Empress of Blandings

Very characterful pub on the edge of the new forest. Reasonably priced food is very good and service friendly and courteous.

The only word to describe the pulled pork baguette is sensational. Wow what a meal. Loved it. Less than £12 as well with the chips and slaw. Delicious. The menu has a great variety too, lots of different items you wouldn’t always find at a pub. Highly recommend.

Absolutely amazing meal probably one of the nicest pub meals I've ever had top marks to the chef and the staff done an excellent job

A lovely pub, spacious and clean. Good choice of food for adults and a decent children's menu. The starters were generous, we had a baked cheese and whitebait. The lamb was really good and the vegan aubergine curry was fine.

Worth leaving the M27 for! Fantastic food, cosy and clean pub with nice garden, good staff, good seating, good ales, interesting decor (also apparently recent change of management, if that makes a difference/you are a local). Had broccoli & stilton soup, whitebait and Duck salad. All delicious, good value, good portions.

Lovely pub with friendly staff, delicious ales, fantastic food! Right next to the New Forrest and indeed Paultons Park (theme park and home of Pepper Pig World!). Child friendly with crayons & colouring book for kiddies, changing area for babies, and child menu (though would be nice if a little dessert were included with the main). Also doing their bit for the environment by ditching plastic straws and throwaway plastic cups for kids, now have paper straws and washable Ikea-style kiddie cups. Good parking too. Enjoy!

Brilliant pub with such friendly staff and tasty food. Good portions for the price and quality is great. Nice interior to the pub as well.

Lovely little spot, beautiful settings. Lovely cheerful staff and brilliant food. Asked the owner (only resenting taken over) if he could do me a cocktail and he knocked up an amazing raspberry moheto and expresso martini, all from scratch and they were the best I’ve had. We only stopped in for a bite while in the area and so glad we did, left 3 hours later full and content. Highly recommend.

Love this place! This was our third time here and the food is always great. We had burgers and chicken & waffles this time and everything was good! The atmosphere and decor is awesome and there’s plenty of parking.

We had a party of 3 adults and 5 kids 13 and under, the staff were very attentive and made all of us, especially the kids, feel welcome and looked after. Can’t stress how good the food is, definitely worth trying with the family. Chilli was out of this world!

First time in the empress. Nice welcome. Had not booked. Easy sign in under covid. Easy app to order food a drink. Two meat eater having the vegi options. Option to sit outside which did as loverly evening. Insides clean and tidy. Happily use again and hope to. Food really good.

It is an excellent pub with amazing food and beer. I especially enjoyed the chicken with haggis and washed down with a pint of Tanglefoot. 🍺

We had a fantastic dinner for my husband’s birthday here. As table of 12 we were asked to pre-order our mains. Upon being served we were all served quickly, delicious and piping hot meals. Very impressed with the service. Our waitress Vicky was really warm, attentive and friendly, nothing was too much trouble.

Great food & selection. Nice cosy place with good layout. Busy early evening, thinned out by 9pm. Surprised that it closed at 10pm but as we were driving & working the following day, it was a good thing really. We will return & eat there again.

Lovely local pub with brilliant service and tasty food. Good portions, would recommend the sizzling fajitas. Busy Wednesday evening, however we were served by Flo, who was attentive and made sure to go the extra mile to check back on us and refill drinks. The rest of the staff were also very pleasant. We will definitely be returning soon to the Empress!

Great food and service for a reasonable price. I have a thing about clarity of pricing. First pub in a long while that have give me a copy of my bill before asking me to pay. One the downside would have been better if the drinks menu showed prices.

My partner and I love The Empress of Blandings.. The burgers in particular are amazing, they are our go to dish! But what sets the place apart is the service — Victoria deserves a special mention. She was attentive, friendly, and seemed genuinely invested in making sure everything was perfect. From the cosy interior, standout burgers, and service by Victoria makes the Empress of Blandings a place you’ll want to keep going back to!

We popped in on a Friday lunchtime on the off chance there was a table available, as we had heard the Empress has been very popular recently - and rightly so! The pub was almost full, despite this the service was excellent and very quick. We were served by 4 lovely ladies who were all cheery and happy to help with anything. All the other tables around us were also checked up on regularly. The food was delicious, we ordered some of the lunchtime ciabattas which I would recommend. Good drink selection also. Thank you.

Really enjoyed our visit. We haven't been for a few years. Lovely service and the food was excellent (the chilli tasted gorgeous, I'll have that next time)

This was a very pleasant surprise food choice very good. Service excellent staff knew all about the food and our waitress took orders from eight of us with no tablet or notebook. Decent toilets. NOTE TO GOOGLE. I HAVE NOT POSTED MANY REVIEWS LATELY AS IT IS NOW VERY EXPENSIVE TO GO OUT. IF YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE WITH MONEY YOU CANT GO OUT SO OFTEN.

We had the daily pie and the Sputher Fried Chicken Salad. Both were exceptional. The kids' meals were more food than either of our little ones could eat and were plated as well as the adult meals. We would wholeheartedly recommend this pub.

À lovely pub. They very kindly accommodated my son and - I two hungry motorcyclists - on a busy Sunday afternoon with no booking. Nothing was two much trouble, the food was delicious and the portions generous. A main meal and a drink Each, £43. Despite being busy, we had plenty of room for us and our gear, and it was not chaotic or noisy. Thank you guys!

So pleased we finally made a booking after zooming passed for years. A great friendly welcome was a good start and that level of service continued throughout our meal by the two very attentive waiters. Menu is an interesting mix of old favourites combined with some excellent twists on sizzling dishes, wraps, baguettes burgers and salads. A daily board of specials was certainly tempting. We chose the Haggis potato cake stack as a starter and wow wow it was amazing with a peppercorn sauce that was simply stunning. Probably the best Haggis outside of Scotland!!! My main course was Mac n Cheese with bacon and two delicious slices of garlic bread (why cant every restaurant do garlic bread this good). My wife had the Chicken Caesar salad and as its a favourite dish of hers I knew it had to be good to get any comment - so 'best ever' 'amazing' gives you a clue how good it was. We shared a dessert which was the Lemon tart which was a disappointment but the accompanying ice cream excellent. It was just not 'lemony' enough and rather dense in texture. Are we coming back a 100% yes! This place must be added to your dining experiences as they have got it right at every level. They just have to promise to keep the Haggis on the menu! Well done - a deserved Five stars.

Splendid food, lovely server and just all round fab! Definitely will come again, great find while out for a ride in the forest 🥰

The Empress of Blandings is a gorgeous pub on Romsey Road, about 25 minutes from us, we had our support groups Christmas meal there, not only did they cater for our diverse group, they couldn't have been more helpful, the owner rang me twice before our meal to go through my allergies, (unfortunately its a long list) most places just say a blanket no, we can't cater for you, but not here, obviously I couldn't eat most of the menu, but I had the best tasting turkey, very juicy, not at all dry. I am so very impressed by the whole place, the owner is absolutely amazing, all the staff were polite, kind, helpful, careful, considerate, experienced despite some being very young, they were all absolutely brilliant, the building is fully wheelchair accessible, the tables aren't all so close you feel hemmed in, there is plenty of room to move. The food was fantastic, everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. The whole place was absolutely glorious, a real welcoming, homely atmosphere, the Christmas decorations are beautiful and I don't envy whoever put them up or has the task of taking them down. Hopefully we will travel out to this wonderful gem on the road to the New Forest again, it would definitely be worth it.

As a large family, this is one of our favourites in the wider area. It takes us a good 20 minute journey but we come because of the generous menu (catering for meat eaters, picky eaters, and veggies) and good food. I’m a vegetarian and my favourite is the tropical veggie burger, really tasty. They’re also really dog friendly, big plus for us. It’s popular so you’re best to book ahead.

My family & I recently visited the New Forest (what a beautiful place) and were told to visit this pub by our hosts. And what a recommendation! The best value for money pub/restaurant we have visited in a long time. Perfect if you have kids with you! The price was more than fair, the food was amazing & the pub itself was warm & inviting. 100% worth a visit, we went twice during our 4 day trip!

Absolutely fabulous food from starters to deserts. Very nice staff, nothing too much trouble, dog friendly and kids menus. What more can I say its a really lovely pub. Easy reach of the forest, Romsey and Lyndhurst. Can thoroughly recommend the Empress burger 🍔

One of our favourite to go places when eating out. Good quality food in pleasant surroundings. This is a pub managed by Hall & Woodhouse, based in Blandford, Dorset and they have a number of pubs in the south.

Booked at short notice and were accommodated which was amazing. On entering the pub there was a nice warm atmosphere. The staff showed us to our table and asked about what drinks would we like. The menu has a good selection to choose from. we didn't wait long before our meals arrived which were piping hot and generous in size. Staff were attentive and everything was clean. We will be back soon.

Lovely lunch. Good varied menu at reasonable prices. Difficult to choose but I had Fajitas. Tasted good but the mixture was a bit oily and the wraps a bit thick and heavy. Hence the drop of 1 star. We were seated in a window which was perfect and the service was attentive but not overso. My friend had the homemade curry and said it was great! Desserts.. we'll I spotted something on the menu which had to be ordered to see it! Burger and chips lol. It was a brioche bun full of chocolate icecream for the burger, strawberry sauce for ketchup, vanilla icecream and cream for mayo and white chocolate fingers for chips. Someone's hot a wacky sense of humour!! To be honest it was delicious but enough for 2 people.

I visited The Empress of Blandings on Thursday 21 November 2019 in the evening, a weekday during term time. I was with two other people. This was my first visit. I used Google Maps to find the restaurant, which was easy and led me straight to the right place. I parked in the pub car park right outside - parking was easy. The restaurant comprises of one fairly large sized main dining area with plenty of tables with full table service. The team were very friendly and attentive and I had no issues - we got everything we expected in good time and enjoyed the experience. I enjoyed the house burger for my main course with a side order of onion rings and a sticky toffee pudding for my dessert. The food arrived hot, was well presented and tasted really good. There was a good selection of food and I found something that appealed to me easily. The food was good value for money, I paid around £30 for two courses and three drinks including a hot chocolate. Overall I really enjoyed my visit and would visit again.

First visit for a very long time, nice welcome and good service for our party of 4. My friend and I had the mac and cheese which was well presented and cooked well..except there was very little cheese flavour. We brought this to the attention of the waitress, it was noted and our coffees were given free of charge. Fine..but two cappuccinos were overflowing into the saucer, and quite flat. Maybe a little more attention to detail required.

Nice pub with nice staff. Led to beleive it will be under new management from next month. As you might guess, it has a PG Wodehouse theme. The food is OK, but the steak is massively overpriced for what you get. I will revisit again, but I feel there are better out there offering more value for money.

Went here for dinner. Big car park, easy to find off the main road. Seated quickly, service was reasonably timed, not quick but not slow. Food was really nice considering wasn't too expensive.

We asked for a drink and after 20 minutes it still didn’t arrive, they served the main but I had no knife or fork so asked for them and 15 minutes later I had to remind them we were still waiting. Food was semi warm by then. We went for the valentine set meal but left half way through only eating the starter and my husband eating most of his main. We still had to pay the full amount even though I couldn’t eat my main and we didn’t have the desserts. Really spoilt our valentines evening

Great ambience, lovely staff, but my sausage and mash was spoilt by the sausages! They could, and should, have been top quality, but alas they were a poor imitation - I struggled to finish. The mashed potato and onion gravy were first class, as were the carrots and spouts - beautifully al dente. What a crying shame about the sausages! Please don't ever cut back like that again - I know business rates are horrendous, but I'd far rather pay a bit more. I shall make the trip from Portsmouth again one day and expect to find you've taken my comment to heart!

A warm and welcoming pub, spacious and nicely decorated. Welcoming staff. Sadly the food is very much a 1/10, we had a plate of very sad nachos with some cheese nuked on the top and nothing layered underneath. Cajun chicken burger had sat under the lamps for too long resulting in an over toasted bun that fell apart when trying to eat the burger.. had to pull it all apart with a knife and fork and salvage the chicken breast. Serving staff were lovely but the food really was bad

Nice place. Staff are beligerant, poorly trained and the kitchen is on a very tight budget. Nice enough for a swift pint but not somewhere to eat.

Absolutely appaling service. Booked in advance for 17:45 on a Saturday, seated quickly and menus looked good. Drinks ordered shortly after and then the waiting staff seemed to evaporate into thin air. Drinks arrived 15 minutes later having seen them sat on the bar for most of that time (they were only brought over by someone who wasn't our server by virtue of the fact that they were in the way of the drinks they needed). The next 35 minutes consisted of us asking 3 separate staff if we could order, just to be told 'your server will be with you shortly'. From being seated to order took 50 minutes, and if we hadn't constantly been asking I doubt we'd have ever been served. Food arrived 30 minutes later and it had obviously been sat under heat lamps for some time given that the mashed potatoes could have been used to plaster a wall. The lamb was incredibly cheap and fatty, and portion sizes were poor for somewhere charging an average of £20 per adult meal. After waiting another 20 minutes for no-one to realise we were clearly finished and waiting for our bill we managed to grab the attention of a waitress going past, she asked if our meal was okay and we gave frank feedback about the wait times and food quality and asked for a discount, such as the £6 kids mac n cheese to be knocked off. We were subsequently told they couldn't do a discount because 'the system doesn't have a button for it', but we were offered a free round of drinks which we declined given that we had no desire to wait another 45 minutes for them to arrive.