Royal Oak Inn - Charmouth

Just had Sunday lunch at The Royal Oak. Lovely experience. Friendly, attentive staff. Delicious food good portions too. Booked for a midweek return. Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5

Price per person: £30–40 Food: 4 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 4 Recommended dishes: Haddock and Chips, Ham Egg and Chips

Price per person: £30–40 Food: 4 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5

Booked a table prior as we have a golden retriever so needed some space as soon as we walked in I knew it was a lovely pub staff very helpful and friendly, fantastic food and a great atmosphere will definitely be visiting next time we are in the area. Highly recommend this pub. Food: 5 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5 Recommended dishes: Haddock and Chips, Pie and Chips, Chicken Bacon and BBQ

We chose to have lunch here as has more review stars that the other pub in Charmouth. The pub was run by wife front of house and husband in the kitchen. I rarely order a starter but had my head turned by the crab arancini on the specials board. They looked delicious when served but sadly no taste or sight of crab, chef had added a very strong tasting ingredient, almost like garlic salt or something, which was the dominant flavour and I could taste nothing else, including the truffle mayonnaise. They were disappointing, I mentioned it to the chap who collected the plate and he said sorry and that was that.. for main we again ordered from the specials board, I had silver mullet with Spanish style tomato stew. The fish was cooked perfectly, but for me, the stew was a bit dense, it could have been loosened out a bit with maybe a good slug of olive oil, and a little sugar to sweeten the tomato, especially against the earthy flavour of the mullet, it just needed a bit of a lift. My husband had ribeye steak, the dish was nicely presented, but the very thick chips were not to his liking, I tried one they were quite soft, not really like chips, they were too big for chips, we thought the steak was on the small side at £24.99, but have to say really good to have the pepper sauce served as part of the dish, not like other places that change extra. We were asked if we wanted dessert and we decided to push the boat out and share a one, although we were asked by the landlady to decide as quickly as possible as the kitchen closed 30 minutes ago! I'm certain it wasn't meant to be rude but it came across a little bit so, the desert was however very nice. The bill was just shy of £90 although that's with a couple of large wines and beers too. After spending that amount on lunch we didn't come away a happy as we'd liked. The food wasn't bad, just not quite there. They are obviously working very hard and I wish them both luck. Price per person: £40–50 Food: 3 Service: 3 Atmosphere: 4