The Walnut Grove, Dorchester (From Dorset Echo)

The Walnut Grove, Dorchester

9:56am Thursday 3rd June 2010 in

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WHEN doing a tour of the High Street with a daughter whose ability to shop makes the consumerism of Sex and the City’s Carrie pale into insignificance, one needs to keep up one’s strength.

So it was that on a dismal, wet, half-term lunchtime after a fruitless trudge round Dorchester, we came upon the Walnut Grove in Durngate Street and hurried inside, passing a family browsing a menu attached to the window.

And just as well we did, for the restaurant was full to capacity. We managed to secure the last free table, just as it was being cleared.

The Walnut Grove is a compact and friendly two-storey place with smiling and polite staff, even when they are working full-tilt.

Its walls are darkly papered, leading to an intimate feel that must add to the atmosphere on evenings a deux, and scattered with intriguing glass and metal shapes and images.

It has a comprehensive menu laden with breakfast dishes, those typical lunchtime staples jacket spuds and sandwiches as well as more robust dishes.

There is also a specials board, a selection of cakes and a wide variety of hot and cold drinks, including alcohol.

Fran and I felt snug and smug as we sat in the warmth choosing our meal while watching bedraggled families scurrying head-down against the elements, looking for somewhere where they could warm up and dry off.

Unfortunately there was no room to stay in the Walnut Grove and as we waited to be served, a steady stream of the damp and disconsolate came hopefully through the door, only to be returned to the rain.

A combination of cold, damp and genetic conditioning meant that when we chose our meals we went for carbohydrate overload.

Having scoured the impressive roster of jacket potatoes on offer, I plumped for one filled with Stilton and bacon. Fran ordered potato wedges with melted cheese plus garlic bread, just to be sure, and we both went for soft drinks.

My jacket spud was perfect – not too large, cooked to fluffy perfection and loaded down with cheese and bacon. It came with a salad of leaves, red onion and grape halves and creamy coleslaw.

The potato wedges were crisp and golden, coated melted cheese and served in an intriguing asymmetrical bowl, for ease of access I guess. The garlic bread was, in retrospect, a carbohydrate too far and went unfinished.

Happily replete and refuelled, we paid the bill and went once more into the breach to complete our shopping, determined to break up future expeditions with a trip to the Walnut Grove.

* Walnut Grove, 25 Durngate Street, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1JP. Call 01305 268882.

Our Walnut Grove bill

Jacket Potato with Stilton and bacon: £5.75

Potato wedges with melted cheese: £3.95

Garlic bread: £1.95

Apple juice: £1.50

Elderflower presse: £1.90

Total: £15.05