The Golden Fox, Wimborne

A very tidy roadside inn on the main road past the village, currently owned by Hall and Woodhouse. The outside isn't very appealing due to the caravans in the scruffy car park, but inside it is much better kept. The 17th Century pub now has a single bar which snakes through the building and is set up almost entirely for diners – it feels like it's trying to be a restaurant but not quite getting there. There are exposed timbers, bay windows and a mix of flagstone and 1970s red carpets. It's quite noisy inside, partly due to traffic from the road and partly because of the banal utterances of the local radio being squeezed out of the hifi system. The food is like ordinary pub grub only more expensive. The staff, none of whom are local, are a mixed bag – one rude male who didn't want to serve us, a more polite male who wanted to chat and a nice lady who eagerly sold us beer. There was only one ale on, First Call, which was OK but not brilliant, possibly why this pub no longer has a GBG entry. OK for a pit stop.

The Black Horse holds the distinction of being the only pub I've ever been thrown out of (not for drunken behaviour I hasten to add - bizarrely it was because I was supposedly not drinking enough to merit the landlord's hospitality). Despite the grumpy landlord's departure many years ago, I never returned until I decided to take some relatives there after it was recommended to me recently for its food. For a roadside pub, it is fairly small, with a few small tables near the door for the locals to have a drink, whilst the main part of the room, opposite and beyond the bar, is set up for diners. The room has a nice, traditional country pub feel to it and its walls are adorned with plenty of horse-related bits and bobs, including many horse brasses and a couple of saddles. Ales are limited to Badger First Gold and Tanglefoot, but both are well kept, with the Badger in particular being very enjoyable. The food menu is a variation on the typical Hall and Woodhouse menus that can be found all over this part of Dorset. I had the steak and Tanglefoot pie followed by sticky toffee pudding, both of which were very nice. In fact the food was so good that we came back again the next weekend for their Sunday roast, which was also very good home-cooked fayre. Despite this, the pub's greatest assets were the two very friendly barmaids, whose friendly and welcoming manner made the difference between an average pub experience and a very good one. Good customer service like this is becoming increasingly rare, so it was nice to see a real effort being made here. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this place for anyone looking for a good meal, and although beer selection is limited, I could imagine it would be a nice spot just for a drink as well.