The Scott Arms — Restaurant in England

What has happened to this place!? READ THIS BEFORE YOU GO.

Food = Bad Service = Bad View = Great

I'm a local. I'd say I have decent knowledge of all pubs in the Purbeck and surrounding area. Food and drink is a passion of mine. Think library to a bookworm, JD Sports to a chav, church to a gullible ... pubs are my safe place.

Excluding vegetarian options (of course), I've had pretty much every meal on every menu. I have previously been to this pub many times before and enjoyed it, so I had looked forward to going for a family celebration.

This time I was shocked to find what I first thought was a kids menu was THE menu!? I tried to settle my immediate doubts by hoping they must just specialise in what they do and do it well; I started to wonder, is this now THE PLACE for a pub burger? Burgers dominated the very limited choice. A northerner will have seen 'ham eggs n chips' and felt reet at home... til they saw the price, I hope there is a defibrillator nearby! I chose the 'crispy chicken burger', it was the fanciest thing listed. I had to order chips as a side!? Having to order chips as a side again raised doubts, what is this place? But I thought surely these burgers must be banging to potentially not even need chips! How wrong was I.

The meal arrived. A massive portion of chips with a chicken burger the size of a mere digestive biscuit. I eat digestives whole, I could have eaten this burger whole but I had company. It was tiny! 1 piece of iceberg lettuce, 1 slice of tomato a smear of some sauce and it must of been a chicken with the same bra size as Dot Cotton, bless her soul. Chips were stodgy. As much as I'm often dismissive of any side garnish, to have nothing else on the plate at all made it look very sad, very Kerry Katona, very freezer to fryer. We had to get our cutlery and condiments. Wouldn't normally moan about that except they charge for service? Condiments were very limited. No BBQ sauce, this swiftly doused my hopes of it being a proper burger joint... Imagine if I didn't even order the chips! I wonder what size plate they would have served the smallest burger ever on? An egg cup would have sufficed and atleast added some dramatic intrigue. Or that annoying hipster trend of serving food in recycling, well seriously a tin lid would have done it. It wasn't as if it was cheap. It was towards the more expensive end of Purbeck pub grub but quality nowhere near!

To make it worse there is a 10% service charge automatically put on your bill. I expect that in some restaurants, but not a pub, not a pub where you get your own cutlery and condiments, go to the bar to order and certainly not a pub with rude staff. I hear you get charged a service charge even just for a drink at the bar!? Me thinks the waccy baccy have been smoketh over the business plans and the artwork around the place matches that hypothesis.

The majority of staff we dealt with had an incredibly poor attitude. One member of staff seemed ok. We found this out over such a small event which I'll spare you the detail of, but out of all the things that can go wrong in service it was absolutely a minimal thing. However over just such a small event, they showed they have no business sense, no basic manners or customer care, no professionalism at all. We ended up requesting the service charge be removed from the bill, this was met with more rudeness from whom seemed to be the manager. I really felt we should of asked for money off the food too; it was very pricey for what you got.

It is such a shame and I sense it must be new management that have taken over as it used to be a lovely pub with decent food and service. We won't go back. There are loads of great pubs in the Purbecks and Wareham, spoilt for choice so don't waste time or money on this one!

P. S. You can get the view for free, at the pub carpark see a gate to the left rather than towards the pub garden. There's a footpath to a field. Take a picnic and give the pub...

Update 2022 We returned after two years away, in fact we realised we were possibly one of the last customers to stay before 2020 lock down. Anyway we again stayed in Houns Tout and it was once again great. Just a note they say it us a King bed, it's not is a double, and I'm sorry to say it's very bouncy! If your partner gets in and they are heavier then hold on or you will bounce right out, also you will fall towards them! For many this is not a problem but for me it is. But I would still return as everything else is brilliant, not perfect and glossy but comfortable and homely. The room has tea and coffee and the coffee is lovely, nice biscuits too. A couple of complimentary sparking water, I don't like the stuff but my partner does so he was happy. The most wonderful smelling face/hair/body washes (one of those that does all) I have ever found, I'm going to buy some for home. Breakfast is served between 9 and 9.30am and if you are a veggie bad luck! I am so the cooked side is limited but if you eat meat you are in for a treat. Same pretty much goes for the entire menu. I like that the menu is not vast but if you don't eat fish or meat you are very limited, I think two dishes and that has goats cheese on it. If you are vegan then again they do adapt and I think one dish. I could be wrong on that as I am not vegan. I have a wonderful halome

A wonderful pub that has bed and breakfast too. We stayed in February for a walking weekend (unfortunately the storm put pay to that) and stayed in Houns Tout (so named after a local hill) which turned out yo be a small apartment. Bathroom and separate wc (nice touch) looked clean and had soap and towels. Bedroom had a large double bed that I found a bit too springy and I fell into my partner so sleeping for the lightest person, if like me you like a bit of personal space, is tricky. To be honest I ended up both nights sleeping on one of the two leather sofas in the living room. In the living room as I say we're two brown leather sofas, a large table and chairs, coffee facilities and a TV, all very comfortable. The bar is a dream with several good local beers and ciders, as well as a good selection of wine and spirits. The evening food was well cooked and local products the chef knows what they are about! Apart from the bouncy bed my only slight dissapointment was breakfast. You need to be down between 8.45 and 9.30am which is a little early for holiday starts. Although not busy in the mornings the breakfasts were very slow and although excellent products for meat eaters not cooked to the same high standard the night meals are. Day one I asked for the full English vegetarian but it was made very clear they dudnt really have the products for this and I was slightly discouraged from ordering the sausage, so I didn't. The egg was very underdone with the white still transparent and "snotty" and the mix veg a little flacid. My partners meat full English was excellent products and he said cooked okay. Nice cereal, toast and local jams so that was a real treat I should, in retrospect ordered more toast and enjoyed that. Day two I asked for the veg and some goats cheese, just a little crumbled to make it more interesting, I got loads of cheese and I was so pleased. I couldn't relax and enjoy it as if took 40 minutes to arrive and we had a flight to catch so it was rather rushed. If I could change one thing it would be the breakfast experience. Staff were super friendly and helpful. Would i return again? Yes and I know I would live it just as much, I forgive the bed and the breakfast as everything else is...

I've been going to the Scott arms for the past 13 years or more, ever since The Jerk Shak opened up doing the Carribbean barbecue over the weekends during the summer months. I travel some distance for this food, because it's like nothing I ever had since moving from London to Dorset. Growing up eating carribean food, I know the difference between authentic and not. So I was absolutely mortified to visit last weekend, only to be presented by a team of Caucasian British people, trying to do the same food. I asked one of the servers what was going on, only to be told it's changed hands and the food is the same. I couldn't believe what I was being told. Having travelled some distance, I hesitantly ordered from them regardless. As soon as that plate landed on the table, my heart sank and I was instantly disappointed. The rice was the first obvious difference, it looked like sticky rice. The jerk sauce was dark looking and awful, covering chicken which was obviously not marinated beforehand. The coleslaw was not fresh, and the plantain was dryer than the Sahara dessert. This food was being priced at more than the original and tasted like something out of IKEA or whetherspoons. I will not be returning here. I also struggled to get a dead pint of red stripe, because none of them knew how to pour one. I had to buy inside and wait an age to get served. If anyone knows the original team at the jerk shak they will know that The Scott Arms will never be the same again. The owner best hope he marry another Jamaican or starts doing fish and chips instead. This experience has ruined many good memories at the Scott arms and I only hope the Jerk Shak will continue to thrive elsewhere.

Look at the two photos, taken a year apart. I don't need to...