very welcome. Same round £4 cheaper too. Shocking. We will never go back to the Blue Ball again. 😢

Great food, wonderful service and a perfect place to stop on the journey from Penzance to London. Lovely outdoor space to enjoy the summer sunshine.

Great Staff. Good Service.

Great food. Friendly service. Large garden area.

Nice outdoor set up all safe and excellent food and service.

We went for Christmas dinner 2020 and it was amazing. Every course was brilliant and couldn’t fault it. Big portions, hot and delicious. Service was fab and staff made us very welcome. Highly recommend and will definitely be returning. Well done staff x.

Visited last night for a burger and chips takeaway the food was lush, stayed lovely and hot until I got home, service was excellent I will most definitely be returning.

2nd visit to this gorgeous little place! Lovely staff. Wonderful food and very reasonable. The place is just perfect!

Lovely meal and very accommodating. Social distancing excellent and very welcoming. Food was great and we were very pleased with our choices that ranged from fish and chips to sandwiches all were excellent. Staff could not have been more helpful and everyone in our party said they would be back. Thank you.

Went to the pub this evening, amazingly friendly staff, lovely atmosphere and really good food.
Two of our party have celiac, and the staff couldn’t of catered more for us,
Highly recommend xx.

Great staff great food. Very helpful and made to feel welcome.

A delicious plate of Haddock & chips, a lovely sized portion, The staff were great and controlling the distancing as best they could.

Great food and really friendly atmospheres.

Great food, friendly staff, good value for money — enough said! Will be visiting again.

Lovely food great service I had whitebait to start belly pork for my main and trifle for afters will be returning.

Poor service and bad attitude from staff. Tried charging me for drinks we never had. Check your bills people.

Good food. Good beer. Good service.

Visited last minute on Sunday. I called to check there was a table. Were seated quickly and staff were very attentive. Also saw manager checking that all the customers were happy which is nice to see. Ordered the roast which came out so quickly and was lovely! Will come again.

The front of the pub is lovely and atmospheric but we sat in the back which is shabby, worn and dirty carpets, tatty chairs and our table was sticky. The signage outside is peeling off. Overall it looks neglected. My fish pie wasn't heaed through thoroughly. Shame!

Overnight stay en route to Cornwall. Excellent Food, great choice of real ales as well as usual stuff. Lovely rooms, clean tidy and well equipped. Literally 1 minute off junction 30, M5.

Food lovely. Stayed in one of there rooms very clean and comfortable.

Lovely stay. Fully equipped clean rooms and really excellent food. Thoroughly reccomend.

Tasteless, over cooked veg, rest of meal ok. Good sized, ok crumble.

Highly recommend every aspect of this well managed pub, be it the gorgeous tasting food, the well needed pint of local ale or a glass of your favourite tipple. The staff are friendly and very helpful, nothing is too much trouble. Having a very spacious beer garden and play area for the children, is perfect, especially for those gorgeous sunny days. They're dog friendly to!

Lovely pub with excellent food and a stones throw away from sandy park, perfect pre match venue with parking an added bonus. Friendly staff.

After nice day in Budleigh on the beach decided to finish the day off in the beer garden with a nice cool pint and a lovely meal… thanks to all staff at the Blue Ball Kevin and Eva and the band Firekind.

Great for a prematch meal and very convenient for the game too.

Sunday lunch with my daughter and grandchildren excellent pub wholesome well presented food exceptionally friendly staff and a lovely garden for children a superb establishment.

Nice selection of real ales and great food all wrapped up in a wonderful building. Great beer garden with playground for the younger visitors What's not to like?

Lovely meal, excellent service from all staff and a very reasonable price. Can't go wrong! Plus the hanging baskets are lovely! Thanks.

Excellent pub for both food and drinks, although the lunch could be considered more expensive than the usual pub lunch it is so much better. Sandwiches are massive and really good quality. After several visits we are still surprised and very pleased about the quality of the service. This is a friendly place to eat and well laid out. It is clean and you get a feeling that everyone cares about the customers and the food they are going to eat. Car park is a very decent size so you never struggle to park. Garden is perfect for a cheeky lunch time pint in the sun!

We were a table booked for 9 people. Expected it to be busy as it's race for life day. In all honestly it was not that busy. Had to wait at least 10 mins to be served a drink, without a member of staff even saying hello or be with you in a moment.
No normal soft drinks no cola, lemonade, soda etc.
A tiny menu as it was a Sunday. Not all that great choices.
Waited 45 min for food to come. There were 5 ham, egg and chips. All of which the ham was not cooked properly.
A chicken salad in which we asked instead of salad could we have chips. Was told yes but then got charged as a extra portion.
All in all a complete disappointment and would not go back or recommend it.
Such a shame as we went last year and it was lovely.

I have been to the Blue Ball pub before and I enjoyed a couple of social beers before the rugby. I was recommended by my brother in law that it was a good place to eat, so last Friday after shopping in IKEA my wife and I decided to have some lunch here. We arrived at 1p. M but unfortunately there was a wait of 50 minutes for food. Due to having to travel back to Plymouth to pick up our daughter from School we didn't have enough time to wait. It is a shame that the wait was so long as we had heard good things and we're looking forward to a meal. Maybe more staff at peak times like Friday lunchtime would reduce wait times. We left disappointed.

Friendly staff but very slow service. Reasonable pricing. When you make your order, make sure you're very clear that the bar staff understand exactly what you want. I ordered a larger shandy and a pint of something else and ended up with a larger shandy and a bitter shandy. The burger may seem tempting but it was very dry and the patty hadn't binded properly during the cooking process so it fell apart during eating, but not in a good way. However I can recommend the white chocolate cheesecake which was fantastic, but avoid the ice cream which was very bland.

It was a lovely place to go. Nice scenery, good prices and cold beers, what more could you ask for!

We enjoyed staying here. Clean comfortable room. Excellent food. Friendly staff who went out of their way to be helpful to us. Nothing was too much trouble. Highly recommended.

We had been to West Point this morning and on our way home decided to call at the Blue Ball to check out the lunch menu there seemed a good choice and even though there were a lot of reserved tables we were shown to a quiet table. My friend had fish and chips and asked for a small portion which was more than adequate I had curry of the day which was Thai curry and was delicious with poppadoms my husband had chicken and ham pie which was packed with meat and our other friend had ham and chips everything was cooked to order and was delicious. We will definitely be visiting again. The staff were very friendly and efficient. Thank you very much.

If you want to experience great British cousine, this is the place. Vegan options are available. There's a big parking lot. Sometimes it takes a long time to get the food so if you're a big group, it is best to reserve seats and choose the food in advance. They have also a wide range of specials, that change frequently.

Starters — Goats cheese & Chicken Wings, can’t complain, hot, tasty and came on time. Mains — Burgers — So dry they crumbled, small and had no flavour, bacon was dry and cheese was rubbery and tasteless… served with chips so hard we didn’t bother eating them. 2 soft drinks = Total £42 … We told the waitress and she said ‘ok I’ll tell the chef’ and continued to print our bill. We paid and left. Disappointed as its close to home and has a nice outdoor area, however, it’s so hit and miss here and with all the choice Exeter has to offer we sadly won’t bother to return. Update: we have since been back to The Blue Ball after being invited back by the manager… the food was much better tonight, pictures below. Thank you for following up on our review, I have altered the rating reflecting both visits.

I visited with a friend for a catch up and hadn't been there before. The staff were very friendly and polite and the menu had a good amount of choices. I chose the Linguine — it was delicious! I will be visiting again and am happy to recommend it to others.

Great pub but don't go on Chiefs home match days.

Went to the half moon for lunch thursday 8th march with friends but unfortunately they were fully booked, they suggested we tried the Blue Ball Inn. The lunch we had was superb the food was good and the staff were very accommodating I would highly recommend this place.

We went to the blue ball for mothers wake today, exellent service and food. I would recomend it.

Went for a working lunch, very handy free parking and just off the motorway. Food was a generous portion. I had a pork and stuffing sandwich and it was immense. Very well presented and tasted excellent. Price in line with portion sizes. Around £8 including a few chips.

Great place to stay if going to chiefs rugby. 4 letting rooms cosy and comfortable and a great cooked breakfast if you ask.

Very good food here. Best lamb shank I've ever had. Chocolate and baileys tart is to die for.

Food was really good. Really enjoyed the turkey pie and they coped well with a group of 30 before the rugby.

Stopped here after the Exeter vs Bath Rugby match. A very lively pub. We had a nice time.

As part of an 11 man party looking for some Chiefs prematch food, I sadly have to say that I was disappointed. After ordering the traditional roast, multiple within the party reported the meat being chewy amongst other things. Although service was prompt, only some staff were polite and it felt as if we were always secondary to people buying drinks even though we spent well over >£250. Portions were very small and it was overall not a great experience, would not recommend.

Tidy location, low ceiling. Good quality food but I could have eaten more.

Good st. Austell pub with beer garden and play area for children. Decent food mid priced. Big car park and V. Close to Exeter Chiefs ground.

Beautiful spot a stones throw from Sandy Park the home of Exeter CHIEFS Rugby club. Junction 30 M5 is minutes from here. Beer and food highly recommend Accommodation has its own entrance. Try it.

My husband ordered a meal and due to lack of availability the staff substituted part of the meal without any discussion or explanation. We were not offered an alternative choice or any kind of discount. Very disappointing.

The food was lovely however the staff were truly amazing and made our birthday celebrations special. Many thanks and will definitely be back.

We have loved the food here in the past but last night it was truly rubbish. Poor quality in terms of menu and execution. Very sad as we came especially because of previous wonderful experiences.

I first spotted The Blue Ball when I was out for a walk one morning. I thought it looked quite nice and made mental note to come back and try the food. About a week later I was due to have a meal at a local restaurant but it had had to close for the day at very short notice. I remembered The Blue Ball and suggested we give it a try. It was a good decision. The staff made us very welcome. There was a good choice of meals. I had the rib-eye and my colleague had a curry. Both were very nice meals, the steak was cooked perfectly, and, with drinks, the bill was a very reasonable £36. I would certainly recommend this place and I shall try to get back whilst I am still working in Exeter. By the way, if you are staying at the Travelodge at Exeter services, this is walking distance away on the other side of the M5.

Food, drinks and service always excellent. Have visited 4 or 5 times and will visit again. Beer garden quite nice but never seem or stayed in the accommodation. On days when Chiefs are home they offer parking and is literally minutes walk to Sandy Park and as you'd expect it gets very busy on those days.

Stayed here on Friday night had a great evening meal, slept in one of the rooms and had a superb breakfast in the morning before watching the rugby, the staff, service, food and the room were excellent.

Friendly, rapid service in a cosy and warm atmosphere. Recommended.

Excellent food and great service, they went above and beyond our expectations. Can't recommend enough.

Spent an evening at the Blue Ball, lovely food reasonably priced and beutifully presented. Will definatly go again.

Had a table booked for 1 — 1.25 for 12 people
We Arrived at 12 and sat in the beer garden which was lovely.
Went into at the bar 1 and asked if they could take our order the gentleman behind the bar said I'll be over in 5/10 mins
30mins later still no one had been over
So I went into the bar and asked again As one of our party had to leave at 3 as he needed to get a flight! After 5 mins he came over and took our order
40 mins later still no starters! Then when they came out one of our party had to wait another 10 mins before ihis came out!
Majority or starters were lovely however there was a Bone in the pata!
Mains came out quick and again majority were lovely however the mussel were tiny and rubbery!
The chicken pasta was tasteless
When the waiter came to ask if our food was ok
We were very honest and said everything was lovely apart from the mussels as they were terrible he was really apologetic and said I'll have a word in the kitchen
He came back saying the 2 people who had mussels could have a free sweet! We said the 2 that had mussels didn't want sweets the guy said we'll give it to someone in your party!
The bar and waiting staff are very friendly and do a really good job considering they are very short staff!
Lovely place to go for a drink but don't go at busy times for food or expect anything to be done of your not happy with your food!

Lovely place with ample parking. Great staff with unbelievable customer service. Food was amazing and great value. Will be going back again in the future.

Paid a visit here during a stop off on the way to Cornwall — ideally located just off of the M5 near Exeter. The pub was very nice inside and the staff were all very friendly. There was a great selection of drinks on offer and reasonably priced for a pub/restaurant. The food I had was lovely — sausage and mash — and the portions were very generous. It was easy to see why it was so busy. All of the dining party enjoyed their food and there was a lot of food envy around the table! Would have no issues stopping here again.

Great food and service. Will eat there again for sure.

Very enjoyable food in an almost rural pub. Hidden gem.

Great food. Cosy atmosphere.

Lovely food would prefer a plate!

Can't beat a few pints here, great atmosphere and staff.

Great pub, decent selection of ale & amazingly close to sandy Park. Fairly close to Digby and someone and newcourt station.

Great little pub with tremendous food. Highly recommended.

Fantastic Sunday carvery, well priced, great atmosphere and friendly staff.

Food was good, and service tge same.

Good pub grub, thoroughly enjoyed the Belly Pork.

If the menu wasn't quite so pretentious I would grade it as thoroughly average pub grub. Beef and Ale pie, beef was tough, boiled potatoes al dente? Chefs, if you've just swallowed the Heston Blumenthal cook book! stay in the home counties.

Lovely out-of-town pub with a friendly atmosphere and very good food. The park and open field are excellent for the kids to run around whilst we enjoy a pint of Korev (Cornish Lager).

Has really gone down hill in the past 18months.

Very good, quality cooked and locally sourced food! In process of a refurb so once done should be lovely in there! Menu a bit limiting at the moment but under new management who are putting their own touches to the menu so hopefully more selection soon! All in all a very good meal and lovely place to eat it in .