Ship in Distress in Christchurch

Lovely food with friendly staff

A good place for a good Guiness and a decent meal. Met up with a couple of business partners, it was ideal.

We went for Sunday roast yesterday pm. I am a vegetarian, so picked the vegetarian roast which was mushroom pudding with seasonal veg and roast potatoes. When it arrived, they were a few over cooked peas and no other vegetables. The pudding was just full of the pudding and hardly any filling. I asked where the seasonal vegetables, I was bought soggy microwaved broccoli (1 small piece) and a couple of soggy carrot pieces. They arrived when I was taking my last couple of mouthfuls of dinner. Not good.

Great atmosphere, friendly staff, lovely food and well priced

Just had a midweek bite to eat with my teenage son. Went for the new burger and drink deal. Atmosphere and service great , proper blend of friendly but professional. Didn't know a burger and chips could be so perfect. I went for the Southern fried chicken with skin on salt and chilli chips. Expected salt with chilli powder but had sea salt with finely chopped fresh chilli's. To say was impressed is an understatement. Thanks for a great evening.

Nice big plate of Sunday roast, pleased they had a veggie option. Lots of gravy.

Lovly pub, Food was spot on all cooked very good . The pie had lots of meat in them and the mash potatoe full of butter lovly, I had the mixed grill and all the meat was lovly good quality and cooked to perfection, The service was A1 and we all walked out saying we will be back .

Food was really.good, staff really friendly and helpful. Also called us a taxi to get us back to where we were staying. I would definitely recommend trying here for food or drinks if in the area.

Been going to this pub for a little while. It is a warm welcoming family run pub. Very dog friendly. On our previous visits, we looked at other peoples food with envy as it looked so good. We finally went there for dinner last week. We had homely yummy grub for a reasonable price. As far as we can tell, it isn't a chain, so has a proper pub feel about it. Love it.

A wait for over an hour for a meal which couldn’t accommodate an extra pizza topping as ‘ it’s just what we’ve been sent’. Made no difference as the base was inedible and the truffle undetectable. Meals were lack lustre drinks weak and the staff whilst very pleasant were rushed off their feet. Booked by our friend as he felt it would be good for the kids. There are many better options, possibly any other option would be better.

Great Service and food. Lots of choice for family including veggies and children. Staff very pleasant and they coped very well as busy due to summer holidays

Lovely pub. Food excellent! Highly recommend a visit!

Had a lovely meal last night, had sea bass and risotto which was beautiful, wife’s curry was nice as was the chicken burger and kids nuggets. Service was great and friendly

Love this pub must go to if your over mudeford way x

Our visit was ruined today by a rude ill manured bar staff. First drink out for my daughter after giving birth, looking forward to a nice gin and tonic after abstinence for 10months. The drink was made but tasted and smelt of sambuca, after returning the drink to the bar we were refused to have the drink change and the bar person was very adamant that it was a gin and tonic. I am not disputing this but could have been made using a measure that was used and not cleaned after doing shots. Either way we were not asking for much, just a fresh drink. What has happened to the customer is always right, instead we had a very disappointing experience and will not be rushing back.

Very nice local hostilery good atmosphere.

My partner & I used to come here about 15 years ago for a drink with the dog, so have always liked it here. Yesterday we very much wanted a Sunday roast and decided to pop in. I chose the pork, my partner the beef. It truly was the best roast dinner I have ever had. The vegetables were just right, carrots sweet and greens so al dente and the pork was cooked to perfection. Tasty gravy mm mmmm, crunchy roast potatoes and definitely a home made Yorkshire pudding. Lovely waiting staff. I cut off some of mine to share with my partner and although the beef was delicious, he wants to go back so he can order the pork. This is a gem of a pub, with a sunny courtyard and not forgetting the chilled glasses of cider whilst we waited and we didn’t have to wait very long. Looking forward to returning very soon as we are local.

Went to this pub for a post work pint and waited patiently behind a drink order followed by a food order where, for both preceding customers, the bar staff moaned about having to cover the bar on her own. Next my turn and instead of serving me she decided to collect glasses. The pub wasn’t busy despite the football. I’m a former pub landlord and I know what busy looks like. I chose to leave and go elsewhere where I could not have been served quicker. Service like this is helping kill off our pubs. Well done! Great reply, thanks. Customers are clearly an inconvenience? If you were short on glasses before 6pm maybe you might want to buy some more? As for garden full one table was occupied as I was meeting work colleagues and checked first. Rather than attack customers for giving feedback - and I love giving positive feedback in this complaint age - how about you take note and fix it. Probably quicker than insulting customers? As for atmosphere I tend to find pubs where you get served beat ones where you don’t. I look forward to your next unprofessional rant and perhaps try to remember that customers pay your bills!

Great selection of beers good service. Excellent for watching football

Had a lovely meal for my wife’s birthday. Food was delicious (all had a roast) Euro 2024 football was on and was a nice atmosphere of locals enjoying the football and staff as well. Staff very friendly and helpful and happy to bring a cake out for my wife, even joined in singing! Would recommend.

We had a Sunday Roast, the portion was very generous and quality was great. The whole family enjoyed the food.

Great friendly staff with good range of beers & a big garden area. There was a band on in the garden & they were also catering for a wedding after party the day we popped in so the place was lively & buzzin. Despite this it didn't seem to have an affect on the service we received & would definitely go back again when in the area next time.

If you like Pub Classics & also something a bit different, then this is the place to come. Good food, a warm welcome, what more could you want. A big shout out to James, who was absolutely amazing all night.

Great night as the Ship in distress for an evening Meal & Drinks

Great selection of draught lagers and ales. Impeccable service with super friendly staff. Food was delicious

Land lady isn’t very nice. Food is ok tho

Terrible service non wheelchair accessible terrible staff members rude and disrespectful

Excellant service. Food beautifully presented. Quality excellent. Have been to this restaurant many times and the quality hasn't dropped.

We booked and had to travel over 3 hours to stay at the HARBOUR HOTEL WE ENJOYED THE SHIP ON LAST VISIT BUT THEY NOW HAVE A REALLY QUITE RIDICULOUS KITCHEN CLOSED TIME OF 8PM! MADE IT TOO TIGHT SO WE CANCELLED. WE WENT TO THE NELSON WHICH WAS GREAT AND VERY ROOMY. WE COME TO CHRITCHURCH REGULARLY AND SPEND A FORTUNE BUT WILL STICK TO THE NELSON AND THE HARBOUR TOP DECK. AND THE NOISY LOBSTER

Lovely old pub, great for a drink or snack after a walk around Stanpit with kids, dogs or human company!

Only 2 real ales just one local. Can’t comment on food as didn’t have any. I visited on a Thursday afternoon in February but was nearly dead.

We came to The Ship in Distress for a family Christmas Day lunch. The service was fantastic and the food was just impeccable, so delicious, good portion size and so so tasty! Compliments to the chef! It really made our family Christmas! Thank You!

I just popped in for a few beers, they had some great real ale and the atmosphere was excellent 👌

Out with friends (10) and their 10 dogs lovely and warm and very welcoming with friendly staff most enjoyable

Booked at relatively last minute and very pleasantly surprised by an excellent Sunday lunch with good choice, hot fresh food and yummy puddings. Will return

After a walk on Stanpit Marsh on a chilly day, we enjoyed a warm welcome from staff at the Ship in Distress. Our drinks were served promptly, and the meals from the lunchtime menu were nicely cooked, tasty and good value. I look forward to returning soon!

We had a lovely meal here. The service was great, the lady who served us was very friendly. Would definitely recommend this pub.

Stayed at a nearby expensive hotel...Found this place to give the wallet a break....Lovely food at reasonable prices....I had the chicken schnitzel which was amazing!...Will be going again..and giving the hotel restaurant a miss!

Pleasant helpful staff woofer friendly and lovely welcoming feel .my view is its the best pub in mudeford

Food nothing special had the Chicken schnitzel could not eat it too touch disappointing food

First time for our family for a traditional Sunday lunch at this wonderful pub. We will definitely be returning. The roast was high quality, plenty of vegetables and lots of gravy. The staff were friendly especially James who served us who was very attentive. We even played dominoes while waiting for our food, which was a bit of fun.

We just went there as a family. Nice roast dinners. Mrs enjoyed her Veggie option. 😀

We chose this for our meal as none of us had been here for a while. First issue was the car park which was pitch black. It had been raining heavily but as there was no light one of my friends stepped In a huge puddle and spent the evening with wet shoes. This car park is dangerous with no lighting. We were welcomed and shown to our table which was fine. We chose the special menu at £16pp for 2 courses and there was a fairly good choice. I had the fish and chip but the chips were lovely but the fish was very greasy and mainly all batter. One had Stilton burger with no Stilton - she asked this she was told you could smell the Stilton in the kitchen so it must be in there somewhere, another had sausage and mash with Yorkshire pudding which was hard, 3 small sausages. We had a choice of starters and main or main and pudding, not a great choice of pudding so we had starters - the soup was nice, mushrooms were ok. When the waiter cleared the plates we mentioned our issues and although he acknowledged them nothing else was said. When the bill came it was £101 - 4 x £16, 1 coke, 1 bottle of wine with 20% discount and 3 beers - still no idea how it got to that price and the meal definitely was not worth that.

Met a very good friend for an early evening dinner on a Sunday and a catch-up. The place was quite busy when we arrived. Ordered our drinks, which were fine and order one roast dinner after ordering roast chicken which was sold out then roast pork which was sold out and finally went for the Gammon on the 3rd attempt not a problem as obviously been very busy but felt under catered for. I ordered the chicken schnitzel with sweet potato fries and ceasar salad. I could not even cut the chicken, and it was so dry inside. It was more like a chicken Kiev as Chicken schnitzel is meant to be flat and big. Only managed a couple of bites and left it. We did mention it to the staff and they said they would tell the chef. We were offered a coffee after which we both declined. The roast was average felt like everything was just warmed up. A very disappointing meal

Great Sunday roast, good quality and quantity, well presented and good value. Well kept beer too, and friendly staff. We'll be back!

The food is very tasty and been back a few times. Service could be a bit better

The £16 two course meal was great value and good food too. It deserves some support. Service was quick, chatty. It was a Wednesday night and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We booked for a large number for a birthday. 18 meals were ordered, every single meal was amazing, tasted great, roast dinners were homely and so nice, pie was amazing, great portion sizes! Every meal came out piping hot which is rare for such a large table! Staff were great! Not one complaint!

Food wasn't great and a lack of allergen knowledge from service.

A lovely please the food was amazing

Stopped in the lovely little pub to watch the woman’s World Cup final. Stopped on the off chance on the way to our hotel. The pub was busy but they found us a table & made us feel welcome. The drinks are reasonably priced and the staff are really friendly

WOW ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Fish & Chips for lunch ONLY £6..huge portion 👍. Absolutely delicious 5🌟.. My little dog had the crispy tail.. He flippin loved it😂🐶. Beautiful garden, real sun trap. And all washed down with an ice-cold pint of Coors 🍻. Cracking lunchtime 👍

Good food and nice service. We're there to book a function and were very pleased.

Great place, great food (honestly they really know how to cook a steak and more) totally recommend Ship in Distress for great service,food, atmosphere and people

Lunchtime specials are a bargain

We booked for 1pm for 6 people and turned up on time. We are local and had family down but had never tried this pub, but chose it as the reviews were positive and we wanted a no frills but honest Sunday lunch. Our order was taken after drinks and we were told they were busy and that it might be a bit longer than normal. We asked how long and were told 15 mins, which seemed reasonable. We had all ordered Sunday roast so nothing v taxing. The smallish restaurant was busy but no queues of people and the bar was virtually empty, so we were a little puzzled that they thought that busy (what had they planned for on a Sunday on the coast in August?). After 30 mins wait and no comms we asked politely how much longer and were told 5 mins. Another 10 mins and no sign, plus very few others being served and little front of house activity. I went round to the bar to speak to someone from Mgmt and it was empty. After 5 mins a bar man turned up and I questioned what was the problem, could I speak to a manager. I was palmed off and told they were v busy. All the staff we encountered were v friendly but evidently there was nobody in charge and no comms. Finally after over an hour our food turned up. It was bland, tasteless, frozen veg, edible but totally unenjoyable. It may well be that we went on a bad day and that this is untypical, but it was a poor experience and one we won’t be returning to.

Came in today for lunch we had burger and chips and fish and chips from your £6 menu and it was lovely and Paige was brilliant Elaine And Andy

Lovely welcome and fantastic food. We had a bottle of Prosecco for £15 as fizz Friday and the 2 course for £16. The portion sizes were normal which is good as I know some places make their portions smaller with these offers. We both had the king prawn which was delicious followed by the mushroom and stilton burgers which were very tasty. We had no faults with the whole dining experience. We have eaten here before and had plenty of visits for drinks. Will be passing on our recommendation to friends.

Proper English pub vibe, environment, friendly service and delicious food. One of the best chicken Schnitzel I have had.

Just had dinner from there new menu 2 courses for £16.00. There was a great selection from starter and main course. The main courses are generally based around burgers but they had something really different. All was well cooked and tasty. Staff couldn't be more helpful and pleasant. I will be going back to sample the food again.

Been coming here for a while on our stays in the area. Came for Anniversary meal with 2 other households 8 persons in total. Very dissapointed with the menu. We When we arrived was told only 1 sunday lunch beef meal available .We ordered our drinks and was told the waitress will take our order When she gets back. We was going to start with 3 Haloumi starters,was then told No Haloumi for starters [ bit odd as i can run pick some up the road for a couple quid.] Who runs out of Haloumi? We decided to skip starters but this also meant the Haloumi main we wanted was off the menu as well now... not a great start TBH.....By the time the waitress got back with the drinks , we ordered the one Beef meal that was available and was told " its gone now" ....We wasnt told we needed to reserve a meal on the spot or lose the last beef meal! One of the kids also a wanted beef meal , this was unavailable. so he made do with something else. So to summarise , We all had to skip starters , 2 people never got the main they wanted 1 beef 1 Haloumi , [TBH 3 of us were going to have the roast beef , but switched. 1 of the party decided not to eat anything as he didnt just wanna eat for the sake of eating something he didnt fancy. , Not quite the celebration and enjoyable meal we were hoping for. Did best part of 150 quid.Very dissapointing.

Didn't eat but friends did and said food was lovely

Yesterday's visit: food was nice - a healthy salad. Service friendly. The atmosphere was quite quiet and the music a good mix, and not loud :) .

What a beautiful cosy pub, I've just visited the ship in distress as part of my work... I was greeted by Gary and Deana, Two of the most nicest people you could wish to meet... Owners like these really make a pub worth visiting. As I was busy carrying out my work these guys were busy cleaning and disinfecting the pub ready to open.. cleanliness and hygiene are clearly a high priority on the agenda. Photos show this place is spotlessly clean and very welcoming, large outside seating areas, some under cover. Sports channels and an area set up for live music, what more could you ask for !! Throughout my visit both Gary and Deana were so friendly and accommodating... Thank you guys 😎

Popped in for lunch today on the way back from Mudeford Quay with my nan and her sister in law who is over from USA. We all had pizzas which were delicious. Too big to eat in one sitting so were given boxes to take...

Fabulous choice of drinks! Amazing service with friendly, entertaining and fun staff. The food is always scrummy and they seriously can't do enough to make your experience memorable! They are so in tune with their customers that any anti sociol behaviour is dealt with quickly,...

Had a great evening here, with a Rock and Roll Bingo evening. Also had a nice meal there.

Lovely afternoon on the terrace with live music.

Great pint and always welcoming! Cheers, guys.

Terrible food and terrible service. Only one rushed of her feet girl. That had to do everything. The rhubarb in the crumble was wasn’t cooked. My gammon steak. Very salty. Eggs were either burnt or very undercooked. 1 out of 10. Overall.

Lovely pub to eat and drink lots of space inside and outdoor seating. Car park spaces and reasonable menu prices. Great choices of food and drink, it's also clean and tidy. Nice atmosphere. Friendly staff and attentive. We had fish and chips, which were really nice with mushy peas and tarter sauce. Portion size on the chips was slightly less than some places, but they were really nice and the fish size was good. Lovely batter. Presented very well. Will definitely go back.

Very nice Sunday lunch, decent beer selection & very friendly staff.

We love this place. Fantastic food and very friendly staff. Highly recommend

This is a very nice pub, good attentive and polite staff and a good selection of well cooked, tasty pub style food. In the good weather there is a large outdoor space at the back. Overall a very good pub where we will be going back to the next time we visit our daughter and family.

Food is fantastic and Staff are extremely knowledgeable, friendly and very welcoming would definitely recommend them and will be going back again.

I just came in for a magnificent Sunday lunch with extremely friendly staff that kept making sure we were happy with our food. I can't wait to go back.

A lovely pub with great atmosphere and friendly staff. Thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday lunch, and will be back again in the summer for the live music on the new stage

Lovely pub!!! Great food! Great prices. This pub is not far from where we live and we visit regularly. The atmosphere is always pleasant, with wood fires and live music.

Amazing food today - cooked to perfection!

Very friendly service here today! Sat in the beer garden, tables a little too close together but apart from that it was great!

Decent pint of neck oil. Friendly publican ..

Absolutely amazing food and customer service!!!

We came to the pub tonight valentine the food was excellent and Paige and Kerri were brilliant the service was 100% thank you for a nice evening

Appalling service..food was warmed up basic pub fayre...but the delivery was woeful. Walked out and went down the Nelson.

Phenomenal roast dinner and service today. Typically I’m disappointed by a roast dinner in a restaurant but gave it a try today at the Ship in distress. Was not disappointed! Looking forward to visiting again when in the area.

5 star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ great food, great atmosphere, great beer and super lovely staff.. FYI BEST Sunday Roast in the area ❤️❤️

Great pub, great food, great friendly staff, hard working landlady, would recommend to anyone, great atmosphere,

Great food, good atmosphere and friendly staff. What more could you want.

Brilliant atmosphere! The food is very well balanced in price, gammon and eggs top favourite of mine and the staff are very friendly!

Over five pounds a pint? I think not. I don't pay that in London; I'm certainly not paying that in Dorset. 🤬

Compared with a few years ago when it was a rather run down pub, it is now transformed into a friendly, efficient, spacious nice surroundings local pub that does good food, and where you will happily and regularly go back to. Long may it continue so.

Me and my wife visited The Ship today beautiful themed pub excellent food and exceptional service from the Boss thankyou for taking time to feed us and also help with feedback we will be back thankyou again

Lovely pub, with an open fire and great beers

Had out work Xmas meal there last night, food was as expected...perfect. Lovely pub and staff, highly recommended great atmosphere. Please go there, you'll be impressed, much better than the chain pubs. Thanks to all the staff for a great evening.

Went here many moons ago and visited again with friends who are local recently on a Thursday night. What a transformation!!! Still very much a pub, pub, if you know what I mean, but upgraded and updated by the present landlord (I presume) fantastically well. It was a quiz night so even though it was mid-week it was busy but not manic. The landlord was friendly and jovial, as too, were the staff. Reasonable prices and some nice ales/lagers on tap. Outside and undercover, heated seating available and a larger pub inside than it seems from the road! Like a liquid refreshment Tardis!!!

Great roast dinner, very friendly, veg all fresh and plenty of it, will come again, great prices as well

After years of decline the Ship in Distress is now well back to being a spacious, well appointed, full service good offerings local pub again. Think I might just be tempted to watch some of the football world cup there ! !

The pub is nicely presented with decent drink selection .. The food was ok if you like Harvesters or other cheap Calvery's ..

This is now my local its a proper pub with no tvs blasting away you can actually talk without having to shout

Lovely pub fabulous bar staff ( if you want a shot ask the barmaid to surprise you )