The Drift Inn, pub restaurant

The Drift is a wonderful little place and certainly gives you that warm, welcome feeling when you are in there. Food and service was great, really lovely afternoon and no washing up!!

Service, quality of the food and venue were all very good but range of food was disappointing. The menu had two vegetarian options, one of which was vegan - vegan mud pie - but was then not available. We were advised it was replaced by a vegetable Wellington. However this was served with cauliflower cheese and a beef gravy, identical to that served with my roast beef. Far from vegan.

Excellent atmosphere, friendly. Food was very nice with good portions and well presented . Service efficient and helpful.
Would highly recommend.

Lovely country pub with a warm feel. Thoroughly enjoyed our dinner here

It was a very nice meal as always when we done here

Very quiet mid week, expected during covid but only one other table. Very warm, friendly welcome though by Joseph. Food good and good value as always. Good covid measures in place. Will return, a lovely restaurant.

Lovely Sunday lunch. Attentive staff. Safe covid set up.

Great spot but we ordered the veggie burgers and chips. The burgers were poor and the chips were poor quality.

Staff and food were lovey but it was so cold ..... and we were sat next to the fire! With the heating on/turned up! It would be a lovely little pub for lunch xx

We were lucky to be able to eat at The Drift just before lockdown began. The food was lovely and our waitress was great - so friendly and welcoming. It was understandably quiet than usual but we were not alone there and the atmosphere was still very welcoming.

We love that we can take our dog with us when we go out for the evening and she was made a fuss of by the staff.

Overall it was a really lovely occasion.

Fantastic food, great portions, great service, happy customer

Lovely roast dinner in nice surrounding s and excellent service. I felt safe with the covid measures. Only thing that could be better is the price as quite expensive for a Sunday roast.

The evening staff are very efficient, attentive and helpful. Our food was delicious.
We stayed at the Beaulieu hotel so the Drift Inn is next door.
Our evening meals here were very enjoyable but breakfasts were a different matter.
Different staff and long wait times even though we booked a time slot.

Terrible service and overpriced. Only us and one couple in the whole place and we got mistakes, cold food and all the staff were chatting in a group by the kitchen as we left. The management should be on top of this at a key time for business like now.

The menu sounded very promising and a good variety especially on the children's menu. Unfortunately a few items off the menu were no longer available. We did have to wait quite a long time for the first course to arrive. However the food was delicious and the portions a reasonable size apart from the adult ice cream dessert, £6.95 for 1 ball!! Would definitely recommend for a cosy, family meal in the heart of the New Forest.

The food and drink were very expensive and a service charge was automatically added, despite only being a table of two. My fish and chips were barely cooked and soggy- really would not recommend the food.

A bit disappointed that the menu changes/reduces on a Sunday. But the food is still delicious so not disappointed enough to not give it a 4 star rating. Lovely location, lovely children's play area, lovely food.

Very disappointed after travelling to visit here, the service wasn’t great . 3 out of 4 waiting staff were rude and quiet. Only one person was polite. Took ages to take our initial order although it had only been open 15 minutes aid there was only one other table. Just overall really disappointing!

Food was good but my open prawn sandwich wasn't the best.

Main meal was great. But let down by the desserts, the sticky bannoffee pudding had raw caramel...you could still taste the sugar grains.

The staff were OK. Helpful but you were left kn your own most of the time.

Well organised and efficient service combined with good quality food

I was a little disappointed with the fact that the staff were unsure on a few things! Knowing the menu is key!

Everyone was super friendly but so many different people served us that it was all so confusing! The food was average. The setting was the best part about it, spaced out tables and Covid covered!

Welcoming staff, friendly service, tasty food served quickly with good beer.

Temperature taken at door which was good, female server was so friendly and welcoming, really made an effort to make the experience pleasant.
Prawn starter was bland, roast beef was delicious.
Expensive for a run of the mill family pub.

It was fine, nothing to complain about and nothing to rave about. I think the staff were great, they couldn't have gone above what they were doing. Its just a little soulless inside. Its a pub with guaranteed new forest visitors so it's cruising along and that's okay.

The setting is great - beautiful actually. It was very quiet (almost too quiet) due to a lack of customers (which is not the pub’s fault - we went quite late and obviously people are still scared to go out due to COVID-19). There was no Estrella on tap left (disappointing, because all four of us wanted this) and the bruschetta was...weird - it just didn’t taste great...maybe we should stick to only ordering it at an Italian restaurant in the future?! We all had burgers - two beef, two vegan, which were perfectly fine but nothing special, but it’s presentation was good. We asked for ketchup and mayo and only received one small pot of each between the four of us (not great for limiting the spread of COVID considering we don’t all live together...) and it didn’t take long before we had to ask for another one as it was all gone very quickly. For the price (£112ish between the four of us), it seemed expensive for not the best meal ever. We shared the two bruschettas between each couple so two in total, had a burger each, and 2-3 beers/ciders each (one person only had two half pints). Not great value and not great quality but love the pub so will maybe try again at a Sunday lunchtime for a roast - hopefully that’s more their speciality?!

We were kept quite a while waiting at the door which I hate but once we got inside all went well. Service was a little slow but the food we had was very tasty. The Covid measures were good and we enjoyed our visit after a morning walking in the New Forest.

We were blown away by the amazing service and food. One of the best chocolate brownies I have ever tasted! The main meal was amazing too and I can't recommend this place enough!

Not good food, nothing like the pictures on their website

Great garden and plaground with good views and walks into the forest straight from the pub. Food was just about okay pub food which was a shame. Kids loved it however.

Pleasant meal in the circumstances. Not much choice for vegetarians though. Kitchen had also put tomato relish, which she hated, on my daughter’s burger unasked for and not on menu. Nice venue and pleasant staff.

We expected that due to covid 19, service would be slow but thought that almost an hour from ordering was unreasonable.
The salad with smoked salmon and prawns was good as was the burger The fish from fish and chips was undercooked and the curry appeared as plain minced beef with minute amount of spice.
The staff also had no idea about the various coffees, - a flat white became a cappuccino and was served cold. This problem was eventually rectified.
On the whole the meal was poor value

Poor selection not well cooked bling bling food we would say. Staff service very good

Very good tasty meals in a very safe environment.

Arrived earlier than booked, no problems, able to sit down at a table.
Food was delicious, service with a smile (behind masks!) Great value as we took advantage of the eat out to help out deal.

Cold main, daughters meal also incorrect, both sent back. charged incorrectly for wine. and service charge already added on. staff very good and attentive. however marred due to the food .

We had an OK family lunch. Very Covid aware dining. Only 4 children at a time in playground. Lots of dogs with their owners. Noisy coffee machine, depending where you are seated.

The staff were really friend but the service was not great (we had to ask for tap water 3 times before we finally got it). I had an open sandwich which was pretty terrible, some of the ingredients (e.g. the avocado) was so cold it was as if it had been frozen.

The steak was good but the burger meal was terrible. Over priced and very poor quality. Two members of staff very unhelpful, fortunately the lady waitress understood and gave as much discount as she could and was very apologetic. In all honesty the burger should have been a full refunded as it was quite disgraceful.

The service was excellent. The staff were friendly and attentive without being overbearing. Unfortunately, the food was not great. The portion sizes were very mean and the quality was drab and uninteresting. It really was not good value for the amount of money they charged. It was a bit quiet and didn't have great ambience but I think it would be unfair to put that down to the venue or the team as Covid is spiking again and there were only a few tables with customers. Sadly I wouldn't be recommending this place to my friends.