Silent Woman, Coldharbourback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
I live in Poole and regularly walk my dogs in Wareham Forest. I have popped into this pub on a few occasions for a bit of lunch and a pint after a long walk.
I will start with the good, the pub is well situated, well presented and has lovely gardens. It is really nice to sit outside enjoying a beautiful day such as today, though the occasional heavy lorry going to and from the nearby quarry does disturb the ambience at times. The menu looks very nice though to be honest I usually have a ploughmans lunch. It is hard to get a ploughmans wrong but I do feel that this pub provides one which is a cut above most.
The staff are well dressed and polite and the beer seems well kept.. So with all this positive feedback why do I rate the pub only 3/10?
Despite so many positives I find the atmosphere a real turn off, it is a kind of attitude that seems to pervade the place. There are large signs at the doors making it very clear that children are not welcome. They are only allowed in the garden, and signs in the garden make it very clear that children are not allowed to play!! On a previous visit my son was not even allowed inside to look at the menu and the specials board for food!
Today my wife and I ordered a ploughmans lunch each and asked for a side order of chips. Oh no said the young lady behind the bar (politely), we don't serve chips on their own. This despite the fact that chips are available on the menu as a side order. Well I don't want them on their own, I want them as a side order with my meal. Sorry, you can't have them came the reply. On asking for an explanation I was told we don't want people coming in and ordering one meal and 8 plates of chips. This with a grand total of 8 patrons in the pub. I gave up.
I suspect this attitude has something to do with caravan site behind the pub, but frankly I am amazed that a rural pub with little passing trade can afford to turn away any custom, even if they do just want a plate of chips.
I find it somewhat Ironic that dogs are allowed in the pub but children are not!!
I am afraid that this pub has seen the last of my custom.
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Very polite staff and very good food. Good atmosphere.
However, the beer is from Hall and Woodhouse and sadly it lived up to its poor reputation.
The menu is also good if you have a coeliac in the party - items on the menu are marked with a C if they are coeliac-friendly.
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Great food, great service, and relaxing. The place is very welcoming and has friendly staff. The food is outstanding and I would recommend this lovely hidden pub to anyone.
Also to the comment below, if there is a private function going on you should respect that instead of saying the pub is unfriendly...at the end of the day on my wedding fuction i know i dont want just anyone turning up after a walk....would u?????
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After a long walk through forest and common, my wife and I arrived at this pub. A young man came out saying "Sorry we're closed for a private wedding function". I asked if we could just buy a drink and stay outside but he just repeated the message. My wife said we've just walked a long way, so could she just have a glass of water. He just repeated the same message. We couldn't believe that a pub of all places that is normally open at that time would be so inhospitable to people who had walked there for a drink!
Having seen reviews on other sites I see that the landlord is rated as having a bad attitude. Before the change of ownership it was friendly and had good food and service if a little less fancy looking. As I live in Wareham I am sad to see that the usual friendly atmosphere of Dorset is let down by this pub with a famous name. We'll never return and we'll tell our friends about it.
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Nice Ad. sunshine, beer must be crap as you`ve not said a word about it.
Beerintheevening it`s in the name !!!!
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5 STAR FOOD, 5 STAR SERVICE - I came to this lovely pub with my friends during our stay at a local camp site, and we all really enjoyed ourselfs. We all ate at this pub and the food was outstanding, there was a wide selection of food to chose from the menu not including the special board they had. The service was lovely, as soon as we walked into the pub we were greeted by the landlord and landlady who were really friendly, and all the staff were well dressed and made our evening really enjoyable. It was also nice to find somewhere to eat where children under the age of 14 are not aloud in because it is nice to enjoy and adult atmosphere pub, with no children running around or screaming. All of us truly had a nice end to our holiday and we will be returning to this pub when we come to wareham again. Great food great service
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In answer to On The Brightside's comment - have you been to this pub? Because if you haven't, keep your opinions on other's parenting skills to yourself. I don't prop my 2-year-old on the bar while buying a pint. I don't willingly expose my kids to foul mouthed ranting from drunks, and I don't troll the internet looking to chuck my opinions about without having any decent reference point to do so. I go to a country pub in the middle of the afternoon to enjoy one (one!) beer alongside some good food and quality service. I don't go to a pub in the country to get treated like scum because I happen to have children with me and then get charged through the nose for a bit of bacon from a supermarket shoved inside a drab roll.
The problem with this boozer isn't that it doesn't allow children, the problem is that it's overpriced, has some dreadful service and an attitude towards EVERYONE that is stuck in the 0s. But then, I'd know that because I've been there. I'd know that because I felt passionate enough to come onto this site and say something about it in the hope that the next person who thought about going there would think twice. What did you hope you'd achieve with your opinion?
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Right. This post is nothing about the pub but a rant about what people expect from pubs and what pubs are. The posts below are - it seems to me - divided (mostly) along the lines of I've children with me and I've not got children with me.
This is the rant - you make your choice; if the pub is clearly not child amenable then don't go, don't moan about it, just don't go there, go somewhere that suits your needs. If it purports to be child/dog/whatever friendly and isn't then do moan.
I'm not old fashioned and don't hanker after smokey, nasty boozers, BUT all adults hanker after somewhere where there aren't kids running around - pubs are for grown ups, they are not MacDonalds. And ignoring the law, it is a public house and the publican (who is in charge of the public house) can choose who they serve - within the bounds of discrimination law obviously.
For me, I don't like to see children running round in the pub - go to the beer garden, if there isn't one then go somewhere else. I don't like seeing two year olds propped on the bar while the parents buy their Stella - parents, learn your parenting skills. I don't like children buying soft drinks at the bar. And - especially - I don't like parents exposing their children to foul-mouthed drunks and semi-drunks who will be found in many pubs.
There you go, a pub isn't a kreshhh, kreshhhh.
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Went there in the afternoon while holidaying in the area. No children inside, they're only allowed in the garden. But in the garden they're not allowed to actually do anything except sit and be quiet. Dogs aren't allowed in the pub or the garden, presumably they have to sit in the car park and dissolve... Now if this pub was what it pretends to be, a gourmet diner with an amazing and very grown up inside that wows crowds, then this sort of outdated snobbery might be excusable. It's not. Inside is nothing much to look at, you could be in any 3 star hotel bar. The food? Ha! The food is overpriced and about as interesting to eat as a �7 bacon roll with a small fried egg stuffed on top sounds.
And to make matters worse for them, my wife stepped inside to find the toilet with our two children and was immediately told she had to get out because children weren't allowed!
The 70s haven't finished here - the name of the pub backs up the stuffy attitude it has to everyone. If it wasn't illegal these days, I'd not be surprised to find a sign up saying No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish (No Kids either and women have to be quiet the entire time they're inside).
The drink? Could you be bothered to go there and find out? Because I can't be bothered to remember if I liked it. (I didn't).
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Superb. Food, service, surroundings all excellent. We were VERY pleased. John and Helena
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Very well kept pub, all the rules clearly marked on notice boards! Hall and Woodhouse usual charcterless beer, but well kept for what it is. Food mediocre to very poor, my wifes fish pie was 80% mash potato I think the fish escaped. What a pitty, great location, lovely place, little atmosphere just mediocre beer and over priced food. I guess with all the potential holiday business from nearby caravan parks, doesn't need repeat business.
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I had the most awful experience at this pub in terms of customer service. And I would suggest that anybody with children should steer well clear. The pub clearly does not enjoy children (the toy machine was broken and there is a big sign on the door saying children only welcome if they stay outside the pub). And that attitude became even more apparent when a female member of staff insulted my children. Our children were standing on the exposed concrete base of a water feature surrounded by flowers. The children were not treading on the flowers and my youngest was simply letting the water run over her hand. However, the female member of staff stomped outside and told them to get off in an extraordinarily rude fashion. Had she asked them politely, they would have moved away. Had she asked me politely, I would have apologised and told them to move away. There were no signs up asking them to stay away from the well and flowers, nor any ropes or fences that would suggest same. They were in no way being unruly or rude. But it would seem that the staff member is, "sick of telling parents to keep their children under control". I gently suggested that a more polite way of asking them to step away from the flowers would have been more appropriate than what she actually did. Her response was to say, "If you don't like it, clear off" which is exactly what we did. The pub is called the Silent Woman Inn. Oh, if only that had been the case...
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I had the most awful experience at this pub in terms of customer service. And I would suggest that anybody with children should steer well clear. The pub clearly does not enjoy children (the toy machine was broken and there is a big sign on the door saying children only welcome if they stay outside the pub). And that attitude became even more apparent when a female member of staff insulted my children. Our children were standing on the exposed concrete base of a water feature surrounded by flowers. The children were not treading on the flowers and my youngest was simply letting the water run over her hand. However, the female member of staff stomped outside and told them to get off in an extraordinarily rude fashion. Had she asked them politely, they would have moved away. Had she asked me politely, I would have apologised and told them to move away. There were no signs up asking them to stay away from the well and flowers, nor any ropes or fences that would suggest same. They were in no way being unruly or rude. But it would seem that the staff member is, "sick of telling parents to keep their children under control". I gently suggested that a more polite way of asking them to step away from the flowers would have been more appropriate than what she actually did. Her response was to say, "If you don't like it, clear off" which is exactly what we did. The pub is called the Silent Woman Inn. Oh, if only that had been the case...
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I can only write about the experience I personally had at this pub. I had read the reviews posted here before I visited the local campsite for a few days this week, so it was with some trepidation that I ventured through the doors! However, I found both the landlord and his staff extremely welcoming, the beer good and the food excellent. Definitely would use the place again next time I visit.
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this surely must be the worst pub not only was the food dreadfull but once you made a comment the staff dissapear what a waste of this location
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Returned to the local campsite this year with party of 11 adults and 7 children and took great pride in dissuading any of them from contemplating this pub. The Weld Arms in East Lulworth, by contrast, bent over backwards to accommodate us all. Our party alone spent best part of �1K there that the Silent Woman would have had but for their policy, not counting any other campers we talked to about it. Naturally the landlord may adopt whatever rules he wishes but he's never going to get on Dragon's Den if he's too dense to establish what his best market is. And HenPen is spot on with the law - it is simply a lie to pretend that children are not allowed inside the pub "by law".
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a mid week visit,and the place was packed and this was before the holiday season started,glad i booked a table,anyway the badger beer was very good,the food was good and service very good.i admire the landlord for his right to allow whoever he chooses to have in his pub,and it is correct that by law nobody under 14 is allowed in the bar area.
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Spent a week on a local caravan site with my wife in late May 2010. I had read the reviews about this pub prior to going there. We had an afternoon drink one day and found the place to be really lovely and the licencee very friendly so booked a table for 4 adults for my wifes birthday on 1st June. Everything was great, food, drink, staff, service, value for money and the venue. The licencee is within his rights to have his own rules re children etc. Dont forget HE doesnt know you or your kids and British behaviour on average falls well short of that on the continent. Find elsewhere if you cannot meet his criteria or sit in the garden. Kids werent allowed in pubs anyway a few years ago
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Not sure you will ever have to worry about any kids being the centre of your universe wynyard I mean what a load of to$$!
To imply that parents who want to take their kids to pubs are all irresponsible merely shows up your own ignorance. As suggested in these reviews it is the extreme measures this pub has gone to that are a shame. My 'feral offspring' was aged 11 months in a pushchair during my visit to this place. She was really looking to make a nuisance of herself, I can tell you. Also, some kids older can actually behave themselevs, and no one has suggested turning this pub into a creche.
We were simply treated as described in my review. All factual, I can assure you.
To some of us, this policy is ludicrous based on the potential catchment from the 3 large campsites. A fair observation, right or wrong but made made by several reviews.
Now, what is your review of this pub? Or let me guess - you haven't actually been to this pub, have you!
Finally, you think the licensee is putting a nice environment for adults in front of his own profits! That helps put all your comments into context, so thanks for that. I mean, did you come down in the last shower???
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Not sure what it is about people with children that they get so upset when someone else does not appreciate their "little darlings" as much as they do.
They may be the centre of your universe but that does not mean they are at the centre of mine!
There are plenty of pubs where children can be taken, so why keep moaning about this pub, and instead, go somewhere else where you are welcome. I suspect, many of those complaining about their children not been allowed into the pub, are the very people that are happy to sit in the pub and don't care if their feral off-spring are upsetting other customer, just as long as they are OK.
It is perhaps due to the over indulged children, of ignorant parents, who allowed their treasures to be a nuisance that there is now a ban.
I think it is a credit to this licensee that he puts having a nice environments for adults, over making as much money as possible. If this costs a little more on the price of food and drink, I think it is a price worth paying.
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i read wiht intrest commment above and all ican say is what planet are these people on we also stay at one of the local camp sites and find the silent woman one of the nices pub we ever visit. sure thay do not allow children into the pub, but then a lot of people do not want to have noisy unruley children about when thay are having a evening or lunchtime out. ample covered outdoor space is available also an enclosed safe play area, what more do people want? the beer is always good and the food is always to a very high standard. as non locals we always find the landlord and landlady most welcoming as indeed are all the staff. i am sure the above comments are the exception. so if you are planning a visit do not be put off by the few bad reviews. great place
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Dear oh dear, what a waste. Great looking pub in an ideal location close to three large campsites, completely spoiled by antisocial prohibitions. No children allowed anywhere inside, even when we made the mistake of wandering in with our child to find the toilet we were accosted by a member of staff within seconds and cursorily shown the outside route to the toilets. Most offensively, a sign on the bar door indicating that "due to licensing laws" no children under 14 allowed in. Crap! It's because you are a bunch of miserable sods who don't know who your best customers are, don't insult us with made up laws. I suspect the residents of the retirement park behind the pub are responsible for this policy - fair enough, they make their own rules but they missed out on several hundred pounds worth of business from my and other families who were staying on one of the campsites who chose to go elsewhere - will take quite a few sales of halves of mild to make that up. Further terse signs inside banning the sale of individual portions of chips, and demanding money for credit card transactions. Local taxi driver from Wareham told us he hated the place because of their miserable policies and refused to drop passengers there!
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Even though we booked a table for the start of serving, all four different main courses ordered were overcooked and poorly presented. Desert was cherry cheesecake, but had to be taken back to the kitchen for the cherries to be added.
Staff were attentive and friendly, beer was good, shame about the food.
We would normally have complained at the time but were being treated by older relatives and therefore didn't like to embarass them by making a "fuss".
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How can I describe this pub? AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL -
There are some people born to be a publican and some people that earn the right to be a publican - in my opinion he should change occupation!!
The Landlord shouts at his staff in front of customers he only relys on passing trade, discriminates against families for having children(the eu courts would love that on equality), food was awful, beer prices OTT and not even a smile as he served.
Certainly wont be going back here again in a hurry!!
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In my opinion...
Perhaps they should rename this pub 'The Silent Children' or something similar. We stayed at one of the 3 local campsites and thought the place looked nice for lunch, so walked along there.
We (as a large proportion of the population do) have kids and found the place totally unwelcoming. We had to sit outside (even though the pub wasn't even 1/4 full) in the 'pleasant' October weather in the sad excuse for a children's play area. The menu states 'Due to constant requests from our customers we do not allow children anywhere in the pub'. This suggests to me that 'their customers' are their regulars, and I believe if you are not one of them you are not welcome.
Whilst one can appreciate that some adults want peace and quiet (I didn't have kids myself once!) to not even allow kids in at lunch time (this place shuts at 2pm) in a small area of the pub (they could sit facing the wall in the corner?) seems quite strange.
For lunch the kids menu starts at �4.95 (don't even ask about the rest of the menu prices). You cannot even buy a side order of chips (I assume to further discourage 'casual' eaters who do not actually want to spend five quid on half a portion of fairly average fair).
You only need to read their website (check out the policies and philosophies page!) to get an idea of the rules. Everything about this place is negative - 'No this, No that etc etc'.
I bet this was a nice pub once, but yet another establishment that has tried to become a restaurant. For adults only. With very deep pockets. Providing they obey the rules. And definitely don't bring any children.
Well their rules are not my rules. We will not be bothering them again with our custom.
Such a shame.
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I am part of a local cycle group who decided to start from the pub with a view to sinking a few beers apres ride. As we were parking the landlord asked us to move some of the cars which we did leaving 3 in the car park. Upon our return the pub was empty and we were blamed for driving away his custom. The sign outside indicates children are not welcome. (There are several campsites close)I can't believe that this pub deserves to be frequented.
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will go with most reviews here.the landlord and lady are very friendly.we got a txt to say our son had an accident while having dinner and then completely lost signal.the landlady heard we couldnt make contact and presented at the table with the house phone.a lovely gesture.the end bar is the only place you can just have a drink.the rest of the pub with tables set for diners.the same menu through out the pub.usual suspects as far as pub grub goes and chef specials which were lovely.the pub is very busy all of the time and the car park was full everytime we past which was what drew us in.theres 3 caravan sites close by which may account for that.badger beers really nicely kept and a really nice rose from the short but adequate wine list.well worth a visit if your on hols in the wareham area.
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The "end bar" is still a pub. Very friendly landlord & landlady. The rest of the building is devoted to being a restaurant. Badger ales, always well kept but shocking prices!!
Never had a bad meal here, always happy with the food.
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Excellent Pub, Excellent Landlord and Landlady, Great food and company. Even made inlaws happy.
Les R.
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Landlord has done his best to make it a resteraunt at the cost of being a decent pub.No kids allowed, motorbikers not encouraged.Funny in the middle of winter ,in the car welcomed with open arms but turn up in the summer on the motorbike and your completly snubbed.
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Seasonal closing? - Nah, mate! The current landlord kicked out the darts team (they played on Mondays) and kicked out the pool team (we played on Tuesdays) in an attempt to make it more of a restaurant.
I was a regular there for over 20 years, and it was never the same after Nigel left. I've found somewhere better as my second home now.
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Strange there are not more reviews for this pub. I worked here many moons ago under the then Landlord Nigel Carr, then it was one of the best country pubs around, with a wealth of visitors from the many caravan parks around and walkers in the surrounding forest. In them days, the thing that made this pub was the atomosphere, with frequent BBQ's and locals who would just turn up and play a guitar or violin!. Recently got told I could not go in because I had kids with me! So I cant comment on this once extrodinary family pub
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Caution this pub is closed on Monday and Tuesday lunch times. Seasonal closing?
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