Woodman in East Dorset

Good food , friendly staff ( especially Poppy), Great play area for kids & kids menu

Lovely family meal. Great relaxed atmosphere. Good gluten free menu.

Stopped to charge our car on the convenient EV charge point and had a lovely, great value meal served by polite and efficient staff whilst we waited. Thanks James the waiter.

Excellent food, very friendly service (remembered our visit from previous years) highly recommended!

Didn’t have a mix grill the first time I visited, but the second time they did, and it was absolutely beautiful

Really nice pub. Friendly staff. Dog friendly (even have food for dogs like sausages, chicken etc!). Had a chicken platter and wife had mixed grill. Ordered on webpage, easy to do and food and drinks served quickly. We really enjoyed eating here and would return if we are in the area.

I had the spicy burger, was OK, a bit sloppy and greasy, but tasted OK, my wife had the spicy chilli, was a smaller portion thepan expected, but tasted quite nice, a bit more meat would get a higher score

James went out of his way to help us and made our visit very pleasant

Really nice Sunday roast and a nice location to meet up with family. The servers gave us a long time to catch up. Really good portions and reasonable prices.

Always good food and friendly service . Thank you to James

James was amazing, great service, kind and attentive, well done 👏

We recently stumbled upon this lovely restaurant while camping nearby and we’re so glad we did. The food was absolutely amazing, with plenty of gluten-free options for my partner who has celiac disease, which is always a big plus. They even have a doggy menu, which our pups thoroughly enjoyed! Prices were very reasonable and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. A special shoutout to Michelle, who was incredibly kind and helpful. She gave us great recommendations for dog-friendly spots in the area and even pointed us toward a charming dog charity shop where we picked up some toys and blankets for our furry companions. Highly recommend this place if you’re in the area. Great food, thoughtful touches, and genuinely lovely people!

Brilliant service. Food was lovely really nice staff amazing visit a lot and will continue to do so.

Stopped off for lunch sat in the garden order via the app. Took 20 mins for drinks to arrive, then food came out I ordered lunchtime fish & chips first the lady dropped the tarter sauce pot and then ask if I still wanted tarter sauce, yes please I said then she said she would have to go all the way back to get it. The fish well I have seen bigger fish fingers it was that small. Had similar at the filly in the forest on Saturday same price but twice the size. Then when she finally returned with the tartar sauce we enquired where the extra chips where we orders to go with hubby’s lasagna. She said we did not order chips, yes we did and paid and extra £3 for them, well I didn’t see it on your order. 5 mins later she returned with the smallest bowl of chips almost throw them down and said she didn’t check the order but here are some chips, made out it was our fault. Defiantly will not be returning to this pub again.

We had 2 adult carveries and 2 meals from the menu. All were really nice and at a reasonable cost. It was great to be able to enjoy a meal with our 13 year olds and our dog. The staff were friendly and would definitely go again the next time we are in the area on holiday.

Pie was hot so was the cod Took a while to get served as coffee machine broken only one person ahead of me but waited over 10 minutes to get served. Although the bar maid was lovely. Food arrived on cold plates Cold chips Cold gravy Cold peas Been before and accept it's a chain but considering it wasn't that busy you'd think the chef would be more proud of what they send out Won't be back

An all round really nice experience. Food was good, service and staff were great. A great place for family and dog dining

Very good value for money and staff very friendly. Food excellent

Thursday steak was as expected. Average price for a chain. Kids enjoyed the colouring

Very enjoyable meal and good ambience (music not too loud :) ).

Great pub, very spacious and very friendly atmosphere. We have just been for a roast dinner. The Meat was so tender it just fell apart! The desserts are disappointing as they only had one choice for vegans!

Pleasant experience, friendly, clean.

On entering the staff made us welcome, our meal came quite quick after our order on hot plate's and we were asked if there was anything else we wanted, during the meal we were asked if everything was ok, a pleasant experience that didn't cost a fortune, will be visiting again soon.

Very friendly staff. Good food . Good value for money.

My wife & I came to the Woodman two weeks ago with 4 other members of our family and our newly born Great-Granddaughter. This was a bit of a desperation move, as we couldn't get a table for 6 at the restaurant where they were staying just down the road. However, in the event, we were so pleased we had to do this as it was a great experience. As a result, wife & I decided to try it again last night. We came away delighted! We find that the staff aren't just friendly, but they go out of their way to help you with anything and like to make sure you have everything you need- even when they're busy. Most of them are young, but there also was a slightly more mature woman (who may have been the manager) who came round to chat to the guests and ensure all was well. It really made us feel appreciated. It was easy to order the food and they were quite happy to serve my wife (who has a small appetite) with a meal from the children's menu. She ordered a small Gammon steak with a very well-cooked egg and I asked for a full-sized Rump steak. Both were served in good time and were of excellent quality. My wife was delighted to have a solid egg (as they are often served soft) and my steak was very tender with a lovely Diane sauce. We were so impressed. We both then had desserts from the children's menu, which were very adequate for our needs and served with "proper" ice-cream- not the soft variety you get elsewhere. We came away feeling so grateful that we've re-discovered this place- especially as I had a 30% discount voucher on adult meals! We just wish we could give them 6 stars instead of 5!

A nice welcoming pub with separated bar and restaurant areas. Everywhere was clean. Tables in the restaurant area were neatly laid and my only annoyance was that there was a dog, with the people on a table near us, that growled at a staff member. Service was prompt and friendly and the choice of drinks was very good.

Had a wonderful lunch. Service by a waitress called Michelle was prompt and professional. She was so so helpful. We needed help with dietary needs and nothing was too much trouble. Really surprised as we had nit been before but will definitely visit again. It was a shame our meal was spoilt by arrogant rude couple next to us. They ordered the wrong meal and then tried to blame the waitress. I have no idea how she kept her polite composure! They would have worn it if they had spoken to me like that! Apart from that unpleasant incident, a clean pub with nice food and staff. Thank you !

Lovely experience happy with everything Michelle was a first class server

Dear Manager and Team, I am writing to extend my heartfelt thanks to you and your staff at the Woodman for the incredible support and care I received during my recent fainting episode. It was a distressing moment for me, but your help and your team's quick action and professionalism truly made a difference in my recovery. I am especially grateful for the attententiveness of your staff, who ensured I received immediate assistance. Once again, many thanks to you and your staff for their kindness and support. With kindest regards, Malcolm Adam

Nice pub with good service. A varied menu with good value, enjoyable meals. Quite a few young children milling around spoiled the atmosphere. One of our dishes was cold, but was swapped out quickly and we were offered a free dessert as an apology. This was handled brilliantly. The ordering process was straightforward with barcodes at tables. Well prepared drinks.

Food was absolutely delicious, beef from the carvery was moist and tender, potatoes delicious and gravy top notch. Staff all very friendly, chef was really lovely and helpful and spoke to my two young daughters (7&9) in a lovely manner and couldn’t have been more helpful.

Had a great time, food was excellent and the staff were extremely helpful and polite

Easy booking online and quick food ordering system. Food produced in good time and well cooked.

Great food which was very good value. Served by friendly staff.

First visit but I will certainly be back. The staff were really friendly and helpful. The food was piping hot and delicious. Curry was very tasty according to my companions. Sadly we were too full to have a dessert.

Great service, staff super friendly and food was delicious.

Went for my Birthday lunch Had a lovely Carvery, followed by chocolate sundae. Friendly staff and great food, as always.

Great service and friendly staff. Nothing is a problem for staff when you ask, in fact they ask you occasionally without over doing so.

Lovely staff. Food arrived as promised not too long to wait. I'm coeliac and staff made sure the kitchen were aware and they were able to answer my questions easily. Lovely pub. Dog was happy with her choices too!

Lovely meal and friendly staff. Very quick service using the app and the notes for our food preferences were followed spot on. Thanks

Very good food,excellent staff service. Clean and tidy

Excellent meal and experience, the server was extremely friendly, would come back again for sure!

We returned to The Woodman on the 21st February by request after visiting before this pub before. We were greeted by Jamie who took care of us all night and was very professional and attentive. We have a lovely experience with our Son, Daughter in law and Grandchildren and really enjoyed the food and atmosphere. We would recommend this family experience.

Lovely carvery plenty to choose from all beautifully cooked very friendly staff and it's dog friendly which was great

Thursday steak and drink deal, the rump steak was very tender, cooked as requested.. Will return to try the Sunday carvery soon.

Cracking lunch today and a nice pint too !!

Brilliant pub and delicious food and a very good price , James in particular gave brilliant service , won't be long till we are back !

Nice place, nice staff, great food.

A real good place to visit. Our mother came here so we've come back in her memory. She would have been 90 on Saturday. But sadly no.longer with us.

Came for Sunday carvery - table of 7. Perfect location for meeting family members who were travelling home with a dog, being on the A31 and with walk opportunities and welcome inside for our dog. Staff were super friendly and the carvery was great value for the price

Friendly helpful staff. Good welcome on our arrival. Food was well presented and arrived quickly. Nice and hot and good size portions. Very pleased with our experience their.

we regularly visit with our family. Staff are always super friendly and cant do enough to help and food is top notch and great value.

Staff were all friendly and helpful Ordering at the table was easy Food was really good and value for money Will definitely be back

A lovely visit, yummy food and very nice to be dog friendly too. Good variety of meals, especially for a vegetarian who doesn't like Halloumi (which seems to be an assumption that if you're vegetarian you love Halloumi!). A dog menu is available, which is nice for them to be included. Service has always been great and we looking forward to coming back

Good value for money and the staff are very friendly

Staff were very helpful. Food came out quickly and was hot and tasty

Very disapointed. Think we got there at the wrong time. Had carvery. Daughter had to ask for steak knife to cut her beef which she left. It was very chewy. My carrots were hard and cold, peas were cold too as was the inside of my Yorkshire pudding. Sticking toffee pudding was just warmed through. Not been for years. We won't have Sunday roast again.

Such a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. I went for after work drinks with my new job and it was lovely. I only live round the corner and in the last 5 years we visited twice with a fairly underwhelming experience. I am already booking for the carvery tomorrow with my family now to try it again. Very excited to hopefully have a local venue to go for family dinners.

Food was amazing well presented good price staff were polite and chatting and I nice atmosphere will be back for sure

Nice food and drink, useful offers friendly and quick service

Huge place with lots of seating. Good food and really great value. Friendly staff and dog friendly as well.

Very friendly staff, and quality of the food very good.

Lovely stuff, all the time. Food in good amount and prices. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First time visiting today and it was awesome and sooo friendly. Would recommend to everyone

Really good value for money and really friendly staff. As they were quiet they served us at our table. We will be back.

Lovely atmosphere, really friendly and helpful staff. Food was absolutely delicious. I had the tuna mayo melt with chips, and the chips were really delicious, the baguette was really soft and fresh. The staff checked in with us regularly, and were really nice. First time visiting, and would definitely go back. I’d highly recommend.

Lovely food, great pub, amazing garden!

Excellent meal, great portions size, Fab pub

It has a very nice atmosphere. Staff are very welcoming.

I found the booking system very easy to navigate and also when i realised that i made a mistake it was just as easy to rectify. On arrival we were made to feel very welcome, showed to our table in no time all. The food is traditional pub food and was of a good quality and i’ve heard that the carvery is as equally of a good standard. Overall experience was very good and would recommend.

Long food wait times, taking over an hour to recieve food. No updates during that period. Once the food arrive, it was not great. Other tables complained about the bread being moldy, and stale, this was replaced several times with mouldy and eventually they gave up wanting their starter. Onion rings are stringy inside and overcooked outside. A person ordered chicken nuggets and chips, after eventually getting food after an hour, they got their chicken nuggets and chips, how you can screw up chicken nuggets and chips beats me. The nuggets were overcooked, undercooked inside and *some* of the chips were fully cooked. I had a meat platter which after others complaining, wasn't great. I asked for the steak medium rare, but half of it was raw... I obviously didn't eat all of it, with sausages being weird, mash being lumpy, the gammon seemed to be mostly cooked but sections were bad, it also looked green/grey in some sections. The staff seemed uninterested, bar staff whilst did provide drinks when we went to the bar, they didn't seem too happy about it. Restaurant staff seemed untrained, or struggling to cope, they wernt necessarily mean but they were a little rude to a lot of the tables, didnt seem very happy. In whole, this place seems to be falling through the cracks, I would assume most of these issues are systemic from management and lack of policy or following of said policy. I also have no idea how to dispute or request partial refunds, since the app was used and it doesn't give me options. It was a disappointing visit. :/

Very nice pub, quick, friendly service, good food. Will return if I'm in the area again.

A great place for a good value meal

Amazing food and service, play area .and dog friendly

Service was excellent, food was very good and they accommodated our dietary needs. Special thanks to James for your help. Lin ....DBA

We have used this pub for food on lots of occasions and always been satisfied , tonight really let down ,my wifes Hunters chicken wasnt very hot and sent it back to be reheated and my steak and ale pie was absolutly rubbish, all pastry and what appeared to be the smallest amount of meat. Really disappointed and hope things dont stay like this atmosphere and staff very good

Lovely meal after a nice dog walk, very friendly staff, see you next time👍

Good food, good atmosphere, friendly staff, quick service. What's not to like!?

Friendly , helpful staff. Good food reasonably priced. Comfortable surroundings and clean . Definitely will return with the rest of our group . Well done The Woodman

Firstly, the service was slow, and our server seemed unfocused. It took over 30 minutes for our food to arrive, even though the restaurant wasn't particularly busy. When our meals did arrive, we were disappointed. To be fair, the presentation of the dishes was lovely, and the atmosphere of the restaurant is pleasant. However, the subpar food and lackluster service overshadow these positives.

Great service and lovely food… thank you 👍🏽

Popped in on the off chance. Hot dog & chips for hubby. Chicken burger for me but light version, no fries or bun. Replaced with salad. Very tasty.

Very quick service when we went around 12.30 for lunch and the food was excellent

Tuna baguette was delicious and served in an informal comfortable pub.

A lovely atmospheric pub with very friendly and helpful staff. Good food reasonably priced

Easy booking great service and meal children enjoyed play area would recommend to anyone

Lovely food and friendly service.

Great food, friendly staff, spot on !

Arrived and was told to find a seat and order at the bar, lots of tables had “reserved” on them so finding a free table proved difficult. The starter arrived with a vile dipping sauce that was suppose to be spicy tomato but when we asked the waitress she said it was “hot maple”. Very strange choice for cheese bites. We also got the festive burger that had clearly been cooked in advance as it looked very shrives and tough. The Brie had seen the burger at one point but was missing at the point of being served, and the bacon was no where to be seen. The chips were cheap oven fries that were looking very sorry for themselves. For a £60 meal it was very much over priced and not worth the money. Avoid this place

Me and my daughter had a lovely lunch here! A member of staff recommended the dessert special which was a lemon tart and it was lovely! Good size kids portion and my daughter loved her ice cream sundae dessert which was only £1.50! Great value.

Lively service. Friendly and helpful. Food all arrived together. Was very nice

The Woodman has always been a place where we would meet as a whole family for celebrations or to just get together. The staff are friendly and the atmosphere is exactly what you would want when visiting. The food was amazing and very enjoyable and even though we had booked a 'slot', we were not asked to vacate the table however I do understand that if very busy we might have been asked to go to the bar area. They have a lovely garden space with a kids play area and is fantastic in the summer.

The meals were good, served hot, pub grub! The waiter was lovely. The short haired small blonde lady who i imagine is the manager needs to learn service with a smile and customer service skills. Very abrupt.. sadly a massive let down for the place as food was ok for the price

Nice food.great service. Good portion size

This was a short notice booking for 28 people ,the staff made everyone welcome ,great menu for adults and children ,also good for gluten free ,would highly recommend

James and collegues were all great Had 3 family meals at the Woodman over the Christmas period food atmosphere price cleanliness friendly staff all 1st class Thanks very much

Nice food and surroundings , its still a pity that a glass of wine costs £9.35, no need for such high prices and spoils the evening.

Really good service from friendly staff and lovely atmosphere. We had breaded mushrooms for starters followed by the carvery main course and just about managed to squeeze pudding in - the food was lovely and we all enjoyed our lunch.

Christmas dinner.vaah variety.Good service,polite staff.Good parking.Toilet facilities good.Highly recommend

Stopped for lunch on the way back from visiting a friend. staff tried to be accommodating but let down by the food. Prawn cocktail - wilted lettuce and hard bread. Breaded mushrooms like small rocks very over cooked. Hunters chicken dry and tasteless. Disappointing and would never go again.