The best restaurants in Bransgore and Burley New Forest South East

Visiting the area and went for a birthday treat as looked like something a bit special. Very disappointed. We were advised they were busy, although we had pre-booked, and bought olives to the table. 45min wait to order. 2 starters - french onion soup was 'watery' and no cheese crouton, bread board to share was fresh but did not taste of sundried tomato and bacon as advised. Long wait for mains - people arriving after us were getting their main courses - and what a disappointment. Dover Sole mushy and tasteless (returned), lamb cutlets not pink as promised with tasteless red win jus, duck breast edible but poor. 2.5 hours after table booking foraging for food in local co-op! Bill was significantly discounted, but for restaurant prices all food we had was a very poor standard.

Food was OK, varying from excellent to not so great. Manager was awful, refusing to correct bill for voucher which said 25% off total food bill, suggesting that the terms and conditions might have stopped the desserts being included. I had used screen shots of the original, and somehow cannot find the original, so she said that the terms and conditions excluded screen shots (am I that unusual that I don't read all of the small print of an apparently straightforward offer). I was in a good restaurant today, where they made a little error, and when I asked to pay the part they had not charged, they said they had excluded it because they had messed up. I asked for nothing, and their customer service went beyond the reasonable. Yours was the opposite.

We stopped off here on a bike ride. The service was fantastic and the food very tasty. There was an error with our order but they were so apologetic and gave us a complimentary piece of cake. That’s exactly how it should be done when a problem occurs, so thank you! Highly recommend.

Cream tea was very disappointing..dirty cups and a very long wait to be served. Plenty of other places for cream tea..avoid this tearoom/restaurant

My partner and I stopped at The Cat and Fiddle wanting a quick pit stop on our journey down in to the new Forest. Wow. I honestly was not expecting the welcome we received. As we walked in, we were welcomed by a lovely lady who we later found out is the landlady Barbara. Me and my partner were fascinated by the history of the building and Barbara herself started giving us a tour ....... we saw the 'corpse hatch' where Barbara jokes 'my bedroom is right above' got taken to the old fire place and had the full tour with Barbara explaining that the Cat and Fiddle might be, and definitely is the most historic pub in Britain. When you go, find Barbara ........ you can't miss her ...... it's a big place but if you ask her about the history, my word, I learnt more from Barbara than I learnt visiting Highclffe castle down the road, the tales of smugglers, toll roads and how the Cat and Fiddle has been part of it for centuries is fascinating. Don't feel ashamed to ask for Barbara ......... she adores the pub and its heritage and she will love to give you the history. My partner and I went popped by for a drink (which the options were extensive .......... I'm a pint man but my partner said the rose wine was really good!) I had a a pint or three of Staropramen as I wasn't driving, I could have spent many hours exploring this fascinating place with Barbara. My tip, visit mid week .......... don't hold back and ask Barbara about the history ......... you'll get the full tour! It's busy on weekends so don't hold me to it! Thanks Babs. Amazing food and a wonderful atmosphere ........ visit on a weekend and you'll see the famous red and white polka dot shoes

We had our wedding here on the 28 August 2024. What a fabulous day from start to finish. Everything was perfect. Tom and his staff were very professional but friendly and accommodating. All our guest guests thought it was the perfect venue very relaxed. Even the weather was perfect and we were able to have our ceremony outside, but even if we needed to be inside the venue would still have been perfect. A really big thank you to Tom and his team for making our special day perfect.

Went as a group of 4 with toddler. Pies lovely but should be served with a portion of gravy. We asked for some and got some so ok. Cabbage watery and peas looked reheated a few times but in the main nice. Clean table. Served quickly for drinks. Kids meal nice portion wise and all eaten. It's a local pub that we've not used much but will be returning.

Expectation exceeded. First time here for a relatives 60th who had stayed here before and yep, this hit the spot. Think of cutesy, countryside, “Manor House” style kind of boutiquesque blend, and this will sum it up Loved my room (number 6), the bar, restaurant, gun room and surrounding area. It’s truly in a great location for walks and is dog friendly. Some issues with another room with a faulty extractor which looks to not have been working for some time as the shower room was too damp and the smell was obviously so (room 20). The third room of the party, (room 15) again, great. Food great and staff happy to serve. Bit let down by the Saturday lunch but that’s on an ultra petty level like, not bringing over cutlery when served food and putting ice in drink when asking for none and a slightly too salty mushroom on toast dish (and that takes a fair bit for me to say too salty) but as I said, petty but compared to the flawless dinner on the Friday night, it did “taint” the over all experience on the food front. Wouldn’t say the best cocktails so don’t indulge with the price point but good wines and boy oh boy the Guinness here is on point. Amazing head! 100% looking to come back

Services slow, nice roast , the roast potatoes where a let down, great sweets

The best Sunday roast we've had in ages proper home cooked

We come to the Crown a lot. Lovely food, staff are so lovely and friendly, always a warm welcome, and it’s great using the vintage loyalty card to! Makes us come so much more! We live around 15 mins away but this is our local now!! Love it there! Thanks to you all!!

We had a family Sunday for a table of 11. Never been before and a beautiful looking place. Arrived 10 minutes early but seated straight away which was great as we had young hungry children with us. This unfortunately was where the good service ended. Sat quite near the waitress station and till we were in prime vision for multiple members of staff (of which there were a lot) and they walked past our table regularly. However we had to ask at every stage… please can we order drinks, please can we order food, please can we look at the dessert menu etc… Even when we asked for the dessert menu they didn’t clear the plates which had sat empty for some time. We didn’t feel particularly wanted and more like an inconvenience. The food itself was ok, never one for high hopes for a mass produced roast I was pleasantly surprised although for the price it’s quite small and ideally would’ve been slightly warmer. Desserts again were not particularly hot but ok. Having not been asked if we wanted more drinks than the original first order we sat with empty glasses for some time. Leisurely is good, but attentive it wasn’t which was a real shame. Not sure we’d rush back.

After a challenging weekend in the New Forest, (not the Forest’s fault) we decided to try and salvage something by having a posh afternoon tea at Burley Manor before returning home. We rang and booked the day before as wifey is both vegetarian and GF, and we wanted to give them a fighting chance. I wish we hadn’t bothered. Let’s start with the parking - there isn’t any if your vehicle is bigger than a small family gadabout. We were in our motorhome, and ended up parking in a field that was open for a separate event. Burley Manor assured us this was fine, and that neither gate (big or small) would be locked. You guessed it - wrong , but we squeezed out thanks to wifey’s skilful driving and steely nerve. Then let’s talk about the perfectly coiffed member of staff who seated us, took our drinks order, sent somebody else over with them, then ignored us for nigh on 45 mins. Finally our afternoon tea arrived and was placed by a disdainful waiter, who when he was confused about who’s was who’s and I pointed out the ramifications of getting it wrong snapped, ‘well I didn’t take the order, did I?’ The food itself was fine, just fine, not excellent or amazing, and certainly not worth £61! When we challenged our disdainful waiter on the horrific wait, he was more than happy to throw his colleagues under the bus, saying that his previous establishment had been much more professional! His excuse was that they had had been overbooked for lunch and had several afternoon tea bookings. They had our phone number, if they couldn’t handle the number of guests, they shouldn’t have taken the booking, or they should have cancelled us. To be honest, the nice man who had accidentally locked us in the field, on his Penny farthing and talked about deer and pigs, but reassured us we would easily get Buzzy the motorhome out was the highlight of the whole debacle, and he didn’t work for Burley Manor!

Disappointed to discover they have closed their indoor seating area, for good it seems, and only offer take away service. Which for disabled persons, means struggling with your food and drink to outdoor only benches some 20 yards from the cafe entrance.