Jurassic treasure
Dorshi (Bridport)
GETAWAYS • Bridport
The Jurassic Coast is easily my favourite place in the UK. It’s got it all: fossils, beautiful walks, some of the best vintage and antique dealers in the country… and now, my favourite restaurant.
Tucked down a quiet Bridport street (the address is literally “the alley behind The Bull Hotel”), Dorshi is a small-town destination with a cosmopolitan heart. The space is intimate, with an open kitchen and a few tables downstairs, and a relaxed living-room feel upstairs.
Celebrating our recent engagement, my partner and I ordered the menu in almost its entirety. Dumplings are surely where Dorshi shines, but doesn’t rest on its laurels – they’re inventive, confident and addictive. Pork and Bury black pudding, field mushroom with Dorset red cheddar, and hot smoked fish with beancurd and capers: dumplings of two emotional halves, the first euphoric, the second, sad that it’s over.
Small plates like charred organic pork belly with pickled mustard seeds or roasted aubergine with preserved lemon are just as rewarding, layered with flavour, texture and a man-of-the-match-level spice kick. Hakata noodles in a house broth are a comforting, wonderfully simple staple, and a side of plain bao buns allow you to get inventive, mixing multiple dishes into your own unique delicacies.
You could drop in for a midweek snack and be satisfied or, like us, linger over a full feast that moves seamlessly from start to finish, leaving you so satisfyingly full that you’re caught between never wanting to eat again, and desperate to book your next visit.
FOUND Pro: Dorshi is a destination in itself, but there’s plenty more to Bridport. It’s a charming market town with fantastic pubs and bars (The Ropemakers, The Pursuit of Hoppiness), the UK’s oldest butcher (RJ Balson & Son) and a good selection of shops and boutiques, in particular the Art & Vintage Quarter, which rivals London’s top dealers, but without the price tag.
In nearby Herne Bay, it’s almost too easy to lose yourself in the antique market, drink delicious local cider and walk the iconic Golden Cap. Lyme Regis, a 15-minute drive away, is beloved by tourists and lamented by locals, and fully worth a trip for the Ammonite Walkway, but best visited outside summer months. I highly recommend a loop on the X52 open-top bus to Weymouth, where you can really take in the blockbuster view of Chesil Beach, then sample an award-winning ice cream from Rossi’s on Weymouth beach, or eat at Catch at The Old Fish Market.
Finally, take a trip to Charmouth Beach to look for ammonites, belemnites and – if you’re really lucky – a vertebra of an ichthyosaurus. Surrounded by fossil hunters of all ages tap-tap-tapping rocks with fossil hammers, this amateur paleontologist’s tip is just to keep an eye on the shore, where the sea offers up Jurassic and Triassic treasure. –Amy Rose Holland
→ Dorshi (Bridport) • 6 Chancery Ln • Mon 530-8p, Wed-Sat 530-10p • Book.