Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Restaurants

Where are the top class restaurants in Swanage or in the local area? I am often disappointed after dining out. Plenty of Pub food, plenty of holiday makers fast food outlets. But where is the top class restaurant, with excellent cuisine that would please your wife, or Lady friend? The classy place?Sadly, I know of none. I am sure there is a great need for a place of that quality, for there are still restaurants that have waiting times. But not here in Swanage.Dancing Ledge

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Posted by Anonymous to swanage view at 10/11/2005 09:22:44 PM

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

" 5.19. We are determined that the first floor fish restaurant will provide Swanage a place on the culinary map; and that the overall design and mix of the buildings will be inspired, practical, and a creditable attraction to the Town. "
Quote from design statement for Pier Head Swanage.

Anonymous said...

Try the Moonlight Bistro just up from the Red Lion in Swanage High Street. The vegetables are always fresh and cooked to perfection - and that's my indicator of a chef who cares.
Steve Darrington

Anonymous said...

surely without doubt the cauldron is head and shoulders over all the others. Sorry steve but if the vegetables are so fresh at moonlight, how come they are always in vacuum packed bags outside the door in the morning

Anonymous said...

the only restaurant ever to get a full listing in the Consumer Association Which? Good food Guide was the Galley. Swanage does not have a hotel in the Good Hotel Guide or a B&B in the Good B&B Guide or a pub in the Good PuB Guide. Pity they don't publish a good District Council Guide, because we wouldn't get in that either IMHO.

Anonymous said...

The sad thing about it is, that we are not likely to see an improvement. Swanagw will continue to be a "Fast Food" supplier and not much else. Just that.
Dancing Ledge

Anonymous said...

Oops! For "fresh and cooked" read "freshly cooked"!
Steve Darrington

Anonymous said...

My extended family and I have enjoyed Tawny's for many years. The food is good and cheap and the wine selection and prices second to none in Swanage.

That said The Galley closing down was a disaster for those of us that like a really special meal once in a while.

Mark

Anonymous said...

Agree with Mark, Tawnys does a first class job quality and price wise but I doubt that it pretends to be a top clas restaurant. The council restaurant at the muni was never going to be and that leaves Ocean Bay as the other upmarket destination in town, from people I have spoken to the quality is not quite up to the prices charged.

Anonymous said...

Quite apart from a top class restaurant a good patisserie would not be amiss. We have a selection of bakers whose products are either tasteless or cheap and nasty. People in this town don't even know what a decent cake is.

As for the stuff in the supermarkets. Well Mr K****** makes exceedingly oversweet boring junk food. How can we persuade a top class patisserie chef to move down here and show the good folk of Dorset how it should be done.

I'm kidding myself. I just thought of the reaction they'd get to charging a couple of quid for a proper cake from a generation reared on rubbishy chemical engineering.

Postman2 said...

We have one, Roger Young, he opened Rogers Patisserie some 30? years ago. He was and is excellent. Now he sells only wholesale. In the end you end up with the cakes you deserve. Come on and let's get together and make Swanage an upmarket, open-minded, better place.

Anonymous said...

I agree entirely with Nick. We get what the public are willing to pay for. Patisserie culture needs a fair number of people who want to sit and talk for an hour or so and don't mind paying enough to make providing the facility profitable. Dorset gets Tea Rooms selling dissapointing scones which are generally served with a small plastic box containing a form of coloured jelly pretending to be strawberry jam.

If only some brave person could persuade the owners of the old Huon Pine to give them a lease so it could be reopened as a somewhere worth going.

Postman2 said...

Have you seen the rent!? Nowonder no takers...

Anonymous said...

Lets not forget the Trat - it has all of the elements - a reasonable menu , good service, friendly atmosphere and a fair price. Swanage is a small town and is never going to be home to the best restaurant on the planet but I think we do OK

Anonymous said...

Why this attitude in Swanage? Meritocracy is OK because this is Swanage. We’re never going to be more than average. Keep our heads down etc.
Remember Padstow?

Anonymous said...

Ask and it shall (almost) be given. Druckers Vienna Parisserie have opened a branch in the Dolphin Centre in Poole and look as if they are doing a roaring trade. How can they be tempted over here. Its certainly a change from the plague of American style coffee shops.