The Dore Moor Inn, Sheffield

The Dore Moor pub is situated on the outskirts of Dore in Sheffield, on the Hathersage Road. Not being too familiar with this area of Sheffield, I checked my A-Z and found that the Hathersage Road runs into Ecclesall Road South. Thus; jump on Eccy Rd from town (for non Sheffieldians this is the A625 heading towards Castleton) and keep driving straight ahead!

Its an old public house; research showed that it was originally built to serve ...
...1998, Vintage Inns took the pub over and (allegedly) spent £1.2m on a revamp for the place, including the "Disneyfication" of its Inn sign. Today it is aimed at the motorised tourist, and apparently "if you are a walker or dog owner, your dirty boots and hound are no longer welcome here" (source Bradway Bugle guide to walking). Personally, I didn't see any walkers, but the landlady and staff were that welcoming that I wouldn't ... more

The Dore Moor pub is situated on the outskirts of Dore in Sheffield, on the Hathersage Road. Not being too familiar with this area of Sheffield, I checked my A-Z and found that the Hathersage Road runs into Ecclesall Road South. Thus; jump on Eccy Rd from town (for non Sheffieldians this is the A625 heading towards Castleton) and keep driving straight ahead!

Its an old public house; research showed that it was originally built to serve stagecoach traffic on the (then) new Hathersage Turnpike. In 1998, Vintage Inns took the pub over and (allegedly) spent £1.2m on a revamp for the place, including the "Disneyfication" of its Inn sign. Today it is aimed at the motorised tourist, and apparently "if you are a walker or dog owner, your dirty boots and hound are no longer welcome here" (source Bradway Bugle guide to walking). Personally, I didn't see any walkers, but the landlady and staff were that welcoming that I wouldn't think that walkers would be turned away. Dogs probably would (for hygiene reasons) though!

Finding the pub was fairly easy, from the A61 ring road I'd hazard a guess that it was about 7 miles or so. The pub is situated on the right hand side of the road (if you're driving from Sheffield), opposite Brickhouse Lane; and when I last went; a sign for Dore Nursery was on the corner of Brickhouse Lane opposite the entrance to the pub's car park. You do need to drive there though - there aren't that many regular buses and it's helluva walk from anywhere (apart from perhaps Dore itself).

Car parking is plentiful; with a few spaces at the front and quite a lot more to the side. We went for Sunday lunch and although the pub was busy, we still managed to find spaces to park.

The Dore Moor pub is a Vintage Inns chain pub; essentially, it's a restaurant-pub. Vintage Inns pubs are not like your Beefeater or Harvester in that they've not got a completely set menu; menus change on Sundays for the traditional options. This was Sunday's menu that we were to experience (being Sunday and all that...).

As we walked in the door, we were greeted by the sight of table upon table; some squeezed in to the tightest of spaces. We found a table by the window and sat down. The table (for four) consisted of a large utensil pot with our knives and forks, salt and pepper and a stack of menus. The place was heaving (usually a good sign - when a place like this is in the middle of nowhere, lots of people inside mean good food!), and although the menus told us to order at the bar; waitresses were on hand to take our orders for our food. I found this a good idea; as the bar area was tiny and huge queues could've formed if it was left to the bar staff to take the food orders.

We started off with drinks, and when ordering at the bar we were given a wooden spoon with a number on (I guess that this is in place of table numbers). We were offered the chance to open a tab for the table number, again useful, and soon a waitress came over to take our orders.

The menu was fairly broad, covering traditional roasts (beef, turkey and lamb as well as a vegetarian option) and also had a few alternatives for those not wishing for a traditional Sunday lunch - I would guess that these were also offered in the midweek menus. I opted for the roast beef, and we had turkey, and two spiced chicken pastas as the other orders.

Then the wait began. I accept that it was busy, but we waited probably 1/2 an hour for our food. At the same time as we ordered, the couple next to us ordered their pudding, and 20mins later the waitress came back to ask if they'd received their food. When they said 'no', she looked surprised and apologised profusely before returning with the pudding, which we overheard was the wrong pudding. Another profuse apology, and the offer of an exchange was made. I put this down to the amount of people that were in the pub at the time enabling orders to be mixed up, and perhaps, forgotten (we were starting to think that ours were!).

When our food eventually arrived, it was hot (always helpful, I've been in many an eatery that's tried to serve cold food), and looked (and smelled) good. The proof of the pudding (or the main course in this case) is in the eating, so we tucked in. I have to say, I was impressed. I had quite a few slices of beef, and it was good beef at that; no fat and cooked to a tenderness that was just right (for my own personal taste). The turkey was reported as being equally good, and the spicy pasta too received rave reviews, except for a comment that 'it could've been a bit spicier'. You can't please everyone!

Drinks were fairly average pub prices, with a large Pepsi approximately £1.15. None of us were on the alcohol, so I can't comment on pint prices or spirits either. Food prices ranged from about £6 to £10 for the main meals. The Roast Beef was the most expensive dish of our order (well, I wasn't paying!) and I think was about £7.25.

The Dore Moor was recommended to me by friends, and I can see why. The food, for it's price, was excellent value, and the countryside setting is very quaint, despite the pub being on the main road. I haven't been back in the week yet; I would be interested to see how busy it gets in there. You don't need to book a table, as it's a case of first-come-first-served. The amount of tables in the place could be reduced a little to stop the overcrowding that we experienced (getting up to go to the loo was fun - having to squeeze past other tables and ask other diners to move for us), but overall it was a very nice and reasonably priced meal and saved us on the washing up! :-).

~~** Attention Students **~~
Although I'm not a student; it's definitely a decent place to take mum and dad for your freebie Sunday lunch when they bring your survival packs up mid-term.

For anyone else, it's a decent way to escape cooking a Sunday lunch and a good excuse to escape the hustle and bustle of the city and drive out into the countryside!

Cash, cheque, Visa, Mastercard are all accepted, I'm not sure about Switch, Solo and American Express though; I'd advise ringing prior to going if you intend to pay that way.

If I've missed anything or you want to know anything else - leave me a comment or a note in my guestbook and I'll re-edit.

Dore Moor Inn
Hathersage Rd
Dore
Sheffield
South Yorkshire
S17 3AB
Tel: 0114 235 5121 

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