My boyfriend has always been big on hikes, our first date actually was a hike in Surrey so it’s become a big part of our relationship. On this May bank holiday, Alex picked me up for a surprise and we drove down to Dorset for the day. We ended up in Durdle Door and it was such a good day for it. I actually remember learning about Durdle Door at school but I didn’t really think about visiting in all honesty but I’m really glad I did.

We climbed up across the cliff edge, as far as we were allowed and the views were just phenomenal. The water was clean enough to dip your toes in for sure, just a lot of seaweed!

After this, we headed out to Poole for a bit of dinner. I’ve also never been to Poole so it was a lot of new adventures this weekend. We ended up at Rick Stein’s restaurant which overlooked the water.

For starters we got the Baked Scallops with Truffle Butter, Wild Mushroom and Chives as well as the Halloumi Saganaki which were dusted in semolina, fried in olive oil and drizzled with honey, black and white sesame seeds and oregano. The starters were honestly so delicious, I could go again for just these starters all over again. The scallops weren’t too fishy, the butter and mushrooms made the whole dish feel so rich and juicy. These Halloumi bites were unbelievable good, the semolina gave it a panko like texture and with the honey it was just the perfectly sweet savoury bite.

Rick Stein is famous for fish so I got the Fillets of Sea Bass which came with a beurre blanc sauce and spinach. This was so good, Alex isn’t a big fan of fish usually but he loved this. It was a really simple dish, the fish was crisp and juicy, the sauce was rich and was a beautiful accompaniment, I’d love to try and recreate this in all honesty. Alex on the other hand decided to get the Chinese red braised pork belly in rich, sticky, savoury sweet sauce with basmati rice and pak choi. I did not like this, actually Alex really didn’t like it either. It was so sweet and the pork was so tough, it came with a small portion of rice on the side but it was basmati rice which isn’t very “authentic”. Having a small bowl of rice on the side of a plate of pork made the whole thing a bit awkward to eat, it just all felt fiddly.

Dessert was a hit, the restaurant was a bit pricey for what we can afford right now so we opted to share a dessert. We got the Pistachio Panna Cotta with Pistachio Brittle. This was a winner but not the star of the show, it’s smooth, nutty and not overly sweet.