The test for us is would we return. Yes but on bed & breakfast only and there's much nickel & dime activity that can irritate. It
scrapes 3 star but if rated on food it would be 1 star.
All the staff we encountered were 5 star, genuinely friendly, hard working and real helpful. It struck us as a cash cow place, poorly managed with a focus on cutting corners, saving wages, testing the patience of guests, buying as cheap as possible again at the expense of guests and minimal staffing for front facing, hard work.
One busy night at dinner I saw a manager. Management remain aloof from guests. He popped in and out of the kitchen but didn't lift a finger to help wait staff.
We waited too long time for our order and for food to be set down. If I managed that bloke he'd be out the door.
A recurring issue which adversely impacted us and many others was arriving at the unstaffed bar where a sign invited you to ring for service. This was a common, frustrating problem for a lot of guests. When it's £6 for a pint, £8 for a glass of wine the least expected is prompt service.
We had afternoon tea, scones, cream and jam. Coffee was also offered. The tea is measured to the drop - one tea bag in one pot for two and ungenerous.
It was clear that the scones were microwaved from frozen. The quality of the scones was 4 star. We had 3 cream teas over two stays. The double cream was 5 star delicious but the jam was cheap and inferior quality.
They have a proper espresso coffee machine but sadly the coffee nevertheless tasted poor so buying cheap isn't clever.
Breakfast was cheap offerings. management aren't interested in quality or flavour just cheap.
I did enjoy the mushrooms, grilled tomatoes and scrambled eggs. The porridge was good. The cappuccino machine breakfast coffee was ok and the white coffee choice was very good. One morning there was no marmalade at breakfast (a first for us in 55 years travelling) again this must go back to bad management. How can it be that there's no marmalade?
Proper chefs should be rustling up freshly baked breads every morning with pride not ordering the cheapest breads in plastic bags from a factory.
Dinner: is mostly awful. We had a 2 course evening meal in our deals so we had three dinners over two stays. The food was so poor we wouldn't opt to dine here again.
All the food was poor quality, poor tasting and mostly not seasoned.
We could have upgraded to steak main but honestly at an extra £8.5 (including £3.5 for pepper sauce) it was a non runner.
My wife ordered a beef burger main first night, advertised as with crispy bacon. It wasn't crispy it was flaccid rind. It was tasteless. She didn't order it again. One needs no training in cooking to know if bacon is crisp or not.
On our next two nights my wife had chicken schnitzel with unseasoned factory frozen fries. It was the least worst option.
I ordered fish and chips night one. Oh dear. It was poor quality pre frozen, out of a factory, battered fish, with pre frozen, out of a factory, chips and tartare sauce from a jar made in a factory. I'm not sure if the cheap peas came from a tin or a freezer. No chef needed here.
The pre frozen, factory made, Japanese style duck gyoza was the best item on the menu despite containing gristle and bone - served with almost a tablespoon of out of a jar hoi sin sauce in a very shallow dish.
For two nights I had the unseasoned vegetarian risotto as my best of a bad lot. It was in the deal but it was an up charge to add chicken or salmon. No thanks. I couldn't face either. I couldn't determine if the risotto was another factory offering.
The room was comfy on both our stays a week apart. The rooms and bathrooms (and the hotel generally) showed wear and tear but for the price paid it was ok to good but not yet bad or terrible but the food was mostly grim.
The steam room was boiling and dangerously hot. The jacuzzi was pleasant but despite signs barring kids, parents ignored the signs and kids splashed around as they do.
Finally we were really taken aback to find unjustifiable car parking fees applied. Another first for us.
This is despite being well out of town and notwithstanding that the car park has pot holes. Our deal included parking and it would be a deal breaker for us. We would not have booked here had we to pay to park. I'd begrudge it. They even charge disabled drivers and I invite management to reply to my review with reasons for this.
We bought a bottle of wine first night (£30). They couldn't store it in a fridge for us and when we returned with the bottle next night we were told we couldn't drink it as management had decreed it had to be consumed in our room.
Just a note for the general manager - you are in the hospitality business not the hostility business, oh and research the difference between crispy and non crispy bacon and maybe focus on quality, marmalade and customer needs. read more