Park Gate Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: This thatched eighteenth-century Piddle Valley pub with an “enchanting garden” wins solid ratings across the board for its “great service and good food, whether you prefer pub grub or something more ambitious”. Its popularity was sealed by a rave review from The FT’s Tim Hayward a couple of years ago, and you need to book early to secure a table at busy times, especially Sunday lunch.

“Great modern European food using locally sourced ingredients at very reasonable prices” again wins praise for this local fixture. Chef-patron Sasha Matkevich grew up in south Russia but has lived in England for 30 years.

A “small restaurant in Sherborne, owned by an Australian couple”, and where the “good” and “unusual” food pays testament to chef Paul Merrony’s Gallic training with the likes of Albert Roux at Le Gavroche; there’s an “interesting list of well-chosen wines at reasonable prices to match the excellent food”.

“The food is always reliably delicious” at this 300-year-old thatched cottage across the road from Thomas Hardy’s old school (the author was born in the neighbouring village) – which “must be one of the best restaurants in Dorset”. Former Four Seasons exec chef Jamie Jones assembles a “relatively short menu that caters for all tastes and appetites” – “you know as soon as you taste the canapes that the food is going to be excellent”.

The Red Carnation group’s “very comfortable and traditional country house hotel is set in a time warp”, in prime Hardy Country (Evershot having been fictionalised as Evershead by the novelist, who also designed part of the hotel when he was an architect). The “very accomplished food” (“but at a high price!”) has some “nice touches”, with “desserts especially good”.

2023 Review: This “quaint pub in the tiny village of Evershot” – immortalised as the ‘Sow and Acorn’ in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ – offers “beautifully presented, consistently good and interesting” food from Kenyan-born chef Robert Ndungu. It is the more informal sibling of Summer Lodge on the other side of the village, from the Red Carnation hotel group.

2022 Review: With no social media presence as yet, and a hard-to-find name (lots of search results for Carluccio's – not helped by the fact that this location used to be one, and even repurposes the sign), we are presuming that Luciano Pierre White is relying on word of mouth – and his famous name – to get punters into his first solo restaurant. He's worked with Pierre Koffmann and the Adria brothers according to press quotes, and his father credits him with a great work ethic. An early-doors visit from a reporter noted it to be ‘very promising’ and another thought ‘the food’s great and the service will only improve’.

This “newly refurbished family-owned pub with rooms” – originally a mid-Victorian cider house – in a “lovely village” near Sherborne, makes for a “perfect stop-over en route to Devon or Cornwall”, with “agreeable service” and “reliable food including interesting fish dishes”. Co-owner Doune Mackenzie-Francis has a foodie background as a former marketing manager for Leith’s School of Food & WIne.

2023 Review: This “brilliant thatched country pub” has “lots of game dishes” on its menu – appropriately enough for a traditional establishment in the historical hunting landscape of Cranborne Chase. “Vegetarians and vegans are well provided for” too, while there’s also a “well-stocked bar with local ales and a reasonably priced wine list”.

A “beautifully renovated building” – originally an 1860s school, with impressive vaulted ceilings and now a mezzanine bar – plays host to this exceptional outfit on the Dorset/Somerset border. Chef Luke Sutton (ex-the acclaimed L’Ortolan, in Berkshire) oversees the “varied” and “very interesting” British menu, which remains of note for its particularly “good-value” set menu.

2023 Review: “It looks and sounds like a pub”, but this “lively and friendly” old inn opposite Sherborne Abbey “is actually an Italian restaurant providing small plates by the score”. The menu includes a “stupendous choice” (including pizzette and pasta) “using local and Italian ingredients” and it’s very easy to assemble an interesting and varied meal with “dishes to suit all tastes”. “The main difficulty is limiting yourself as there’s so much to tempt!". Top Tip – Rapido lunch for two at £14 per person, served weekdays.

2022 Review: “An offshoot of (well-known local staple) Yalbury Cottage, run and managed by the same team”, also in tandem with an artisanal French pastry chef – and located in the unusual setting of an auction house. “Lunches are interesting and well presented”, while “the evening sessions are more adventurous and the Mexican ones especially good”.