Barley Mow Inn — Restaurant in England

Whilst having an appealing kerbside appearance and food that was passable I cannot recommend strongly enough that you do not darken the doorstep of this establishment.

For why you may be asking, keep reading to find out...

Once 'welcomed' inside the restaurant we were shown to our seats in the farthest reaches of the restaurant and our drinks were ordered, they arrived shortly after and the main order was placed. When it arrived we were dismayed to see a small supposed double serving of vegetables so requested more, which arrived...as we were about to finish our meals. Before we had all finished some of the plates were cleared away, very unprofessional, this should not happen if people are still dining.

A couple who had arrived after us and finished after us were shown the dessert menu and ordered, we sat in anticipation of being offered the dessert menu to choose from also, this never happened. A lady, possibly the manager came and served the aforementioned couple their desserts after shouting/screaming across the restaurant 'Cecila!' about 3 times. Approximately 1 hour after finishing our mains the same potential manager stormed over to our tables and said/screamed ' FINISHED?' and proceeded to clear the table away in a violent manner. She then disappeared, only returning to shout at another member of staff about table layouts for a forthcoming booking. A while after this, after the couple had finished their desserts and had their table cleared, it became apparent that no dessert menu would be forthcoming so we requested the bill and after more waiting decided that we would go and pay it. I was lucky enough to be served by the shouty lady who seemed to almost view me paying as an inconvenience, and did not ask whether we had enjoyed our meal (we hadn't) nor apologise for the appalling service, to her credit there was no inference that a gratuity might be paid on top of the bill as it categorically would not. In all my years I have not experienced service as bad as today and will thoroughly dissuade anyone who mentions that they might go there as the manager/owner/shouty lady is enough to discourage the strongest of people from returning. They even had the cheek to charge for the additional vegetables despite the initial offering being so underwhelming. AVOID.

Date of...

Started badly when phoned during journey to be asked if we were still intending to dine since they had our 1pm booking as 12.30! Warned us that large Xmas party booking was due and could impact speed of service. Pub was busy but not full so went ahead with order. Drinks arrived ok with mains taking a little longer. Food good pub standard with pretty wide choices. Downhill after this with no sign of staff to clear table and take dessert orders. After a lengthy wait we managed to grab a passing person who was delivering menus to a nearby empty table. He apologised for the delay (we had been there for 2 hours by then) and cleared away before bringing dessert menus with a comment about 'looking at our bill' in due course. After ordering, a further wait ensued before more food arrived. The bill when delivered eventually was very confusing with some items wrongly named and four probably different drinks lumped together as one entry. We asked for clarification of what we were actually being asked to pay for since we needed to estimate a split between three couples and also to check if the manager had indeed 'looked' at the bill. Our waitress returned with the same bill and said that the mystery items were down to the till which was not able to be specific of what all the items where!! If anyone had actually 'looked' at the bill remains a mystery. Altogether a mixed and ultimately disappointing experience today. To be told as we were leaving, that the service issues were actually our fault for arriving late was wholly inappropriate, and any establishment that accepts bookings without then employing sufficient staff is on the path...

I first visited this pub in the late 1960's. It was much smaller then, didn't serve much food, and catered mainly for locals and small amount of passing trade. However it served excellent beer and was a most pleasant place to spend a winter's evening in front of the public (now village) bar's open fire, or on summer's evening, sat in the beer garden, watching the sun go down. Times may well have changed and although the brewers (Hall & Woodhouse) have probably trebled the size of the floorplan over the years, the extensions for the most part have been made sympathetically, to what is a quintessentially old English pub. My wife & I last visited on a weekday lunchtime in mid July 2023, and I was pleased to see that the beer and service (Imogen, extremely helpful & polite), was as good as ever and that the menu was very extensive for vegetarians & meat eaters alike. The prices were very reasonable (certainly for the area). It was sad to see so few (4) tables occupied, compared with how I remembered as both, a cyclist & motorcyclist in the 1970's & 1980's. The Ferndown bye pass has a lot to answer for as it is now more difficult to access the pub from the Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole conurbation. In this respect all 3 of the closest pubs to the Barley Mow, are easier to reach, but to my mind, not so pleasant. At least there's plenty of room, for your dogs to accompany you for a drink and a meal and afterwards you can always enjoy a pleasant walk over the heathland, from the National Trust, White Sheet Car Park. All in all, probably one of the best country pubs on the Dorset/Hampshire...