Dorchester, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Michael Trawicki’s “popular thatched pub” serves particularly “good pub food in a nice sunny dining room” and there’s also a beautiful garden in summer. It’s not an especially ‘foodie’ operation but attracts consistent praise in our annual diners’ poll as one of the area’s better eateries.

“The very best meal I have enjoyed in the last year!”… “Exceptional” – chef Mike Naidoo’s sustainable seafood restaurant on a mezzanine in the waterside Old Fish Market has proved a “brilliant addition to the Weymouth food scene” since it opened three years ago. The “exceptional” dayboat catch is translated into set menus, with the £45 four-course lunch itself a particularly good catch from the (slightly bewildering) array of menus, with different options served early evening, midweek dinner (six courses) and Saturday dinner (eight courses). One visitor in particular went a bundle on it this year, in the shape of The Times’s Giles Coren who, in his March 2024 review – “reeling from the quality” – thought it might just be “the best restaurant in the world”… “omigodomigodomigod”.

“A great and romantic hideaway” – the Red Carnation group’s “traditional country hotel never disappoints for comfort”. The dining room offers straightforward but well-realised cooking from a two-course or three-course à la carte menu: food that’s “well presented and interesting but not too fancy”.

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: This hip West Country tribute to East Asian casual dining serves “great food” in a “great atmosphere”, and is “even better with the new look post-lockdown”. The menu is constructed around dumplings filled with prime Dorset ingredients, backed up by a small selection of main and side dishes, and with sake options on the drinks list. It’s a formula that comes up trumps: “couldn’t get enough of the dumplings!”. (Note: despite the suggestion in the name, there’s no sushi on the menu.)

2023 Review: Two vintage railway carriages near the sea and harbour in the former West Bay station constitute this “delightful” venue. The cooking is sometimes seen as the weakest link (“they try hard, without really hitting the spot”), but most reports are upbeat, citing “above average food” in an “unusual and quirky setting”. Since our annual diners’ poll concluded, change is afoot with a new arrangement introduced in autumn 2022, which sees fine dining from chef Chris Chatfield’s seasonal menu in the newer ‘Beeching’ carriage, and relaxed dining in ‘Brunel’, from the First World War, with both menus available in the dog-friendly ‘Station House’.

“A gorgeous, sunny room attached to a medieval priory on the banks of the River Frome” is the “delightful setting” for “always interesting and very good” cooking from Loire Valley-bred Stephan Guinebault, head chef for the best part of two decades at this independently owned hotel which oozes “old-world charm”.

2022 Review: Cass Titcombe's “small, cosy and friendly restaurant overlooking the village square” offers “just the perfect balance of everything”, say fans – whether that’s the much-foraged, Mediterranean-style food, or the fine interiors, courtesy of partner Louise. The duo also run an excellent shop, Brassica Mercantile, across the road, mixing homewares, foodie books and gourmet treats (including from Borough Market).

The “perfect location” overlooking Chesil Beach, “knowledgeable and friendly staff” and “delicious and changing menu” tick most of the boxes at this Art Deco-style seaside venue with plenty of outdoor seating – although a significant minority reckon it’s “disappointing compared to previous visits”.