Pretty ordinary

On our first evening in Corfe we wandered into one or two pubs, before settling on the Bankes Inn as the place for dinner, based on its reasonably varied menu and a pleasant space in which to sit. What we got here was, perhaps not surprisingly, fairly typical pub fare, with a few nice items and the rest fairly ordinary but acceptable. So, my starter of crab and avocado tian was light and fresh-tasting, but I was a little disappointed with the rather tasteless baked cod that followed it, though the blue cheese dauphinoise potatoes that accompanied it were more successful, as were the courgettes (cooked just right, rather than to a pulp!). Chris's “chicken liver parfait” appeared to be shop-bought paté, albeit quite an tasty one, and his trio of assorted sausages all tasted pretty similar, but pleasantly so, while the accompanying mash was good, as was the gravy. We washed these down with the local brewery's special, and paid £39 for the food bill – not expensive, but not great value, and my main course in particular, at £14.95, seemed dear for what I got. Personally I felt we had better value the next evening, at Mortons House, when we paid twice as much but got probably four times the pleasure!The pub itself is a beautiful old building on the east side of the village square, dating from 1549. I liked the huge old fireplace and can imagine that it would be particularly cosy in wet or cold weather. But the décor is dull and more old and old-fashioned than it needs to be, even respecting the age of the building itself.

A User - 07/07/2008 | report this review