Pizza Hut, Exe Bridges Retail Park

This is a big Pizza Hut restaurant on the edge of the 2000 Exe Bridges Retail Park, the one that replaced Sainsbury's, originally built back in about 1988.

The main block of retail units were built much further south, closer to the railway arches (of Brunel's original south Devon railway, built in the 1840s). They accommodate Next (how awful are they?), Boots, JJB Sports and some other shop. Also, the Riverside Plaze leisure centre, nearby.

Pizza Hut was always some orphaned and stranded appendage to the main buildings, right next to Exe Bridges roundabout, by the river. It is basically surrounded by car parks on the south side and an inner road system as busy as a motorway on the northern, city side.

The restaurant is fine enough, lots of tables and efficient booking staff at the entrance, all nicely presented in their Oswald Mosley-style black shirts and trousers (bearing the little yellow, red and green Pizza Hut logo, of course).

There are two over-powering impressions, at first. One, the fact that (at 7pm on a Monday evening), the customers are almost entirely youths. Annoying, noisy, spotty teenagers, all consumed by their little in-jokes and idiosyncracies. Second, the music is dreadful - too modern, all pop music, and loud enough for a nightclub. What sort of atmosphere is that in which to eat?

The food was fine.