BITE user comments - Mark888
Comments by Mark888
Goat and Tricycle, Bournemouth
A good atmosphere in a traditional pub, however, this place goes for quantity over quality on the beers and it is disingenuous to call some of the big name beers they have on handpump "guest beers". (For example Young's Special, and various Green King and Marstons-group ales) If they stuck to only small local breweries they would get more loyal customers.
Another problem with this place is that they do quite often turn the music up too much which is particularly annoying if you are sitting right under a speaker.
12 Dec 2013 21:01
This is a free house but unfortunately only has big-brand very bland beer from Wells and Youngs (on our visit Young's Gold and Courage best bitter). Could they not consider the fact that there are more than 20 small local breweries in Kent producing far better beers?
Cosy, but disappointed by the beer.
21 Nov 2013 21:09
Another visit recently.. you can't fault the atmosphere in this place, though for a Saturday night it was quite empty.
Sadly, the beer quality is worse than ever with Old Thumper down from 5.6% to 5.1% and tasting terrible. I don't believe this is the fault of the staff at the pub - you can't keep a beer badly to make it taste like that. Ringwood beer is simply bad, cheaply made beer these days.
I noticed the rather cynical new pump clips trying to promote the brewery as a craft-brewer. Poppycock!
19 Oct 2013 19:20
Bankes Arms Hotel, Corfe Castle
Turned up today to find a beer festival in the back garden. Apparently an independent organisation ran the festival and it was nothing to do with the pub. We were able to obtain some delightful ales from Art Brew of North Chideock and Sunny Republic of Winterborne Kingston.
The pub itself is owned and operated by Enterprise Inns who of course, do not allow beers from small breweries. You will be very unlikely to find good beer here since even the guest beers are from the big brewers.
13 May 2013 14:31
Now open and serving six high quality real ales from small independent breweries. The beer menu is kept up-to-date on their website. We had perfectly kept Yeovil Posh IPA, Exe valley "It's Phils Ale" and Mighty Hop Nut Brown Ale.
A great pub to visit after a walk on the coast.
5 May 2013 21:02
The Bermuda Triangle, Parkstone
Going downhill fast. Today has Coors Doombar and Marstons Fortyniner. Is this the beginning of the end or just a temporary blip? Let's hope the latter.
4 May 2013 17:52
A good Hall and Woodhouse pub with reasonable looking bar food. Only H&W beer of course, so don't expect anything great and definitely ask to taste the ales before you buy. Peroni at over four pounds per pint!
The major advantage to this place is that it doesn't have pumping music at the weekends (although it is busy), so you can actually have a conversation here unlike most places down the road in Ashley Cross.
2 May 2013 14:49
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.
27 Apr 2013 18:50
Visited this weekend and I was stunned to see two beers from the Sunny Republic brewery: Huna Red and Dolphin amber. These were both delicious though I preferred the citrusy Huna red. No sign of Doombar!
This is a definite improvement: keep up the good work!
24 Apr 2013 12:42
OK, but they need to get some better beer. Ditch the Doombar and Ringwood and get some proper small-brewery ales - not this rubbish from the brewing giants (Coors and Marstons in this case).
Decent atmosphere and friendly staff though but you might try the Square and Compass nearby if you want some proper beer or perhaps the Fox in Corfe if it's open.
1 Dec 2012 12:47
In spite of the claim of an "ever changing range of personally selected real ales", two of the three ales were from Greene King. Hardly surprising since this is a Greene King pub! No one who knows anything about beer would ever deliberately choose Greene King ales - I think the claim about the ales is rather misleading.
Service and atmosphere on the whole pretty good though.
26 Nov 2012 03:53
The Coventry Arms, Corfe Mullen
Some people are under the mistaken belief that this is a free house, however, it is owned and operated by Enterprise Inns.
We visited on a Tuesday evening when the place was almost empty. Extremely bright lights in the bar area (do they have a free source of electricity?) and not much atmosphere. Staff polite enough.
The choice of beer is quite poor: just Timothy Taylor Landlord and Ringwood Best. The Landlord is just about acceptable, but doesn't really have a lot of taste - Ringwood best is boring, watery, weak and tasteless. Enterprise Inns need to scrap Ringwood and allow more guest beers: the pub will get more customers if it gets a reputation for its ales.
7 Nov 2012 08:28
The Bermuda Triangle, Parkstone
This is the one of the very few real ale pubs in Poole and still has four regularly changing real ales generally from small independent breweries. Fortunately they haven't succumbed to the mass-marketing from brewing giant Molson-Coors, so you won't see Doombar on the pumps here. This is a small and very traditional pub with no food and generally a very good atmosphere.
The really negative thing about this place is that the music is far too loud at the weekend and occasionally on busy nights during the week. It's just a small pub and it needs much smaller loudspeakers (and just two of them: not four).
13 Oct 2012 07:36
I'm glad to see this pub has not changed into a trendy wine bar, nor has it brought in irritating background music. The no-music policy is one of the reasons we continue to go. The atmosphere is excellent and there is still a good mix of young and old in this place. The staff are great too.
However, it just is not as good as it used to be for the one simple reason that Ringwood beer has gone badly downhill since Marstons bought the brewery. I've been drinking Old Thumper since it was 6% back in the 80s. It was never quite as good on being reduce to 5.6% but still excellent. However, although there have been no further changes in strength, it now seems bland and tasteless like most beers from the large brewers. Marstons may well claim that the recipe hasn't changed, but I don't believe it.
I suggest that Marstons allow one guest beer from outside the Marstons group: it would keep those who are disappointed by the ale here still coming - the ale should be from a small local brewery (Stonehenge ales, Sunny Republic, Corfe Castle Brewery etc. etc.) and should be a reasonable strength: not the cheapest 3.5% offering. They should also remove the giant lager pumps from the bar and replace them with something a bit more discrete and in keeping with the pub.
12 Oct 2012 11:28
The Inn in the Park, Branksome Park
Nice atmosphere in a very traditional looking pub. Sadly the ales are rather bland and often sulphurous (Wadworth beers are not that good these days) and the landlord rarely gets any decent guest ales in. Food is mediocre.
The best thing about this pub is that the background music is on very low even at weekends, so you can actually have a conversation.
12 Oct 2012 11:17
The Sandacres Free House, Sandbanks
Sadly, I fear this pub is now closed forever with the resignation of the manager a month ago. The owner's heart was never in it and her whole reason for being there seemed to be to be rude to customers - regular or not (she never served behind the bar - at least not in the last 20 years).
I understand the reasons for the criticism of this place (SOME of the staff WERE rude), but overall it was good - serving value food and very high quality ales from small local breweries at reasonable prices. The Tuesday quiz was always a highlight and the location incredible.
This pub may reopen as a modern "glass-and-granite" bar but expect it to have just one electrically pumped bog-standard bland big brewery lager.
17 Sep 2012 17:16
The Pulpit Inn, Portland
Polite enough service but extremely crap beer. Why does anyone serve Doombar when it tastes nothing like real ale? There are so many local breweries within 10 miles, so get some beer from them. It's all very well boasting of local food, but get your beer sorted first!
26 Aug 2014 23:14