Tremains Tea Hut in East Dorset

Myself and my wife are local and dropped in yesterday for breakfast. Very nice breakfast, my wife couldn’t finish her granola so I did, which was excellent. Will go again.

This place really cannot manage large table bookings. We booked for a table of 26 for a Saturday evening in April for a joint 30th and 50th. The lady I was dealing with advised in the phone we needed to supply menu choices a month in advance, I clarified she meant a month & she confirmed a month. I thought this was quite far in advance but did as was requested. When I called with a query it was an absolute nightmare to find our booking. The same person then told me I had sent the choices to early & I need to give a weeks notice. I was then told menus are changing & is picked the wrong menu (I hadn’t. I also hadn’t got the month/week wrong as I checked our internal cctv and our conversation was there). After lots of blaming me, she eventually accepted that it was probably due to her language barrier. Every time I had cause to speak to her it was a challenge. On the phone call she kept saying our booking was Sunday & given all the previous pains, I was really nervous we’d even have a table to sit down at! Anyway, we arrived earlier than 5:30 as we advised we’d like to decorate. Our tables weren’t set out yet, which was fine, we just decorated around them. The staff in the sun restaurant were lovely but the lady who dealt with our booking I felt was very rude & not welcoming in the slightest. In fact, she made us feel like we were a huge inconvenience. I sensed there wasn’t a lot of cohesion with her and the rest of the team. Our starters came out and midway through eating mine I was interrupted to ask if I could double check the menu choices. I then got the impression the original lady hadn’t been great at communicating with the kitchen. By the time we’d gone through choices my starter was cold. I also requested one garlic bread to share between two kids & two cheesy garlic breads. 3 normal garlic breads came out. The mains did all come out fine (thankfully) but all the additional sides were missing so there was a wait for those. The desserts were just plonked anywhere & at this point any feelings I had of not being welcome here had been cemented. It was like no one could be asked with us anymore. We also had no staff come back to check how puddings were so I couldn’t advise we’d been sent out an extra cheeseboard (their error). I was also told I’d need to supply paper plates for the birthday cake which was no issue but then they brought out plates & these were pretty grim & I had to clean them before use. When it came to pay and I highlighted to the main lady that we’d been charged for additional garlic breads and cheeseboards she would not accept she was wrong. Argued the toss over everything (which I experienced throughout this process) & she made the whole experience quite draining. We obviously didn’t pay for stuff we didn’t order but it was like climbing a mountain to get it taken off the bill. The whole experience felt very disorganised and chaotic. I don’t think a single person wished any of the birthday girls happy birthday either, just adding to the pretty rubbish service we received. I have put the poor experience down to them having a really busy Saturday and we were just unlucky. The guy who came and checked our orders was fabulous, great service and attitude and really apologetic. But the woman, who I think is manager, absolutely awful. I’ve had better service from McDonald’s than from her. I’ve also attached an email reply from her, you can get the gist of what she’s saying but it is a good example of how unclear her communication was through the whole process and I just guessed a lot of it. Really bad experience for what was a really lovely occasion. Would not advise anyone to book here for a party over 6.

Visited this lovely pub on the fly whilst in the area. Did not disappoint! Ashley our server was amazing! Went above and beyond too with pregnant wife with allergy as well as super friendly Only wish we'd come earlier in the week so we could have visited again. Highly recommend. Steak & Ale pie was delicious as was cheesecake of the day

Lovely Sunday roast/carvery, well presented and although the cost has risen to £15.99, it's well worth it.

Best fish and chips in the area, really good. Friendly and efficient service.