South Coast Connections

Dorset is home to some of the freshest and most delicious food, and our produce (especially our seafood) gets shipped all over the world, but the best place to eat it, of course, is right here! 

Classic European dishes such as moules mariniere (mussels in white wine, cream, garlic and parsley sauce) or spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams and white wine) are served in many of our friendly restaurants and inns, along with more traditional local dishes such as Dorset Smokies (a delicious smoked seafood and smoked cheese fondue, served with chunks of tasty bread), so if you like fresh crab, lobster, prawns, fish, scallops, whelks, clams, samphire, sea kale, sea holly root and seaweed, and you like the 'Catch of the Day' to have actually been caught that day, you have come to the right place!

Alternatively, away from the coast, we have rich farmland and pastureland which also provide us with gert lush fresh (and often organic) vegetables, fruits and responsibly-raised meats to specialist cheeses (such as the famous and now under 'Protected Geographical Indication' Dorset Blue Vinny - a mouth-watering unpasteurised cheese, whose farmhouse production location was kept a tight secret until recently!), local ice cream and honey, and even Dorset Truffles, super-hot Dorset Nagga Chili Peppers or Europe's first and only Fresh Wasabi Root are all grown and available to buy locally at our many delis, farm shops and farmers' markets and even from RJ Balson & Sons of Bridport, which is Britain's oldest family butchers, established way back in 1515, or you can dine in our 1000s of fabulous restaurants, cafes and pubs or buy food 'on the hop' (and carry on sightseeing!), from many of the fish & chip shops, stalls and huts which are peppered around the coastline and countryside. 

Most are very reasonably priced and you just will not find food this fresh and of this quality in many places, which is why many celebrity chefs such as Mat Follas, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Mark Hix, Alex Aitken, Lesley Waters & Ed Baines head to Dorset, to film, to demonstrate cooking techniques at our numerous food festivals or at their own cookery schools, or to cook on the beach, which of course, everybody does! ;) And in November 2015, much-loved seafood chef Rick Stein opened a brand-new restaurant in trendy Sandbanks too! 

But seriously, you don't have to traipse around with pots of chopped onions and a camping stove in your backpack, getting a picnic together from Dorset's top-notch independent producers is easy: we love Chesil Smokery in Bridport (if you like prawns we strongly suggest that you order their smoked prawns, they are so delicious!) and delicatessens such as Weymouth Deli provide a selection of local cheeses and cured meats, alongside selling outstanding homemade pies, Capreolus Fine Foods provide ethical artisan English charcuterie and traditional bakeries such as Leakers Bakery of Bridport or the Famous Hedgehog Bakery in Long Critchel, nr Wimborne) also sell scrummy local pasties an dcakes, or you COULD even pop into a local fishmonger or go fishing and then light a barbeque in many places (such as at most beaches after 6pm, but do not light open fires as they scorch the ground and they also make hot pebbles explode), or you can use the permanent barbeques which are freely available to the public, such at the beautiful Nothe Gardens in Weymouth - just don't forget to bring coal, ice cubes and a frisbee! 

And speaking of ice cubes - you will not go thirsty in Dorset as we produce lots of tasty beverages, and very fine beverages at that! We have many old breweries producing fine beers and ales, we make delicious cider (of course, this IS the Westcountry!), such as Marshwood Vale Cider, Annings Fruit Cider, which is made in Lyme Bay and the mouthwatering fruit cider flavours available are: Elderflower & Cucumber, Pear & Mint, Crushed Mixed Berry,Peach & Pear, Strawberries & Lyme. Our vineyards produce many award-winning fine wines made with Dorset grapes, fruits and flowers and also from vines imported from Champagne, Chardonnay and all of the other best wine-growing regions from around the world. We make our own gin and also, the world's first milk-based vodka has been causing quite a sensation lately, which we have showcased in our fab SCC Dorset Magazine! 

Dorset has a history of smuggling which goes back 100s of years, which of course produced thousands of smuggling and pirates' tales, from Enid Blyton's many wonderful books with the children adventuring around the coast, to let's face it, the best kids' film ever - The Goonies, which is a blend of the Famous Five, the Secret Seven and Moonfleet!  (BTW, we have just heard that Goonies 2 is going to be made, with much of the original cast, how fab is THAT? WE HOPE THAT THEY FILM IT HERE THIS TIME!)  People actually used to die of exposure after drinking rum straight out of barrels on the beach after boats were unfortunately shipwrecked in tremendous storms, but nowadays, things are a little bit more civilised, a lot more in fact and whether the pub or bar that you visit is modern or blimmin' ancient, you will be greeted very warmly as we are a very friendly bunch. A little tip though: apart from in Bournemouth & Poole, which are generally super-trendy, many places don't have a dress code, for the gents though, later in the night, wearing shoes instead of trainers may help you to get into the many nightclubs which line the Dorset's coast...

Oh, and we almost forgot - Dorset has the most 24-hour alcohol licences in the UK. So, whereas Ireland has crazily reduced its licencing hours to midnight, here, you can drink til dawn, or beyond, as dozens of pubs, bars and nightclubs stay open well into the night - you no longer have to go home at 2am nor try to find out where the 'lock-in' is, prohibition and restrictions are but faint memories here and adults can stay up as late as they LIKE! And finally, as well as staying open all hours (which is to encourage tourism, so do hop on the train!), people are often surprised at how cheap a round of drinks is here, hooray! 

Bournemouth and Weymouth's clubs, bars & pubs stay open the latest but if you're a quieter kind of fellow, head for the older Dorset pubs, the food, the ambiance and the views will be great, and if you really don't fancy seeing a lot of people, why not try England's smallest pub, the Smith's Arms in Godmanstone, which dates back to 1420? It was originally a blacksmith's and legend has it that the licence was granted by King Charles II who stopped for refreshment when he was having his horse shod. When the smith replied that he had no licence, the King granted him one on the spot, by Royal Charter no less - problem solved!

The pubs around Corfe Castle are particularly magical, we had a really great pizza (with a really crunchy semolina base!) in the pub garden of the Greyhound Inn recently, with its magnificent 'foot-of-the-castle-level' view it's pretty hard to beat, although all of the local ingredients used at the various The Stable pizza & pies venues are very hard to beat too, as is their huge local wine, cider & ale selection!

Vastly popular coastal pubs include The Square & Compass in Worth Matravers, The Smugglers Inn in Osmington and The Cove House Inn at the end of Chesil Beach on Portland, but we will have to stop there because there are so many great pubs and eateries in Dorset and we mean to track down some great offers and vouchers, so that you can sample the best of what we have to offer! 

For the little ones or for 'non-drinkers', we also produce wonderful lots of fresh smooth fruit presses and cordials, such as Dorset Ginger, apple, pear, blackcurrant, lemongrass and elderflower, etc... Or you could treat yourself to a traditional Dorset Cream Tea, which is available at lots of delightfully quaint independent tea rooms, which are often situated in seriously stunningly beautiful surroundings, such as Clavell's Cafe in Kimmeridge village. Dorset Tea blend teas from Africa and India, as well as making Dorset fruit, herbal and green teas, as do Clipper Teas. Luscombe fruit juices and drinks are so widely sold in Dorset that we thought that they were produced in here, but they are actually made in our sister county Devon,so  do look out for them as they are very tasty and refreshing indeed, as are lots of non-alcoholic cocktails and smoothies, which are listed along the alcoholic ones in most bars.

The primordial thrill of foraging and gleaning for yummy free wild food is getting increasingly popular but PLEASE bear in mind that it's getting a little TOO popular, so please only collect what you can correctly IDENTIFY and JUST what you need, don't take the whole plant, pick away from polluted roadsides or fields, which may have been recently sprayed with chemicals. Do not disturbland or marine animals which are spawning or mating, do not pick juvenile plants, do not uproot plants - cut them instead and tap plants and mushrooms before picking them to release their spores into the local environment, so that they will grow back the next year, and for many more years to come.

For instance, we resisted collecting samphire at Dancing Ledge, Swanage the other day as it was very sparse, but when we saw lots of sea cabbage growing along Chesil Beach, we ate some on the spot (after waving it in the sea to get rid of any possible dog-pee), and we also grazed on some crunchy salty sun-dried seaweed, and then we collected a few sea cabbage leaves (because they are huge!) and several types of fresh seaweed, to add to a nice sizzling ginger and Dorset smoked garlic stir-fry! 

Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve is one of the best places in the country to practice foraging as it is surrounded by unsprayed, unspoilt hedgerows and meadows and has over 500 species of fungi, including a population of rare waxcaps. Its habitats are grassland, hedgerows, woodland, green lanes, ponds, and streams and other species found there include common knapweed, oxeye daisy, lady’s mantle, corky-fruited water-dropwort, devil’s-bit scabious, meadow thistle, early-purple orchid, heath spotted-orchid, moschatel, bryophytes, marsh fritillary, marbled white, silver-washed fritillary, dipper, kingfisher and dormouse.

You are not allowed to forage for many rare or protected species of plants and animals, such as hedgehogs and red squirrels (many of which can still be found on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour), and of course some species of plants, fungus and animals are toxic and poisonous, but you CAN learn how to forage safely and responsibly with one of these fab hands-on courses: Hedgerow Harvest, Wild Forage, John Wright's Wild Food, Dorset Bushcraft, Coastal Survival School, Summer Lodge, Robin Harford's Eat Weeds, Wild Food & Mushrooms Foraging Courses, Dorset Fungus Group, White Pepper Cookery School, River Cottage, The English Truffle Company, Fore Adventure Forage, Crab Apple Catering, Goldhill Organics and lastly (for the time being!), although Fergus the Forager courses are actually based in Kent, his wild food recipes & articles pages are fantastic, so do use that to spark your fresh-from-the-wild culinary inspiration too! 

Dorset famously has a sub-tropical microclimate which stretches all along the Jurassic Coast, whilst inland, the climate changes and the gently rolling grasslands and chalk streams provide ideal growing crops such as one of the ultimate superfoods: watercress (we provide 80% of the UK's watercress, so it will be as fresh can be), the cultivation of which in turn led to the aforementioned Dorset Wasabi to be grown, with its roots dangling in the streams, somewhere in the county! We were the first to cultivate cabbage in the UK, when Sir Anthony Ashley of Wimborne St Giles (1551-1628) introduced a type of cabbage from Holland to his estate. His effigy in the village church has something resembling a cabbage at his feetin tribute to the man who bought them here. And actually, having found so many great and unusual Dorset soup recipes during our 'research', we are starting to wonder why we are not known as the scrumptious soup capital of the world?! Personally, we regularly make Zuppa di Pesce (which is a yummy Italian seafood soup) with all-local fresh onions, garlic, tomatoes, chillies, white wine, parsley, basil, plus fresh clams, mussels, squid and whatever else is fresh on the fish counter, such as gurnard!

We aim to list lots of the best eateries and amazingly diverse world and local food available in Dorset here on this page very soon, but in the meantime, please do tell us about your favourite places to eat or buy food - you are very welcome to write a review or to just send us some photographs to publish and share, and we'd also love your local recipes, especially for these traditional dishes: Blandford Pudding, Almond Soup, Beef Olives, Blackmore Vale Cake, Sweetheart Cake, Dorset Smokies, Dorset Sausage (which is actually a meatloaf), Longpuddle Lamb, Piddle Bacon Cake (these names are all real- for instance, Puddletown used to be called Piddletown until the Victorians found the name to be too offensive, and Longpuddle is what Thomas Hardy renamed the area around Puddletown in his books, just like he did with many places: Budmouth =  Weymouth, Casterbridge = Dorchester, etc...!)

Recipes are needed for the non-highlighted traditional regional recipes listed above please as they are not available anywhere on the internet (as of yet), and in the meantime, why not try making some of these: Dorset Creamy Cabbage Soup, Mark Hix's Black Cow Vodka Fondue with Dorset Knob Biscuits or his Coastal Rarebit, Yalbury Cottage's White Onion & Cider Soup, or their Dorset Nettle Soup, Studland Sea Lettuce Soup, Dorset Jugged Steak, Lesley Waters' Dorset Sausage Pasties, a Badger Beer Campfire Hotpot or Poacher's Pearl Barley and Ox Cheek Stew, Dorset Lamb Crumble, Hugh's Prawns and Fresh Seaweed Tempura (yummy Dorset prawns are in season at the autumn), Hugh's Lettuce and Lovage Soup and Hugh's Risotto of Nettles and Wild Herbs, Ford Farm's Smoked Dorset Red Muffins, Billie's Smoked Goat Cheese Souffle or their Cauliflower & Coastal Cheese Soup.

And for dessert ideas you can bake Dorset Apple Cake, Spiced Dorset Apple Traybake, Apple & Dorset Blue Vinny Scone Bread, Blueberry Autumn Spice Cake, Golden Cap Pudding, Dorset Parkin or make Mark Hix's Dorset Black Cow Milk Vodka Fondue with Dorset Knob Biscuits.

Why not visit the annual Dorset Knob Throwing and Frome Valley Food Festival - beside Knob-Throwing, there will be additional fun Knob activities, including Knob-Eating, Knob-Painting, a Knob & Spoon Race, guess the weight of the Big Knob, Knob Darts and a Knob pyramid. This amusing article explains why we don't just EAT our Knobs - for one, they are ROCK-HARD!

"Fifty years ago there was a score of companies making the small dry bun made of bread dough with added sugar and butter, which took its name from the hand-sewn Dorset knob buttons. But now there is only R Moores, a company that for 10 months of the year makes luxury biscuits for upmarket food shops and delicatessens. But after New Year and the weeks of indulgence and indigestion, the sweet biscuit market crumbles. Holidays, dieting and post-Christmas poverty are blamed by the manufacturers. So instead of laying-off its 17 biscuit makers for January and February, the company keeps its ovens alight to produce Dorset knobs. "It takes six hours to bake a knob and only 24 minutes to bake a biscuit, so the knobs are not really economically viable..."