BITE user comments - pubquisitor
Comments by pubquisitor
Went in there the other night with a couple of colleagues after putting our noses round the door of the Greyhound and deciding that"mmmm Naah - don't think so". I have to say that it's a lot lot better than it was the last time I went there. Must have caught the landlord on a bad week last time!! Pub was friendly - even the strange woman sitting in a corner just inside the back door was more friendly (well, a bit. Similar to Col. Clebb of 007 fame this time rather than a great wite shark with toothache as she had been previously). There were more customers than in the greyhound and they appeared to be locals. Beer was first class - Tribute and 6X. Yes, we'll go there again - if the landlady will allow!!!!
19 Oct 2009 21:41
Popped my nose round the door the other evening. You can tell summer's now over because there were hardly any customers. A couple sitting at a table looking rather sadly into their plates of whatever. No-one who looked like a "local" and the atmosphere was somewhat akin to a down at the heel mortuary!!! Mind you, I'm not surprised that the locals don't go in there, what with the nutter landlady, overpriced ale and cider and a chef who looks as if he's he's been "decoking" a leaky motorcycle engine in kitchen whilst cooking the altogether disgusting concoctions he and the the unfortunate staff describe as "delicious food cooked by Andy". Anyway, I decided not to stay and my mates and I went to look at the other 'pubs again in the village, including the Bankes Arms and Fox - which I have been a bit negative about in previous reports. Must say, however, that theyr'e much improved which is more than I can say about the the poor old Greyhound. At least there was laughter, good conversation and enjoyment amongst the customers and the beer was actually good. Indeed, the beer at the Fox was 30p a pint cheaper than in the Greyhound. One day things might change for the better at the Greyhound, but I think the only way that will ever happen is when the landlady decides to call it a day, decides that the 'pub life is not for her and bogs off back to wherever she came from - obviously a place where real English 'pubs don't exist - and takes "Andy" ( her scrap car dismantler cum cook) with her because, unfortunately thanks to the EU, if he's still there the unfortunate successors will have to keep him on for at least 6 months during which time his standard of cooking and egregious demeanour will probably continue to destroy what is left of the goodwill of the business.
19 Oct 2009 21:31
Don't get this place confused with the Kings Arms in Wareham which is just along the road (about half a mile or so). The Stoborough Kings Arms is primarily an eaterie, churning out the usual "pub trying to be a swish restaurant" food (you know, lamb shanks in a berry "jus", deep fished haddock in a beer battered pancake style jacket and served with an anchovie and horseradish condiment all served on a plate of low transfat pomme frites, - i.e. front leg of mutton from the deep freeze and sieved colemans red currant jelly, or fish and chips). The chefs do well, it has to be said, but why, oh why, do you have to ponce it up?!! The good thing, however about this pub is that munchers are to a great extent segregated from the other pub users, so the place still has some atmosphere as a village pub. This is excellent. Also, no smells of cooking emanating from the kitchen and no funereal black wearing bar staff constantly flitting past the bar area with plates of food for those who wish their clothes sizes to rapidly change to those associated with Americans.
The beer was OK, but like all other pubs owned by Enterprise Inns where the tenant has to contribute to their profits by having to pay a bounty to Enterprise of well over �100 per barrel more than either a free house publican or a normal brewery tenant - for no benefit - it was overpriced. Maybe one of the reasons that pubs are doing more and more food and raising the prices of their retail beers is because the blood sucking Pubcos such as Enterprise and their cabal have sucked so much of the lifeblood from the British pub that there's nothing left for the poor old publican. You see, the PUbcos like Enterprise even put meters in the beerlines of pubs to spy on their tenants. They can tie tenants to beers bought through them at super-inflated prices but they still haven't found a way to tie their tenants to food ingredients - but, you bet they're probably thinking about how to do it right now, just like the best parasites evolve to suck even more blood from their host. Anyway, I'm digressing - probably because I was shocked at the price of the beer at this pub'. The beer was good and the atmosphere generally jovial, but I wouldn't say I'd make a pub like this my local - mainly because it's such an eaterie.
15 Jun 2009 14:21
Mmmm. Went in there again last Saturday - market in Wareham. Pretty busy with a good mix of customers in various states of sobriety (or should I say insobriety). No, not really, just joking. Anyway, I just thought I'd comment again on this little gem. I had heard that some years ago after Whitbread (the dreaded spoilers of the English pub' and regional brewery) took over and closed Strongs of Romsey - did you know Strongs also had a brewery in Wareham? - they were going to close and delicense the pub. Luckily, such was the furore that this didn't happen. Amazing what customer power can do!!! Anyway, just a posting to confirm that, yeh, this is a good little pub of the type that you don't see much of in this part of Dorset. Long may it remain. They've a good beed selection - changed from when I went in there the other week - and good basic pub menu. I think they're doing it right. Power to your beer engine-pulling elbow Mr. or Ms Landlord!!!
15 Jun 2009 13:59
I've been into this pub in the past - about a year ago - when it was a bit like going into the local youth club. However, haven't things changed?? I've got two gripes - no real ale when I visited and loud lighting. The new tenants have fallen into the trap of TV screens and sofas (to gentrify the place) which need a hoist above them to assist customers getting out of them and get to the bar. Mind you, I know a few people who'd really like the sofas because they they'll use the excuse to get them out of buying a pint!!! Anyway, the new tenants are trying to turn the pub round, but wouldn't it be better to catch the whole population rather than just a small young group who are footy mad. A more mixed pub' community generally results in a healthier pub atmosphere and less risk of fights, etc., for which the Antelope used to be notorious. Good luck to the new tenants - you'll need it, especially when dealing with that load of sharks (the pobco) who, no doubt will try to bleed your profits dry.
15 Jun 2009 13:29
Now, this is a good little pub. I got the impression that this is a "community" pub unlike the three others in the village. No tourist trappings - just an honest little boozer with a good standard of food at a reasonable price. Beer was OK too and there was an air of peaceful efficiency here. Mind you, the place is small and therefore the strain on the kitchen is probably not the same as at the eateries (pubs) down the road in the village proper. If they'll have me, I'll ve very pleased to visit again. An oasis from the hideous pubs in the village square. Yus, I'll go again - but I hope this successful and pleasing visit wasn't just a one off.
15 Jun 2009 13:14
Tried it again after its poor showing in my last comments. No improvements at all. Stroppy little barmaid - strange lopsided hairstyle, but I suppose it takes all sorts. Expensive second rate food, landlady still running around like chicken without head. Elderly barmaid who was the only light in the darkness (Not sure, but she did have the air of having been a pub landlady) - was this lady brought in to show how it should be done? Anyway, this pub really is AWWWWWFULLLLL!!! and I don't think I'll visit again. Does the landlady (I don't think there's a landlord) of this establishment ever look at pub reviews? If she doesn't , she ought to. But, maybe she doesn't care though. After all, this 'pub is in a tourist trap and, let's face it, if you don't like it you can lump it - there're plenty more tourists to take your place. Maybe mor people should read the postings and stay away - that might just improve things. Lastly, praise for the young lad with holes in his ears and the middle aged (landlady-type) barmaid previously mentioned - they were welcoming and efficient, unlike the rest of this pretty grim highly photographed pub (the castle's behind it so of course its photographed).
15 Jun 2009 13:02
Now this IS a nice pub. Beer was OK. Bar staff friendly, genuinely welcoming and quite a change from those I met at the New Inn or the Weld Arms nearby. Good conversation with bar staff who seemed interested. No funereal black worn either - THAT IS A PLUS !!! Didn't try the food, but there was a nice garlicky, fishy smell (a bit like that you get in the street cafes and tavernas in Greece) emanating from a plate being carried to some scoffers - so, I think I'll return and try it out. The beer garden was something else - wow - sitting halfway up a hill at the back of the pub in a sort of rose garden certainly made me think about coming back when nthe roses are in bloom. (My 2 favourite plant scents are those of the hop and the rose). Yeah, I think I'll go back there, but probably not in the height of the season when I suspect it gets overflowed by the dreaded "grockles " and 2nd homers.
25 May 2009 12:57
Popped in the other day and found it peaceful. New tenants, apparently, who've spent a lot of money redecorating the pub. Previously I visited the pub about a year ago and vowed never to go in there again. BUT !!! What a change. As I said, peaceful - not quiet in the lack of customers point of view. Real ale was pretty good. Bar staff were friendly lads and a rather nice lady with viluptuous hair. Saw the chef scuttling about - thought she was a young lad a first, but looking again saw she was a woman - and the fruits of her labours. Mmmmmmm - might eat there next time.
Two steaks & a bottle of wine for 15 quid? I can't imagine how they do that unless it's a Tesco-style loss leader. Might try it out.
My only real criticism about the pub was the general funereal black corporate-style worn by the male bar staff. What is it about so many pubs these days that everyone has to look as if they've just come away from a conference of funeral directors ! ! !! ! ? Please, please, please get rid of this awful style of garb. Pubs are supposed to be jolly, not depressing and wearing of black all the time just instils a suicidal feeling. That having been said, I'd like to congratulate the new owners/tenants on the transformation of this pub. All power to your elbow, and mine when I go back for a beer, for looking at the potential of this pub. You're in a good position, and if you don't become greedy like the majority of your pub competitors in the Purbeck area (Duke of Wellinton - Wareham excluded from this description as it's one of the best in the area) you'll do really well as word gets around.
25 May 2009 12:29
Just looked at the postings of "behind bars". What changed your mind between 04th March & 10 April? Glowing (almost) report for 04th March and short, peremptory, damning one on 10th April.
I have to say, though, I'd put the Scott Arms in the same stable as the Greyhound in Corfe Castle, although the beer garden is somewhat better. And, what is it about Purbeck that all the pubs that want to be pretentious have black as their favourite "corporate" zombie/bar staff uniform colour. It's so depressing!!!!
17 May 2009 16:59
I certainly won't be going to this gastropub ever again - at least if I can help it. Went in here for a beer on the way to Lulworth Castle one lunchtime. The place was empty. The beer tasted as if it had not been pulled through the pipes for the lunchtime session or the cellar was warm. The beer was flat, has an acidity about it and was on its last legs. The same was the case for the other beer I tried. This was poor cellarmanship and not a brewery fault. Why do publicans do this; sell off beer in the hope that that nobody complains. They should get it into their heads that customers who are trying out the pub as a possibility for a return trip won't come back - I certainly won't.
Food was basically "Brake Bros" stuff and overpriced. I'm suspicious about the fish cooked in beer batter - I hope they don't use the stuff they tried to sell me as real ale. I suspect the beer used is that from the slopover trays emptied the previous night.
The landlady was well dressed, but, come on missus, this is a litlle pub in a little village. It's not the venue for the Oscars. Dressing up like Anne Robinson just doesn't fit in. However, thinking about it, this is a pretentious hostelry with a walk-in wine cellar and adjacent "speciality fish restaurant". "speciality fish restaurant"? No way Jose. The Shell Bay - Now that's a "Speciality Fish Restaurant"; the New Inn? - Never.
And as for the landlord - Scotland's version of Basil Falty.
If you want an unpretentious little village pub, with good food & good beer - drive past or stop off earlier. Try The Castle in Corfe, Kings Arms or Duke of Wellington in Wareham .
16 May 2009 12:58
Bankes Arms Hotel, Corfe Castle
Going ito this pub reminded me of those old black and white films which used to be shown on BBC on Sunday afternoons in the 1970's or so. You know, the ones where a terribly English Englishman walks into a dim, cranky bar at night after his car has broken down in the middle of Bodmin Moor when the "Beast" is out. I walked in with a couple of friends one evening and the bar, which was not busy at the time, fell silent and eyes of customers, who I don't think were locals, followed us to the bar. All conversation had stopped. The woman behind the bar (I wouldn't like to meet her on a dark night in a forest.) asked me if she could help me (felt a bit like the "Local Shop" in Royston Vasey), and I ordered the beer for the blokes. Wasn't impressed. Overpriced and stale. Landlord ignored us whilst chatting to a crony, but that didn't bother me. What did though, was the general feeling of agression coming from the rather large barmaid, as if we had interupted the proceedings of some secret society. The reply to our query about availability of food was; "kitchen's closed".
We left after finishing our pints and continued our drive from Swanage to Dorchester where we stopped off at a very plain, but friendly little pub at Stokeford (between Wareham & Wool) where we had a reasonable pint but also some very good fare MADE BY THE LANDLADY - something you don't find very often. But more of that on another blog.
16 May 2009 12:31
Been there a couple of times. First to have a beer and something to eat - which took absolutely ages to be prepared and get to me, and on a rrival was of very mediocre standard - and the second time just to confirm that the landlady really was as strange as I thought on my first visit. The beer had a "staleness" about it. True, it came straight from the barrel, but it had no life, was flabby, "cardboardy" in flavour due to oxidation and really past its best. The landlord or whoever looks after the beer should have noticed this and stopped selling. The brewery was not at fault - I suspect the landlord (or landlady) probably got a good deal from the beer agent, or whoever supplies them, by buying short-life beer; this is pretty common now and customers should watch out for it.
Anyway, my quiet comments to the landlord (also a rather peculiar fellow of somewhat prickly nature) were certainly not positively received, but that's probably because I'm not a regular/local, and I certainly won't be one if the standards of service, food and especially beer don't improve. Unfortunately, the place is a free house so it looks as if the publican and his female companion will be there carrying regarldess selling "off" beer, being exceptionally rude to local and non-local customers and providing a pretty poor hostelry until hell freezes over. I feel sorry for you folks in Corfe Castle having 3 pretty grim pubs so close to each other and the other one so far out of the centre of the village and too small to take all the potential defectors.
It's such a pity that I've had to make such comments. The Fox Inn is a lovely little pub - just a pity about the people who "run" it.
16 May 2009 12:12
Pub? Thisn't a pub!! Indeed, it's absolutely dire! It's a cross between an IKEA-style Canary Wharf wine bar and an antique bookshop. The brewery (Badger, unfortunately) has failed in its design concepts. It's also failed in its beer concepts - but that's not unusual for this outfit. What is it about Hall & Woodhouse that they can't seem to get it right. The Ladies & Gents lavatories are magnificent pseudo-Edwardian and I must congratulate the lavatorial architects and interior designers on this one. It's a joy to go there to spend a penny (even though it doesn't cost a penny if you're a customer). However, I have to say that I'd rather drink by ale (but preferably one not breweed at Blandford) in the Gents than in the bars. The customary funereal black corporate uniforms of the bar staff, who incidentally know very little about the beers they serve and can only describe the plastic, standard Badger Inns (probably re-generated) food on offer in corporate H&W jargon, does not lend itself to a quayside establishment in a little, rustic, Dorset town.
Yes, I'm sure that it will do well during the summer months with tourists from London looking for something they can acquaint with, and with the blue rinse brigade coming out of Bournemouth and other conurbations, but, Badger Inns, really, do you have to fill the place with ersatz "character" when with a little more thought you could have made the most of the original concept of the building as a granary? Also, getting rid of, or "retraining" the automatons/zombies behind the bars to be a bit more like bar staff rather than Somerfield checkout (oh, I see that supermarket's now closed) staff might help. Lets have a decent non-plastic menu of good, traditional West Country food rather than the minimalistic, boil-in-the-bag, microwave, sous vide, "jus"-laden, "anything-mash", city-slicker offerings currently on the menu.
A good menu, good, non-clinical atmosphere where there is a welcome rather than the blank face of an automaton languishing in the anonimity of corporate uniform noire. Good, well kept beer is also important, as is the way it is served; but that's another story which will probably come to fruition when the Blanford Brewery is converted into flats (or maybe even an enormous "Old Granary" - or should it be "Old Brewery?) and the recipes for all Hall & Woodhouse "beers" confined to the shredder!!
I recommend people visit "The Old Granary" at Wareham to visit the lavatories, photograph them for posterity and then leave and replenish your thirst and satiate your hunger elsewhere. The Kings Arms Stoborough and the Duke of Wellington are pretty good although the ambience of their beer gardens are not quite the same as the river at Wareham Quay.
16 May 2009 11:49
It's very difficult to decide whether this or the Square & Compass at Worth Matravers is my favourite pub. But I think the Vine probably beats the Square. This tiny, tiny pub of dolls house proportions is, as St Joanna Lumley would say, absolutely fabulous. If you go into the lounge bar, it's like being in a 1950's caravan; and, well, the public bar is something else!!! Sitting under the stairs on a stool, trying not to bump your head or knocking over someone else's beer when there are more tha 3 people in the bar is just indescribable. The beer is great - and well priced as well -, the bar snack food tasty and good value, the landlady welcoming (although her dog is a bit loud when it stands at the counter and deafens you with its bark) and the little garden is welcoming. When I've been out for a walk around Wareham and the countryside between there and Blandford, I really look forward to my pint or four at the Vine. BTW - my wife does the driving if we go to the Vine because the beer just slips down so easily whit all the good conversation - but don't tell the local temperance society.
15 May 2009 23:39
Great little non-pretentious boozer. The Duke of Wellington is the Lounge Bar of Wareham and the Kings Arms is the Saloon and Public Bar!!!
Tiny with flagstones in the public bar and plillars to lean against when clutching your pint. Well kept beer which regularly changes. My wife and I have been in there a few times and found beer good, service, more lately than in the past, excellent and genuinely welcoming and the locals a merry band. Haven't eaten there, but this place is a pub, not a restaurant. Long may it continue against the tide of eateries of mediocre standards which seem to be populating dorset.
15 May 2009 23:28
Not at all impressed by the service or the food. Beer was good though, if a little overpriced - but that's pretty usual in this part of Dorset and in Enterprise Inns or Punch Taverns pubs. It's supposed to be a pub but it's not really. No atmosphere and the staff seem keener on chatting to their friends or reading the paper on the other bar. Food overpriced for what it is. The landlady (I think she was anyway - South African or New Zealander) did not seem in control and kept chivvying her staff - she must be awful to work with. Locals were standing at the bar - as in most pubs - but far some reason the management have put eating tables right beside one part which seems to act as a corridor between one part of the bar and the other. I dont like looking at people's backsides or being in a thoroughfare when trying to eat! Landlady very brusque and unhelpful, or blaming staff when things went wrong. When we arrived, there was noone serving behind the bar and no-one around to take any order. One local said this was usual. Really understaffed. This is a pub in a busy tourist trap. We checked out the prices of food and decided to go elsewhere in the end after having a couple of pints. How a family with kids can afford them if theyre on holiday I don't know. Anyway, we eventually arrived at a small pub along the main road - The Castle Inn - I think. What a difference!! We returned there several times. Sorry Greyhound, you lost out there. Its all very wel,l being "the most photographed pub in Britain", but my I, my wife and family aren't interested in that - we just want good drink, good food (it doesn't have to be an attempt at Le Manoir de Quatre Saisons as your management and chef try but fail miserably to do), good genuinely friendly service with bon viveur, comfort, good conversation, no ubiquitous wall hung silent TV (what's the point?), and an atmosphere which gives a welcoming feeling and not one similar to the checkouts at Tesco. Could do better, as teachers used to say on school reports.
15 May 2009 21:05
Bankes Arms Hotel, Corfe Castle
Went in again during the Swanage Blues Festival. Note, "Swanage" - eh? I didn't think Corfe Castle was a suburb of Swanage. Chelsea and Fulham, maybe, judging from the 4X4s, green wellies and Zaras and Piers hanging around there. Anyway, back to business. It might be because the group was splendid and the mood was good, but I must say that the the beer was better and the atmosphere much improved since the last time i visited (See previous postings). If they continue in there slow improvements this place could become a sensible place to go for a pint, albeit an expensive one. )Still, the Scott Arms at Kingston's now charging �3.20p for luke warm amber liquid - but at least they have Jamaica barbeques!!)
19 Oct 2009 21:56