Mulberry's has got a great layout and feel to it - half garden, half restaurant. I quite like the balance between being a day-time bistro and evening dinner venue. Front of house staff are very pleasant and efficient too.
This place has long been a favourite haunt for people that want a decent meal in town and it's my local restaurant as it's just down the hill from me.
So I was hoping that it would be blinder so that me and the missus could wander down for dinner and drinks on a regular basis and not have to fork out a taxi. Unfortunately not.
The menu lacks imagination, and appears to be devised by someone who really can't be asked with doing anything new and interesting. For instance there was a choice of 5 starters, almost all of which were repeated in the main course section, i.e. mussels as a starter or a main, crab cakes as a starter or a main, etc.
The other odd thing was the mussels, listed as local - well they can't be that local as we're not near the sea. Furthermore, after a bit of questioning the kitchen (thank you very helpful front of house girls) it transpired that their mussels were supplied by Samways in Bridport. Now Samways is a very good supplier, but their mussels come from wherever they can get them, mainly Cornwall, Wales but sometimes from Scotland. The local mussels (well as close as you can get) are from Portland which can be very dirty. I suspect our mussels were from Cornwall due to the clean shells, but that's a pure guess.
One page of the menu was dedicated to steaks - every type imaginable. The girlfriend as ever went for fillet steak, even after my advice to the contrary. My worst fears were realised when this thing came out, which although technically fillet, didn't really look like one, more like a sirloin with the fat cut off. It also had no real flavour, cue more pepper sauce.
In summary, I'd rather spend the extra money when going out and go somewhere great, like The Green in Sherborne. Maybe I need to move there?
See my other reviews for good places to eat in the area. read more