The Helyar Arms — Restaurant in England

This lovely historic Pub is also within easy reach of a number of places that we wanted to visit, so was a very good choice of place to stay. We wished to visit a number of National Trust gardens in the area, with our small dog, so we booked to stay for three nights. The place is very dog-friendly throughout (though some owners are not as courteous or respectful with managing their dogs as we endeavour to be). The Pub is very old and the rooms all have a feeling of yesteryear, but with all modern conveniences. Outside has plenty of parking and lovely gardens which opened while we were there. Rather than the typical "pub garden" these were laid out in the style of a country garden with seating arranged in little groups creating an intimate feel. During the time the Pub was open, there were plenty of people sitting outside, enjoying the good weather and looking after their dogs, or in one case, a horse!|Accommodation|Our room was a larger one which would sleep three. It was well-appointed and very comfortable. The bed and bedding were fresh and welcoming. There was plenty of room for our belongings and a space for the dog's bed. The shower room was spotless and it had an opening window, which I really value, as I hate airless, damp shower rooms that often have an wholly inadequate ventilation system. The room looked on to the street, but that was not a problem as there was little traffic after 10pm.|Meals|The Menu was good and varied. There were "specials" each day on top, and I particularly enjoyed the "Catch of the day" on two evenings. The restaurant was spotless and as one earlier reviewer described, the condiment pots, and sugar jars were shiny and fresh, and it was a joy to have flowers on the table and beautiful white linen table napkins.||All the three dinners that we had there, were excellent, and very good value for money, in our view. We liked the use of fresh local produce and the specials were interesting (I cannot remember when I was last offered whole plaice, cooked so beautifully). My Husband equally enjoyed the Pie of the Day too. ||The waitresses were efficient and knew what they were doing- well-trained, I thought. This was important because the restaurant was busy every evening and it seemed to have a good bar trade too, plus lots of people sitting outside. Despite all this, the the pub closed promptly and there was no noise or disturbance after hours.||Breakfasts were slightly different. The buffet items were a bit limited in choice. The English breakfast was offered as standard, but it came as a sharing plate, of bacon, sausages, tomato, mushrooms, and our choice of how we wanted our eggs cooked.||The area|There are lots of walks around the village and across the fields, which was very useful for walking our dog who dislikes walking on roads and is scared of traffic.. The Church nearby has a connection to T.S. Eliot, which interested me. As I mentioned, there are plenty of places of interest a short drive away.||Why have I not given this lovely place five stars then? It is for two reasons which are important to me, but may not be to other people, but I have to mention them. The first is that after our first night, we discovered that the proprietors live off-site and there are no members of staff in the property overnight. I know this is more and more common these days, but I feel that there should be someone sleeping in, in case of emergency or even a lesser event such as the plumbing or hot water system malfunctioning.||The second reason is because of the waste which I see generated by the sharing breakfast plate. I hate waste and I feel that it is better to check with guests what they would like as part of their full English Breakfast (or even if they want one at all). On each of the mornings that we were there, we had to leave some of the items, beautifully cooked though they were.||In conclusion, this Pub was a real "find" which, judging by the numbers of customers throughout, has been found by many people who return often. Thanks to the Proprietor and staff who made our stay...

Lovely rooms to stay in and the young lad with dark hair and glasses that took us to our room (sorry didn't catch his name) his hospitality was 1st class. Very attentive and informative and made my son and I feel very welcome on our arrival and for our evening meal. I wish the same could be said for the owner who we unfortunately encountered close up at breakfast. A very rude and abrupt man, dismissive and ignorant unless you speak with a plum in your mouth like himself or have a local accent when he will then become very exuberant and friendly. Make sure you ASK for vegetarian sausages when you book your breakfast as there is NO option to choose on any kind of booking and you will NOT be asked if you have any preference. Even though their main menus cater for vegetarians there is NO breakfast menu so you have no idea what you can have for breakfast until you go down for it. On arrival for breakfast you are just asked what eggs you would like and that's it. You have a small bowl of fruit on your table to share (strawberries and blueberries) and some cereal and yoghurt on a separate table to help yourself to (which we don't have as just like to have a full English). So when they young girl walked away after asking what eggs we would like I asked her if one could have vegetarian sausages...for the owner to then abruptly jump in over her (from behind the bar) that we "should have ASKED beforehand". And when I started to say I had seen on the website thy do vegetarian.. he just raised his voice cutting me off that "YES, YOU NEED TO ASK BEFORE"! This is obviously not apparent as another group of ladies that had stayed on another table 1 asked for vegetarian sausages also. 2 requests from the 6 rooms.. OBVIOUSLY NOT apparent that "YOU NEED TO ASK BEFORE!!" Then breakfast arrived. 2 fried eggs on my plate with a side dish with 1 grilled tomato cut in half and some very thinly sliced mushrooms, with a piece of toast each for my son and I (2 halves each) in the toast rack. And that was it!! No beans. No hash browns. That was it. 2 eggs with a tomato and some mushrooms, a piece of toast and a coffee. £10. So when the owner came and poured us coffee I asked if I could have some more toast please. (would have been nice to try some of the little pot of jam/marmalades), to which he then looked down at my plate which I hadn't started eating yet and replied with disdain "You want some more???" Disgustingly rude and uncalled for! I told him not to worry as my son then offered his. We would have left there and then and not gone back after eating but had unfortunately also booked a table for 4 for Sunday lunch as visiting relatives and bringing them for Sunday lunch. Sunday roast consisted of your choice of meat (I had vegetarian Mediterranean tart) with a Yorkshire pudding and 3 roast potatoes with a separate longish but narrow bowl with veg for 3 people share which consisted of broccoli (about 3 florets...1 each), cauliflower cheese (about 3 florets...1 each), some red cabbage (maybe a tablespoon each) and baton carrots (tablespoon each. And WATERY GRAVY. No peas, no mash. Though evening meal was slightly better. So, to sum up..a beautiful place to stay...some nice staff...but let down horrendously by the pompous and rude owner, poor communication, poor breakfast and hit & miss meals. We won't be back. Check out the reviews on Trip Advisor, there are a lot more. I wish I had seen them before booking and hadn't just...

Absolutely superb, it's set in a beautiful village and is beautifully presented, a clean well kept and organised carpark, tarmac without potholes, a delightful outside garden that's impeccably well kept, really relaxing just to sit there and smell the air.

It's the first time we've been in and we were very warmly welcomed, we got drinks and sat in the garden while waiting for our relatives to arrive, once we were all together we were shown to our table, which had our name on it, as did all the others (so I'd suggest prebooking like we did, to avoid disappointment) I make mention of this because it was very nice to have a name on the table rather than just a reserved sign, it added a little something special in my opinion, which I liked. We were immediately handed menus and given time to consider our options, a few minutes later we were attended, our orders taken and read back to us, and left to it to continue chatting, about 15minutes later our food arrived escorted in by 3 of the staff which meant we all received our lunch within moments of each other, not that awkward few minutes wait you usually have where there's one person who's hasn't yet arrived so everyone waits until everyone has their meal. It was nice and hot, and well presented, good portion sizes that were just right, not too much, not too little, healthy sized portions of vegetables arrived on a sharing dish, carrots, red cabbage and broccoli with bright colour, not faded and over cooked looking. We all had a spot of space left for a pudding, we shared each others desserts so we could all try what we'd not chosen, there was a lemon posset which was nice and zesty, sticky toffee pudding, which took me back to my youth with its rich sticky denseness, it was accompanied with ice cream but I think a thick vanilla laced custard would've complimented it best, and I myself went for the chocolate brownie which came with ice cream, very very nice, I'd have to say it was the best brownie overall that I've had from a restaurant in taste, texture and portion size, some I've had have been a wonderful taste but minute in size (I'm looking at you Hollies of Martock!), this one is just right and ticks all my boxes. The ice cream served is from Baboo in Bridport, so a nice local supplier, but also my firm favourite brand of Salted Caramel that I without fail get on every trip to West bay at their harbour-side shack.

It's been a long review, so I appreciate if you managed to read this far, I try to put down enough detail about my opinion and experience in my reviews to give a good idea of what you can expect, rather than "it was good 5*".

To wrap it up, will I be back? Without a doubt! My Aunt's and Uncle liked it, as did my wife and kids. Excellent affordable prices on drinks and meals, which helps if your looking to take your family out for a nice meal at a nice place without having to cringe in anticipation of the bill, more true than ever in these current financially strained times!

I'd like to try the burgers on the menu, I love burgers, sadly, for me, there's no burgers...