The Kings Arms

Popped in for a drink after a walk to Abbotsbury & back, my husband went to the bar & ordered a pint & a half of Peroni, when tasting mine, it was clearly cider not Peroni, I tried husbands & yes mine was definitely cider. I popped back into the bar to get it changed & was informed by a really rude staff member, the one who poured the original drinks, that it couldn’t be cider & I was wrong! She did however pour another drink & plonked it in front of me, no apology, not another word said. Upon leaving the Kings Arms, I used the bathroom facilities & walked back through the bar area & low & behold, a cider tap is located right next to the Peroni tap! Kings Arms, shame on your staff member, everyone makes mistakes but I was made to feel like a liar in front of other customers & staff, I didn’t want something for nothing just the drink that was ordered!! Disgraceful.

Called in for Sunday lunch - we had had a decent meal at the Kings Arms about 18 months ago, and enjoyed it, but on this occasion the food was extremely poor ! The roast beef came up floating in a sea of tasteless, watery gravy - the parsnip and carrots were al-dente to the extent of being barely cooked at all - the roast potatoes were more like boiled, no colour or crunch. Overall, very disappointing and we won't be back for a third time !

Have visited in the past and loved it. However this visit was not so good. We decided on the conservatory as it was windy. We waited a very long time for both drinks and food. Food was ok but choice limited (we had a fantastic ploughman’s here in the past but nothing like it was on offer today), and seemed expensive for what it was. I chose pork schnitzel which was ok, but the sauce was split so didn’t look very appetising. Part way through the meal the gardener started cutting down a hedge near the door with a mechanical cutter. To say the noise was horrendous would not be overplaying it. The noise reverberated in the conservatory like we were in a tin can. We were about to complain about the noise when another diner beat us to it. The server closed the door but it only reduced the noise a bit. I very rarely get headaches but was left with a real banger and ringing in my ears for some time. We would have liked to try a dessert and coffee but couldn’t get out quickly enough. To top it off when walking down the path the gardener had left one of his hedge trimmers sticking out of his wheelbarrow and I narrowly avoided walking into it. This had been one of our favourite pubs on the Jurassic coast, but sadly feel like we shall have to find a new one.