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Dorchester DT2 0JW
01935 83228
johnbc said
Down in Dorset
Dorset is undoubtedly one of the most convenient country week-end getaway destinations from London. Celebrated in Thomas Hardy's novels the rolling countryside and coastal areas provide many scenic and historical places to visit and to stay. One such is the Acorn Inn, a 16th Century coaching inn that Thomas Hardy called 'The Sow & Acorn' in 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles'. Set in the picturesque West Dorset village of Evershot, this lovely old stone-built Inn boasts a worthy history. Originally known as The Kings Arms, it once brewed its own ales with water drawn from the source of the River Frome close by. It was probably also used as a stop-over by the infamous 17th Century "Hanging" Judge Jeffries on his lethal round of Dorset assizes.
Evershott village and the Inn are picture post-card but we are not keen to use the Acorn again after two stays. Being obliged to make regular visits to an aged Aunt at nearby Broadwindsor, we normally stay at a B&B there whose accommodation and breakfast provide a benchmark of comfort and excellence that is hard to match. Sadly that is not true of the Acorn at double the price of the B&B, despite its lyrical description in its brochure. It has everything going for it, beams, four posters and log fires for the winter BUT ---- so much depends on the details…
I am afraid I am going to niggle in this review. This is an AA four star establishment where one might expect to find complementary water in the room (in a fridge even as in our B&B). You have to ask in the bar and one will be given and not charged for. Whilst in the dining room, it is sometimes difficult to communicate because the pleasant waiting staff are all from the new EU countries with varying proficiencies in English. A request for Lea & Perrins or Dijon mustard is likely to be met with that blank or worried look when you know you are in trouble. The sauce comes but it is HP, and after long consultation in the kitchen, by which time your "Full English" or dinner is getting cold, the mustard is only English when it finally arrives.
The bedrooms we have recently used were both relatively small - I guess that 16th Cent rooms were so - so let's allow that. However you do expect your windows to fit or not to be so tight that you cannot open one to cool the room (We could not turn the heating off in the bedroom last time). The manager eventually managed to open one which enabled us to sleep without melting but again this in a supposed AA 4 star place - I don't think so! The previous bedroom's old window frames meant there was a permanent gap to the window overlooking the village street outside the Inn. In the country people tend to get up early and tractors and diesel engines are the norm - so, if you stay don’t worry about an alarm call unless you sleep like the proverbial log. Another curious thing is that access to the bedrooms is via an enclosed internal hall and staircase onto which the kitchen door opens for the dining area. Passing from the bar and reception areas through the hall is to pass through a humid tropical atmosphere with odours redolent of the day's menus plus the temperature rising as one ascends the stairs! Fortunately the regulation fire doors cut the heat and smells as well as the clatter and noise usual in any busy kitchen. You then pass into the relatively calm and cool undulating upstairs corridors of the old inn leading to the bedrooms.
Dorset is a bad reception area for your mobile phone by the way. You see people wandering the streets, car parks and byways looking for a signal - even the credit card machine had to be taken into the Acorn's bar area to find a reliable signal to pay the final bill! Talking of signals, you would also expect the TV to have freeview and a clear digital picture for Channel 5 these days - despite a couple of Sky programmes the room TV is woefully short of channels - come on now if my B&B can provide them.....?! I know the bars are cosy and they have a skittle alley but how can one be expected to give up that favourite programme that’s either not available or has to be viewed through an arctic blizzard on the screen?!!
It's not all bad news at the Acorn, but the place could be so much better and should be for the £160 a night charge which includes breakfast for 2. Ironically the Acorn is owned by the Red Carnation group who also own the Relais & Chateaux Summer Lodge country hotel in the same village whose prices are stratospheric, but where they do have Dijon mustard (on request!) and the windows also tend to fit. Prof. Magellan would probably write a similarly sniffy review about Summer Lodge but for now anyway the Acorn cannot rate for more than a 0ne star experience on TP.
(4/4 found this review helpful)
johnbc
London, UK
CristinaA
also
reviewed
La Trouvaille
restaurant in
Soho
