The best restaurants serving British food in Purbeck South West

In Swanage for a brief visit - beach was blowing a proverbial - so retreated to find some food before heading back to steam train.. Harlees was spacious and bright and looked appetising. Food was ordered and we sat at a booth till our numbers were called. Fresh, tasty and not expensive - what more do you want.

This is part of Rudd's Hotel - but they try and keep the reviews separate - with good reason. Lulworth Cove is beautiful. The pretty courtyard to the hotel looked a great spot for lunch and the menu looked perfect. We arrived at 12:45 and went to the hotel bar to collect menus and order. We ordered drinks but were told they had just taken a big food order and were waiting for some deliveries and would take our order in 10 or 15 minutes. When we went back later we were told the owner/chef was expecting a delivery of wood and they wouldn't come until he paid them hence a further delay. "It's like Fawlty Towers here" said the girl behind the bar. At 1:15 they announced that they were now taking lunch orders. We ordered Calamari and chips for my daughter, moules mariniere and chips for my son, a crab sandwich on brown with halloumi fries for my wife and seafood paella for me. Total cost £64.50. We were told we would be called to the window of the kitchen when the food was ready. In the meantime I went to the loo - a trip I would only recommend in the most urgent of circumstances. They didn't have brown bread (my wife won't eat white). As he pushed to polystyrene boxes of food through the window to me the chef explained that they didn't have halloumi fries so he had put in some spring rolls instead. The calamari was inedible. As I said to the chef - they could have been used as weapons in martial arts they batter was so hard. We also failed to detect any squid, The seafood paella was also inedible. They had lined the polystyrene box with tin foil because it was swimming with liquid. It was also bland and just awful. I complained to the chef who offered to refund the money for the paella - £15. I would have argued and demanded a full refund - but we were on holiday and it doesn't take much to embarrass an 11 and 12 year old - so I let it go. The girl who took our order came and put the refund back to my card. I have just got back home and checked my account and instead of refunding me £15 they charged me another £15. You couldn't make it up.