The Duchess of Cornwall - West Dorset

The Shepherd’s Pie was tiny. Not worth £18.95. Fish n chips came with 10 chips. Few mushy peas served in a small sauce pot.

My family and I went for Sunday lunch here last weekend. Lovely surroundings and friendly staff can not be complained of. However, the Sunday lunch was not great, and it had been our reason for dining out here. Despite ordering at the same time to the same table number, our meals all arrived separately with a long wait for the last 2 dinners, meaning we either waited and ate cold food or all ate separately. That was annoying. Then the roast dinners arrived what 4 of us had been waiting for, and it was visually not representative of the £17.95 we each paid. A few dry, thin slivers of tough meat, overcooked roast potatoes, and what seemed like a teaspoon of gravy made the offering a huge disappointment. The wait staff were friendly but seemed too few and overworked. We had to keep asking for condiments, and they eventually arrived, but not before half the meal had been eaten. All in all, I've had so much better locally for less money, so I'll put this down to experience and won't return for Sunday lunch again.

The Dutches of Cornwall is an impressive looking inn in the slightly surreal environs of Poundbury, King Charles’ pet sociological experiment. It doesn’t have much competition in the immediate area and is or should be something of a flagship for the Hall and Woodhouse brewery that is based just up the road in Blandford. The setting, decor and general ambience are all excellent. The staff are youthful, smiley and mostly enthusiastic. The rooms are well appointed, comfortable and, particularly given the recent cold snap, warm and cosy. The bed and breakfast deal I got also represented fantastic value for money, particularly once you throw in the complementary drink from your room. What’s not to like? Well, we combined our overnight stay with Sunday lunch. It all looked promising. We, however, waited quite a while between being seated and being spoken to by waiting staff. “Sorry for the wait”. My pescatarian wife wanted the Hake. “Sorry, there’s no Hake left”. Our booking was at 1:30, not, I would suggest, late in the day. Not wanting fish and chips again , she opted for the No Nut Roast. I went for the Roast Beef ‘served pink’ . We perhaps confused the issue by ordering starters arancini and beetroot cured smoked salmon. Both were delicious. We then waited quite a while for our starters to be cleared. Eventually, my wife asked someone to clear our table. We then waited for our main courses. We waited. We watched other table’s mains come and go. We waited. We asked after our mains and moments later they appeared. ‘Sorry for the wait”. All looked Okay although my beef wasn’t pink. I tried it and it was a bit tough and beginning to dry out. Had I guessed, I would have thought they may have been waiting under a warming lamp for a while. We mentioned it to a waitress, who said she’d ‘tell chef’ and get me some more, pink beef. We waited. Unsure whether I should continue to eat my veg, I asked a waitress and she said to carry on eating I’d just be getting some more pink beef. Eventually, 4 succulent pink slices of rare roast beef appeared. Joy. When asked by the duty manager ? if everything was OK, the waiting, string of apologies and the over done beef were highlighted and he, again, apologised and kindly removed the cost of our main courses from the bill. Whilst I feel this was good and absolutely the correct response, I would clearly have rather have had a good meal served in a timely way the first time round. Breakfast looked promising but, again, a few items typically those we requested were unavailable. No baked eggs ? and no plain yoghurt. I am not sure who eats Toffee yoghurt at breakfast, of which there was a plentiful supply, other than, perhaps 6 year olds. It was also sad to see streaky rather than back bacon included in the Full English Breakfast and my bacon bap . Is this pandering to the American audience, do you think? A bit pernickety perhaps. Overall, a lovely stay was tarnished somewhat by some poor catering and a limited number of young staff who, whilst trying hard, lacked effective supervision; I would suggest that many of the delays we experienced could have been avoided by a good ‘maitre d’hotel’ or ‘floorwalker’ directing staff to clear away, prepare tables or identify when folk had been waiting too long. We would certainly give the Duchess of Cornwall another go if only for the exceptional value for money of the overnight stay and hope that the duty manager’s assurances that what we found was not representative of their usual high standards to be the case.

Lovely atmosphere, clean, staff attentive and pleasant! However we had the roast dinner which was good but arrived cold on cold plates! Lemon tart dessert was small, unpleasant, hardly any filling and a mouldy raspberry sitting on the top! Shame

Excellent fish and chips and great friendly service a very enjoyable lunch. We'll definitely be back.