I really wish I could give a higher score & even if you look at my other reviews I always do try & give props where props are due & to provide a 4 or a 5 out of 5 review, but unfortunately in this case I just wasn't able to.
First of all I'd just like to say that the staff were great & were really friendly.
I booked online & emailed reception during the week to see what time check in was & to ask was it possible to have a late checkout to which I received a very quick reply from Sharon who was able to offer a late check out of until 1pm for free which was great. So good start :)
Both myself & my girlfriend arrived yesterday (Saturday Jan 16th) for our night away & check in went fine, the receptionist gave us all of the information we needed & booked us in for our dinner that night since the dinner was included in the deal we went with.
When we went to our room 229 we were greated by a nice spacious room with a decent size bathroom. The only negative thing we could say about the room was it was at the back of the hotel so the only view was of bushes / hedges, but that didn't bother us much. The other thing was the TV looked to be about 30 years old which I was suprised about since the rest of the hotel looked fairly new. We popped on the TV on & had an episode of Friends on & after about 15 minutes the screen went blank but the audio was still coming through. There was just a line going across the screen (picture included). Changing the channel or turning the TV off & ok wouldn't fix the issue.
So I went down to reception & explained the issue & they said that they were upgrading some of the rooms & that that TV hadn't been upgraded yet. They offered another room across the hallway (room 226) which had a new HD TV which sounded perfect! When we went to move our stuff we also found it was on the front of the hotel & had a great view of the mountains which were snow covered at the time. This room was perfect! Nice large bed, HD TV & very spacious.
We decided to go down for a drink in the hotel bar which I really liked. Great looking bar, plenty of seating, a few open fire places & just had a very nice vibe.
That evening we went down for dinner. The waiter was over nice & quick to see if we wanted drinks & brought them back to us asap also. The menu had a nice selection & I was tempted by a few of the options but decided to go with the Chowder for starter & I ordered a Medium 10oz Sirloin Steak with peppersauce for main course which had a €5 supplement which was fine with me as I do love a steak. My chowder was lovely & the brown bread was lovely & fresh, unfortunately it was the main course that had issues.
Remember now, I ordered a Medium done 10oz Sirloin Steak which came with chips & peppersauce. My plate came out & I didn't pay too much attention but I did notice no peppersauce came with it like the menu said but that didn't bother me as with a steak I rarely use sauces as I like the taste of the steak on its own. I cut the "steak" & noticed it was very well done & not medium (no pink at all) took a bite & then had to question myself & look at the plate again & I realised it was a pork chop & not a steak at all. The thing is there wasn't even pork on the menu!!
The next time the waitress came over, I just asked her was it a steak or a pork chop the chef had made & she said "oh, that's a sirloin steak sir" or something along those lines while nodding towards my plate as if I was wrong. After the TV issue earlier with the rooms I didn't want to seem fussy & that I was nit picking at everything so I just thanked her & stuck with my "steak". You could even see by the rind of fat on the edge. I would usually have a Sirloin Steak at home once a forthnight so it's not like I don't know what a steak is but I couldn't believe what was going on. I have included pictures below & you can see yourself it was a pork chop & in no way a Sirloin Steak, I have also included a picture of the menu to show pork wasn't even on it so I'm not sure how I ended up with a pork chop (while paying for a steak).
I can confirm the bed was very comfortable & neither of us had any issues getting some sleep. We also decided to order room service in the morning which I was very impressed with. They had everything we would need on the plates & great portions. The breakfast was also very well cooked & tastey. It nearly even made me change my mind & up the review to a 4 out of 5 but I just couldn't look past the day before.
With regards staying again, I'd really have to think about it, but if I do stay again I'll give an updated review as I really did like the set up in the bar & the food was very good, I just can't figure out how I got a pork chop rather than a sirloin steak which I was still charged the supplement price. I also understand things like TV faults can happen anywhere it was just the combination of the few issues which resulted in an average score from me.
Room I would recommend would be 226.
Cillian, Cork read more