The best restaurants in West Dorset South West

I stopped for a cup of coffee when road works held up progress. I got the sort of genuine friendly service you don't get in chains and a great cup of coffee too, which I had in the little garden at the back of the shop. I loved the place and would definitely return.

a unique cafe experience. indulge your taste buds with lovely home made cakes and pastries, tracy definitely knows what shes doing here. good luck with your current plans

Lovely little place with a really friendly lady serving. So many ciders to choose from and also other drinks available if you're not a cider drinker. Was encouraged to try to ciders first which was great. Will definitely be back when we're in the area.

They have a full range of lovely local fruit and seasonal vegetables, as well as local Dorset biscuits, cakes, preserves and other goodies. The owners could not be more helpful, even delivering to us on their way home during the lockdown. Well worth making a regular visit

Walked (on a walking holiday) in with 2 dogs and my daughter to a warm welcome. Pub was quite busy but we were served promptly with a quenching beer & cider. The menu specials all sounded delicious. The food appeared quickly and was excellent. I had liver and my daughter the faggots. Pudding was also lovely. Great value, I hope I walk past again soon!

Wasn't open at 12.30 today, Monday. Coach load of unhappy passengers! And, of course, as the driver, it's my fault.

We use this place reasonably often as it’s only 2 minutes walk. I don’t eat fish but my husband says it is good. The chips are well cooked, not too oily and flabby as are so many fish shops offerings.

Stopped this afternoon for coffee and something to eat. Wonderful cafe. Staff are friendly and efficient with lots of humour which I really enjoyed. Would thoroughly recommend 👌

Don't understand the reviews or the hotel's self description. We had 5 small plates between us: duck leg - very tender,as if slow cooked, but unbelievably salty/inedible; bream - very slightly overdone, which was acceptable, but very small piece & came with kale, also incredibly salty (why was it pre-salted anyway?). Stuffed peppers, greasy & filled with a very unappetising sludge- not sure what was in it. Fourth was a dish of ''deep fried new potatoes with sea salt, truffle oil & parmesan'' - dry to the point of inedible, incredibly salty, & no noticeable truffle taste. Lastly, ''fritto di portabello fungi'', ie. slimy mushrooms,which didn't work well with the taste of tarragon, in a very heavy batter. Waitress (very nice girl) said we weren't the first to complain about the saltiness. And I should add that my partner, recently in Florence & not usually one to complain (she's a ''glass half full person'' apparently), pronounced that there was nothing authentically Italian about this quite poor food. Wine was OK, but overall, for 94 quid, the whole experience was unhealthy & depressing.

We were served by a lovely young lady. Extremely helpful & attentive. Unfortunately, they had no lemons to accompany the Earl Grey tea. Hard to believe a hotel kitchen would run out of lemons! The sandwiches were quite nice, but the bread was beginning to dry on a few of them. A sufficient amount of food, but not quite the standard I had expected. However, we still managed to enjoy our friend's birthday celebration.

What a gem! We stayed from 5-12 Aug- 4 adults and 2 children ages 7 and 10. The cottage is next to the river Frome- we saw Swans, a heron, water voles, ducks, moorhens, butterflies and bats! Great for us townies! The cottage , although old in exterior, is full of mod cons in interior. It should be noted that we stayed in the ‘heatwave’ and the cottage was so cool! The kitchen is fab, so well equipped- chefs would have a field day! The little patio outside has a charcoal bbq and extra chairs/loungers- this leads to a narrow riverside garden. The lounge is so comfortable, with a smart tv - Netflix etc… upstairs, 3 bedrooms, a smaller truckle bedroom ( 2 single beds, if required) a double bedroom and a fab king size bedroom with a compact en suite. Also upstairs is the family bathroom with free standing bath and separate shower. The Welcome pack was the best ever… Prosecco, milk, bread, chutney, butter, sweets for the kiddlies, chew for our Cava-Jack terrier. It was well equipped with toilet rolls, dishwasher tabs, washing machine tabs, fairy liquid and hand wash- never known this before! This is mainly down to Clare, the next door housekeeper, who is friendly, helpful and enthusiastic. The local chip shop ( 2 doors up) is open on a Thurs/Fri snd the pub, the Chalk and Cheese is a very “locals” pub, serving ‘pub grub’ we were made welcome one night when we enjoyed a meal There is a lovely park next to the Village hall/ cemetery, that our grandkids loved. Would recommend trips to corfe castle on the steam train from Swanage, Lyme Regis and Mudeford. A fab week.would definitely recommend this holiday home.

Have just returned home from a very disappointing evening atThe Clock.There was a group of around 16 of us who had pre booked a skittles night.The very limited choice offered was sausage and chips and scampi and chips which were probably the worst I’ve ever eaten.How can you get something so easy so wrong and the service wasn’t much better.The landlord and landlady never once came through to enquire how our evening was going of thank us for coming. Not really the way to run a village pub if you want customers to return.

fabulous fresh fish served by terrific young staff who cant do enough for you.. one of my very favourite places to be.

I thought we should give this place a try having read the reviews......all I can say is that we must have gone to a different place than they all did. Yes the 'owner' is a nice chap but the other two members of staff were somewhat less engaging. First of all please be advised that the novel aspect of this place is that you get to pour your own beer from taps set into the wall.....initially great fun but this soon turned to frustration as it is virtually impossible to get a full pint as the beer (when we went) was far too lively meaning that you seem to pour away more than actually goes into the glass. .....and there were no staff on hand to help out . So on the night that we went all 3 tables had folks sitting there with half full glasses, each taking turns to revisit the taps and attempting to top their glasses up. Personally I made 4 trips and am convinced I never actually got a full pint......and by the way the beer is pretty good but at £5 a pint is somewhat overpriced....presumably because most of it end up on the floor hence they have factored into the price a huge degree of spillage As regards the food we ordered 2 meals which were both supposedly based on tagliatelle pasta.....both arrived with spaghetti and no comments or excuses were provided. As spag bol goes my dish was underwhelming....cheap, yes but not what I had expected nor wanted. So if you want to pay £5 a pint and spill beer over your shoes and then pick something from the menu which might appeal but acknowledge that something different will most likely be presented then this is the place for you!

Home cooked cakes , extensive menu , nothing is too much trouble because the staff are so friendly. Well done I cannot recommend it enough