The Lodge Kitchen & Bar in New Forest

Lovely couple of meals outside . Pea and mint soup and garden pappardelle were delicious . Staff friendly and attentive . Foccacia with tomato dip unusual. The negative reviews were not our experience and we think the menu must have changes an awful lot as there weee no pizzas !

We enjoyed our meal, we were staying at the hotel and didn’t want to go far on the first night. We had the sharing board which was lovely and would have been enough for our dinner too, then we had 2 pasta dishes which we enjoyed then finished up with a cocktail in the bar.

The "new" Lodge restaurant (since I have not been to the New Forest since before COVID) is the marquee-type structure that has been put on to the front of the hotel, in which they serve (in the evenings) drinks and “delicious” (their words) Italian food. Being a fan of the Hotel, I decided to give this a try. The layout and design of the marquee construction is all very nice. Blankets and heaters are provided (since it is a quasi-outdoor setting) and it has been nicely decorated and lit. It really seems on entering that you are going to be in for a good meal and a nice evening. I appreciate that people sometimes think negative reviews are too harsh and provocatively so, but I do have to call it out upfront here and now....truly, truly awful. Let's start with the menu: Management have decided to go down the tried and tested (but failed time and time again) route of "exotic" pizzas. So one of the pizzas (on the evening we visited) is Caesar salad based. Bacon, chicken, and.....lettuce...!!!! on a pizza. The other three or four options are equally absurd, and this hackneyed penchant for pretentious toppings on a centuries-old Italian classic is tiresome beyond articulation (I know, I know, ironic how I have put this, but needs must). The pasta options are similarly contrived, not doubt to elicit excited shrieks of delight from unwary customers, who will however find out only too soon why Caesar never wished for his namesake food to iterate away from the simple salad construct that he so loved. Nevertheless, we soldiered on and ordered a couple of pizzas and a tomato, rocket and parmesan side salad. Let me start with the latter, When you order a side salad that only has three ingredients, it is slightly disappointing for this to be delivered with one of those ingredients missing. That’s 33 1/3% for the restaurant's management. I think maybe the preparer was distracted by the difficult Wordle puzzle that appeared in the NY Times that day, but even so.... And the two ingredients that did turn up: four or five halved baby tomatoes, and a rough, but very small, handful of rocket, with some balsamic sloshed on just for good measure. It was a pitiful affair, and was put out of its misery in only 2 forkfuls. We did question this at the time, and the waiter did offer to make some other salad, but that possibly missed the point. Perhaps the preparer was a three year old who had shown early promise as a potential future chef, who knows? On to the pizzas. With a gas fired clay oven our expectations were set high. Of course the menu had already taken the wind out of our sails a little. Which of these ludicrous options would be the least worst, we wondered? I’m not one to put up with any nonsense, so I had just ordered a margherita even though that was not technically an option. My girlfriend opted for one of the delightfully, stupidly quirky options, involving goats cheese, massive olives, pumpkin (I think?!), and some other bilge. Mine appeared and very much resembled the outline of Slovakia. My girlfriend’s of Moldova. The menu should have made it clear that the pizzas were not only pretentious BUT also geographic representations of Eastern European states, then there would have been no room for doubt! The toppings: drab, and in my girlfriend’s case undercooked, predictably so (its one of the main characteristics of exotic pizzas). Too much mozzarella, also undercooked, not enough tomato. Dull bases, although interestingly shaped, kudos here. We were offered the dessert menu, but of course by that stage that was the simplest decision of the day for us. I have to say in all of this that the staff were totally delightful and were eager to try to help us through our misery as much as they could. That said, despite pointing out the inadequacies of the salad, no concession was made on the bill until we pointed out that such concession was probably in order. It is not about the money, it is about the principle, which the waiter who presented the bill totally understood once it was pointed out to him. He was a very charming young man (Marik I think his name was), and lifted our spirits greatly, particularly when he told us how much he enjoyed the Caesar pizza! Oh, how we laughed, as did he!! I go back to negative reviews. People probably think that the writer is being unfair. Ultimately, however, these are opinion based, and for all I know there may be lots of people in the New Forest who passionately believe that the Caesar, despite its enormous success as a salad, was just crying out to be put on a country-shaped dough base and roasted in an oven. But I will say this in support of my review: this was a Saturday evening. At normal dining time. We had passed through Lyndhurst and seen the restaurants very busy. The same in Brockenhurst. It had been a lovely day and people were clearly keen to end the day eating out. And yet my girlfriend and I were the only two people in the Lodge restaurant, which appears as though it could seat 50+ people. As we drove away we saw two more hapless souls take their seats, but it seemed clear that this is not attracting anywhere near the volume of business that it should, which is a shame because all of the basic ingredients for success are there, they just need to be better "cooked".

My wife and I used to love this place and made a point of visiting whenever we stayed in Brockenhurst. Unfortunately the last couple of visits have been disappointing and sadly we wont be returning other than perhaps a drink on the patio. When we arrived the lady who showed us to our table was very pleasant and professional. There were plenty of staff and the place wasn't busy but we had to wait a long time before being offered drinks and menu's. The hotel invested in the Lodge Bar during the earlier lockdowns when they offered a wide range of eating options but the menu now is very limited; we would have left to eat elsewhere but were concerned we wouldn't get walk in availability. The huge space heaters blasting hot air into the room were very noisy and heard other customers also commenting how loud they were. There were also a few Christmas decorations left in place which just felt a bit lazy. I ordered a spatchcock poussin which was dry and presented on undercooked vegetables, and my wife ordered a salmon and cucumber sandwich but gave the salmon to the dog because it was just a bit unpleasant. Neither my wife or I tend to complain but we did express our disappointment about both the choice and quality of food with the waiting staff who either didn't know how to respond or just chose to ignore our observations. We'll avoid in the future!

It was nice to have the choice of a pizza style menu in this new outside area which has heaters. The pasta was really good.

Lovely food,well cooked,but we had to request a change of menu on our 3rd day,which was produced.Slightly overpriced,so perhaps not expecting regular visitors.

Enjoy the pasta with prawns and a lovely Brulee dessert, highly recommend both. The ambience was relaxing. Very attentive staff that are well trained

Service was poor, we had booked for food and arrived at the booking time, shown to a table and given the drinks menu only - it was 20mins before we flagged a member of staff down to take the drinks order and asked for the menus - another 10min before the waitress went to see where the drinks were and we finally got food menus. Other tables arrived after us and ate before us. Getting a second round of drinks was the same and to order the food I got up to find a member of staff as they did not come back to take the order. We were offered complimentary dessert but we were not going to add to the slow service. When we asked for the service charge to be removed a manager brought the bill and offered complimentary cocktails, again not wanting to add to our time we declined. The food was hot when it eventually arrived so that was something. Disappointing evening, it wasn’t busy and there seemed to be plenty of staff.

Great place to eat and drink good staff know there job and are very happy to welcome you and serve you food pizza in our case top quality

Contemporary indoor/ outdoor restaurant bar. Lovely seating choice with comfy drinks seating as well as tables etc. Pizza oven. This restaurant offers contemporary food choices of the pizza, pasta, salads, sharing boards, burgers variety. It provides relaxed, laid back dining with well prepared and served food. Great place for friends and families. We had a lovely meal here on our first night at the hotel. Just perfect for a pre dinner cocktail and then casual dining meal with a good wine.

We found that the service was very slow, and had to wait ages. The place was also a bit ordinary, and the food ok

Lovely evening in the Lodge Kitchen & Bar. We struggled to decide on what to have as there are so many amazing options. Beautiful ambience in the lodge and first class service from James who looked after us. The venue are obviously taking COVID-19 safety very seriously ensuring we felt comfortable and safe throughout our visit. An ideal place to meet up with friends and family out of your household this Christmas and New Year. I can see why it is such a popular addition to this iconic New Forest Venue. Can't wait to go back again!!