Oriel Restaurant

We went with a group of 10 for dinner last night. We were asked to pre-​order our food. The menu itself is very strange. They seem to offer everything from stir-​fry, to pizza, to fish, which raised alarm bells with me from the off. I phoned on a Thursday to pre-​order food for Saturday and asked what the catch of the day would be. I was told haddock. Clearly not caught on the day then.
The chips are clearly oven chips and were tasteless and dry. Granted, my fish filled the plate but it was nothing to write home about. Would rather have gone to the local chippy! My husband ordered a steak burger and asked for it rare. They replied ‘Are you sure?’ and then bought us a burger that looked like it had been cooked for 2 hours.
The staff were friendly enough but not particularly attentive. We were left with lots of empty bottles and glasses on our table for quite a long time and only offered a drink once or twice. I was given a half glass of water. Why we weren’t given some jugs of water for the table I’m not sure.
I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be visiting again. There’s so many other nicer places to go in the area with much better quality, fresh food.

Always a pleasure eating here
. Mid priced
Would recomend

This was the first place in Poole to serve decent coffee, now everyone has caught on but it is still one of the the nicest.
It has changed owners since it opened in 1995 so I don’t think you can still get ‘Roberts special cheesecake’ but they kept Roberts menu, pasta dishes are especially tasty.

Been visiting here for around 10 years.
My original review:
«Friendly staff. Constantly high quality food at a reasonable price.
Recommended.»
Well since then it has recently changed hands. The menu is the same but the quality of the food has changed and the way it is cooked. I feel these changes have been made to maximise profits.
The staff are no longer friendly or happy. (Well the head waiter was happy with his hands all over the 3 blonde waitresses).
I’ve been there 4 times since the new owners took over noticing the decline in quality each time. Lastnight was the last straw when I was served a burger that was raw in the middle. No apology by the staff, offered a free coffee which I declined and then told i should at least pay half for it!
Not going back.