BITE user comments - ajho
Comments by ajho
Rambling place with a Tardis like quality. Starts off in the intimate old beamed bar with lots of small nooks and cranies and progesses through a series of larger and more moder rooms until you get to the conference facilities out the back.
Unfortunately it is one of those places where the food sounds a lot better on the menu than it is when it is served. I've eaten there many times, but still haven't sused out how they manage to remove all the flavour from the food.
That said, at the end of the day it's location, location, location. Oh, and beer. I'd go anywhere for a pint of 6X.
19 Mar 2005 23:46
It's OK. Perhaps almost a little too keen to please, to the point of making you feel a bit uncomfortable if you don't fit their idea of an ideal customer. That said the food's OK, the beer's OK, the building's OK and the little garden borders on the charming. I'll give it an 7. It's OK.
19 Mar 2005 23:26
The Milton Arms, Winterborne Whitechurch
Went there one Mothering Sunday about ten years ago. I can't remember much about the meal.
However when the landlord decided to join the chap in the corner who was playing Hawaiian Steel Guitar to sing a few songs, the entire event became etched indelibly in my memory.
Fortunately, after years of therapy, I am now reaching the point where I can drive through Whitechurch without bursting into fits of uncontrollable laughter. I can only hope that it has changed hands.
19 Mar 2005 20:50
Like most of the pubs in Dartmouth, this is very sedate and middle class at lunchtimes and a ravy young persons venue in the evenings. Good accommodation in a wonderful setting
19 Mar 2005 20:14
It's eight years since I last went to Port Isaac. Glad to here that the Golden Lion is still as good as ever.
19 Mar 2005 19:50
The Langton Arms, Tarrant Monkton
Recently rebuilt after a fire and no longer has a traditional pub feel (all pale walls and beech/pine furniture).
Went there on Mothering Sunday, never an easy time for any pub. Unfortunately the service collapsed and one of our party did not get served until the rest of us had virtually finished.
Food was OK though. Will have to go back when it is less busy.
19 Mar 2005 19:41
Well it's not a locals pub. In fact it is about five miles from anywhere, so it is hardly surprising that it relies on the passing trade.
I've always found the welcome warm, the food and beer good and the building and garden delightful. Unfortunately everywhere in Purbeck that's worth going to gets horribly overcrowded in the height of the summer. Personally I try to avoid going south of Wareham between June and September.
19 Mar 2005 18:36
The Still and West, Portsmouth
Eaten in the upstairs restaurant a number of times. Wonderful location, excellent food (fresh fish a speciality, but the pub is downstairs - this is definitely a resaurant.
19 Mar 2005 18:20
Yea! Been there a couple of times recently. The service can get a little stressed out on busy days, but is generally OK. Good Food, good beer, nice garden, a lot going for it.
19 Mar 2005 18:14
St Peters Finger, Lytchett Minster
Note: The location of this pub is Lytchett Minster and it is about 400m from the Baker's Arms.
19 Mar 2005 17:55
Always feels like an officers' mess. Geared up for its predominantly elderly clientel
19 Mar 2005 13:18
There is nothing to dislike about Drusillas, and I think that is the problem, there is nothing really to like about it. Like it's sister pub (the High Post at Lynwood) the food is strangely tastless and sounds better on the menu than it does on the palate. However, unlike the High Post, the location is nothing to write home about, unless you are obsessed with looking at the Horton Tower.
19 Mar 2005 13:16
Excellent food and good service. Tudorbeathan interior (all beams and brick noggin) contrasts rather uncomfortably with the genuine late Georgian/early Victorian exterior. Places to sit out both on the front (to catch the late evening sun) and in the garden at the back.
19 Mar 2005 13:10
Have eaten there a couple of times, and found it generally satisfactory. It is a road house (no bookings taken) and the service is geared up to be brisk and efficient rather than overly-welcoming. The food, however, is good if not particularly exciting and beer OK.
As for the atmosphere; the pub burnt to to the ground about ten years ago and was completely rebuilt in the style of the original. Although very well done, it does lend a slightly artificial air to the whole place.
19 Mar 2005 12:51
The River Park Inn, West Parley
I have some sympathy for the owners of theis place; it must be very difficult to know what to do with it. Set in a fine old Victorian mansion in its own grounds with views over the River Stour, it should be a country house hotel.
The problem is, the view extends over the river to the delights of Kinson and Northbourne, and the pub, similarly, lurches in the direction of a large 1930 road pub in one of the less salubrious areas of town, but without the road.
We visited it on a quiet evening, and sat in the conservatory as the sun was going down, eating simple but beautifully cooked food, served by polite antipodean staff, watching a deer graze peacfully on the lawn.
However, I have a nagging suspicion that our experience was atypical.
19 Mar 2005 12:39
Seems to change hands fairly often, so may have changed since we last whent a couple of years ago. Food was good, but the service virtually non-existant. We had to eat our puddings with half the dishes from the first course still on the table.
19 Mar 2005 12:27
Derservedly popular. Hits the tricky balance between being a pub that does food and a restaurant that serves beer right on the head.
Good beer. Food is tasty, well cooked and occasionally adventurous. Modern extention at the back very much in keeping with the old beams and open fire in the original front part of the building.
19 Mar 2005 12:24
Once the Grosvenor Hotel now a trendy IKEA themed Wine Bar. Service is snooty; food pretentious and over-priced. Be warned, it may have been a coincedence, but I suffered from a bad case of food poisening after thelast time I went there.
19 Mar 2005 12:16
Fine old pub that used to be at the heart of the Wimborne Folk Festival. New management has turned it into a Wine Bar and banned the Folk Festival form using its car park. Lovers of all English traditions from warm beer to morris dancing should boycott this place, until they come to their senses.
19 Mar 2005 12:11
The Anchor at Shapwick, Shapwick
Former Victorian village pub. The excellent food and pub-like atmosphere just about compensates for the fact that it has been refurbished in the popular stripped-pine wine bar style.
20 Mar 2005 21:38