Woodman in East Dorset

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

Good value for money and the staff are very friendly

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Excellent meal, great portions size, Fab pub

Lovely food, great pub, amazing garden!

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.

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

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. :/

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

36 of us went for our Christmas meal last night and it was fabulous. Food delicious, staff amazing. Thank you all so much for making our stroke survivors Christmas do so good and accommodating us. The staff went above and beyond and we had a fantastic night. The turkey was delicious!

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.

Friendly staff. Good selection of food and drink. Sensible prices. Everyone on my table of 5 happy.

Really lovely Christmas lunch. Friendly staff and delicious food. Delightful atmosphere

Went for Xmas dinner with 14 if our friends from archery and had a wonderful time, food was excellent and the service was great. James and his team deserve top marks and we would recommend the place to anyone. Go give them a try I'm sure you won't regret it 😁

Bearded Manager was very attentive. Service very quick and food nice and hot

We used the pub for Rover P6 group meetings and for Dorset Car Club Meetings. The staff are great and a wide variety of food at great prices.

First visit today with family. Super carvery, good choice with hot well cooked food. Good value for money and friendly staff. Will definitely return.

Popped in to take our elderly neighbour for a dinner after he had just come out of hospital. He is over 70 years old and he thoroughly enjoyed his carvery and even though he loaded up his plate I didn’t think he would be able to eat it all but he did. This won’t be the last time you will see him, or us.

Lack of atmosphere. Food similar to fast food outlet. Overpriced

Lovely food and pub. Reasonably priced and good service

Went in with my newborn baby for a quick lunch around 11am. Very friendly staff, very nice food. Service was very quick and nothing was too much trouble. Definitely going back soon, Woodman made a good first impression. Garden looked impressive so looking forward to a summer beer garden trip soon.

Building was warm, staff were very attentive & nothing was too much bother. Food was hot & my hunters chicken was the best I’ve had so far.

Nice welcome, dog friendly, smashing meals, approachable staff, nice atmosphere in a clean & tidy environment

Everyone was very helpful. The Sunday Carvery was really good.

Friendly and helpful staff and good, well presented food.

Always excellent food and service. Just don't bother ordering double chips as we have twice been served a normal portion despite paying extra.

We went for Sunday carvery yesterday, we were very impressed. A warm welcome on a foul day. Not too busy but a nice atmosphere. Friendly staff, good service and the food was delicious. Very reasonably priced too. We've booked to go again in a couple of weeks with the rest of the family. Thanks to all the staff.

Not a bad pub and restaurant. Food is on the cheaper scale and it shows in a fair few of the meals. Service is always good and lots of choice of drinks.

Great food and drink good atmosphere

James and gang were great really good burgers and the extra fries are a bargain. Would recommend to anyone, first class will return when next on holiday in Dorset😃

Ran out of meat for the carvery before out 4pm booking for 14 people who all wanted the carvery which is why we booked the Woodman Also ran out of house white wine

Good food, friendly staff, and a bonus is you can take your dog in