The Royal Oak (JD Wetherspoon), Dorchester

Split levelspoons with a bit more going for it than the usual. Good beer and service

This one is obviously an original pub. It consists of a long room with the bar on the right at the rear and a lower area on the left as you enter. There is a verandah at the rear along with a cobbled patio. This is a classic example of where they have jammed in far too many tables for the size of the place. It was busy mostly with people eating on my Saturday late morning visit and it was a task in itself finding a route through it all. The bar has ten hand pumps which had a reasonable choice of the JDW Trio Of Doom with Ruddles doubled up, Lancaster Black, Dorset Dusk Till Dawn, Woodforde's Wherry, Marston's Old Empire, Rooster's True Grit and White Horse Village Idiot. I went for the Old Empire (£2.89) which was excellent. All the guests were priced at £2.89 which seems totally unfair to the low ABV brigade as a pint of Wherry here would be expensive for a JDW while Old Empire wouldn't. Apart from the overcrowded furniture I thought this was a reasonably good Spoons.

Clearly an old building from the outside,but the internal refurb has been quite brutal and there is not a lot of character inside.The best part is at the front where there are two rooms feeling disctete,but beyond that there are ranks of dining tables stretching back to the rear ,while a lower level to the left is also completely corporate.The bar is at the rear and has a few high tables opposite ,while there is a small rear courtyard for a tab or exterior drinking. There are two ranks of five handpumps offering on my trip Ruddles Best (doubled up),GK Abbott,Doom Bar,Otter Bitter and Dark,Great Newsome Holderness Dark,Moorhouses White Mist,Lees Kaleiderscope and an international brewers Defender brewed at Everards.Both ales I tried had the line chiller turned up too high and made the beer too cold and somewhat tasteless. There are better places for real ale not far away.

A former coaching inn which has expanded into a neighbouring Georgian building, operated by JDW since 2001. The décor is all basic JDW, including the mute gaming machines and mute tvs showing live sports. There is free WiFi available. There is an outside drinking area in the former stable yard and a larger garden area at the back. Staff appeared bored and unwilling to engage, although service was efficient enough. There were large numbers of customers with beards and lumps of metal stuck in their faces, which made the place feel like a battle scene from a LOTR film. Nine ales and one cider on draft, I had DBC's Jurassic Coast, which was OK but spoilt by being served much too cold. There are better pubs in Dorchester, but I'd include it in a crawl for its beer choice only.