The Priory Bay Hotel

On Saturday 7th July, and for once a lovely sunny evening, 4 of us decided to have dinner at the Priory. The setting is lovely though the interior is a little faded. As we perused the menu we looked forward to an enjoyable meal.

The menu certainly looks good and we took our time making our choices. We asked for a half portion of a mains, char grilled asparagus risotto, to be served as a starter and it was delicious. The New Forest goats cheese and potato terrine was also good as were the pan fried scallops with minted pea. All good sized portions. Two of our party were disappointed with their portion of Island lamb feeling they were on the small side and swimming in a rosemary jus! My Highland fillet of beef was a good size but also swimming in Madeira jus! The whole baked pink bream had an interesting Priory garden salad including borage which we had to ask about.

We all decided against puddings and had our coffees served with a very pretty plate of truffle fudge and raspberries. The menu for 2 courses is £23 and £29 for 3 courses, which we felt would be reasonable if the food was only a bit better. The wines were well priced and including pre-dinner drinks and coffee the cost was ££££££ per head.