The Priory Hotel

What a fantastic experience from beginning to the end. Today was a celebration for my good friends 70th birthday. We have been looked after very well, drinks in the lounge while the server took our order, then our party was escorted to a lovely bright restaurant where our food was served promptly. Personally I had pork, it was fantastic, however all the dishes looked incredible and were well received. Thanks to all involved.

Had afternoon 'Ritzy' tea with 5 girlfriends to celebrate one of their birthdays. Everything was delicious but we would have preferred less cakes, we had 2 scones which was too much, and another savoury thing like a little quiche or sausage roll. Wine (sad no Pinot Grigio) and prosecco too expensive. Total £30 each without prosecco or £41 with a glass of prosecco. Lovely environment, beautiful gardens. Would recommend for a special occasion, late Spring and summer sit in the garden.

On January 16th the day The Priory re-opened after the Christmas break according to their website, a friend and myself popped in for morning coffee (we had made a special trip). On arrival the car park was open, the lights in the hotel were on and my friend and I were about to sit next to the lit fire in the lounge only to be told they weren't open by the receptionist/manager, she recommended we go to The Bear Hotel opposite. A week ago I emailed a complaint about this and have had no response. I was going to book dinner and an over night stay in March obviously I won't be doing that now.

Enjoyed a dinner with friends on Saturday evening. First class service from start to finish. Our waiters were charming and attentive maybe the fact they are slightly older gives them a more relaxed approach which we all enjoyed. The 3 course dinner is expensive but the quality of ingredients & presentation justifies the price . The restaurant is beautiful.. facing the garden & river which I imagine is spectacular in the lighter summer months. We definitely will return .. when the summer allows us to enjoy the beautiful setting !

Excellent weekday lunch. The fish was cooked to perfection and the wine was a lovely match. Ajay did a fine job looking after us. Thoroughly enjoyable experience and definitely going back. I also had lunch last summer and that was also delicious.

I see a long history of complaints about rude staff on here, but our experience was completely different. We sailed up the river Frome and found that the public mooring was flooded after heavy rains and Spring Tides, so we tied up at The Priory moorings. Soon after securing the boat a waiter came down and asked if there was anything he could do to help or make us welcome. Next he sent the manager down and she waded through ankle deep flood water to make sure we were welcome and had everything we needed...a really heart warning experience. I would recommend that all boating fraternity on Poole Harbour avail themselves of the warm and friendly welcome from The Priory staff (ignore the PRIVATE sign...they don't really mean to be rude?)

Went with three friends for the Afternoon Tea. Hotel was pretty, sandwiches were nice but there could have been more, also with three of us there were several different flavours which made it difficult to split. Scones were huge and okay, but would have been nicer warm. Butter provided was rock solid so unable to spread. Cakes were nice but very cream based and felt like they'd been crammed onto the plate. Staff were friendly but could have been more attentive, had to find them on 2 occasions to ask for more tea and the bill. Was pleasant enough but not as special as I had hoped. Cost was £30 per person plus service charge of £12 for the three of us.

After having a meal a couple of years ago that was quite frankly not good, we tried again. Watery purple mash under Sea Bass look awful and didn't taste any better! the Sea Bass skin was burnt and the accompanying vegetables were served in a cold serving dish and served cold. The rolls and Melba toast were stale and chocolate desert was drowned by the amount of mango on top. We will not be returning in a hurry!

This used to be our go to hotel for special events and away days. This however changed when I tried to book our wedding reception for 25 people in September this year (this was January). 2 initial emails went unanswered and when I followed up with a telephone conversation. It was obvious they did not want us. Obstacles we were met with were 'we could fit you in', not love to have you' 'will there be children' 'yes 2' one 11 one 12' ' we should be able to accommodate them' how will you be arriving? coach by about midday ' oh you must be sat down by one pm and you cannot have a drinks reception and you must be finished by 5pm so that we can lay up for dinner, you must use an approved florist. If you want rooms you had better be quick. Guys if you can't do it just tell the guest. We had a budget of £10k but that wasn't of interest. All in all a poor experience for what was meant to be a lovely day by the river