"The Dutches of Cornwall is an impressive looking inn in the slightly surreal environs of Poundbury, King Charles’ pet sociological experiment. It doesn’t have much competition in the immediate area and is or should be something of a flagship for the Hall and Woodhouse brewery that is based just up the road in Blandford. The setting, decor and general ambience are all excellent. The staff are youthful, smiley and mostly enthusiastic. The rooms are well appointed, comfortable and, particularly given the recent cold snap, warm and cosy. The bed and breakfast deal I got also represented fantastic value for money, particularly once you throw in the complementary drink from your room. What’s not to like? Well, we combined our overnight stay with Sunday lunch. It all looked promising. We, however, waited quite a while between being seated and being spoken to by waiting staff. “Sorry for the wait”. My pescatarian wife wanted the Hake. “Sorry, there’s no Hake left”. Our booking was at 1:30, not, I would suggest, late in the day. Not wanting fish and chips again , she opted for the No Nut Roast. I went for the Roast Beef ‘served pink’ . We perhaps confused the issue by ordering starters arancini and beetroot cured smoked salmon. Both were delicious. We then waited quite a while for our starters to be cleared. Eventually, my wife asked someone to clear our table. We then waited for our main courses. We waited. We watched other table’s mains come and go. We waited. We asked after our mains and moments later they appeared. ‘Sorry for the wait”. All looked Okay although my beef wasn’t pink. I tried it and it was a bit tough and beginning to dry out. Had I guessed, I would have thought they may have been waiting under a warming lamp for a while. We mentioned it to a waitress, who said she’d ‘tell chef’ and get me some more, pink beef. We waited. Unsure whether I should continue to eat my veg, I asked a waitress and she said to carry on eating I’d just be getting some more pink beef. Eventually, 4 succulent pink slices of rare roast beef appeared. Joy. When asked by the duty manager ? if everything was OK, the waiting, string of apologies and the over done beef were highlighted and he, again, apologised and kindly removed the cost of our main courses from the bill. Whilst I feel this was good and absolutely the correct response, I would clearly have rather have had a good meal served in a timely way the first time round. Breakfast looked promising but, again, a few items typically those we requested were unavailable. No baked eggs ? and no plain yoghurt. I am not sure who eats Toffee yoghurt at breakfast, of which there was a plentiful supply, other than, perhaps 6 year olds. It was also sad to see streaky rather than back bacon included in the Full English Breakfast and my bacon bap . Is this pandering to the American audience, do you think? A bit pernickety perhaps. Overall, a lovely stay was tarnished somewhat by some poor catering and a limited number of young staff who, whilst trying hard, lacked effective supervision; I would suggest that many of the delays we experienced could have been avoided by a good ‘maitre d’hotel’ or ‘floorwalker’ directing staff to clear away, prepare tables or identify when folk had been waiting too long. We would certainly give the Duchess of Cornwall another go if only for the exceptional value for money of the overnight stay and hope that the duty manager’s assurances that what we found was not representative of their usual high standards to be the case."
