It was a whistle stop first time visit for one night only and an almost 4 hour drive from near…read moreCarlow to get there. As we turned in off winding roads in the dark we saw lots of Christmas trees and lots of coloured lights.
It was impressive alright and I was glad to turn off the car. It's an impressively huge hotel and the reception was beautifully decorated for Christmas.
Check-in was a pleasant, quick experience. We got a room upgrade, which delighted us. We were offered someone to take our bags to the room.
This was a Black Friday deal that included a 2 course meal.
So the room was delightful, two double beds and the usual tea/coffee/hairdryer/iron and a rather small tv on the wall given the size of the room. The room was cosy warm and it was appreciated as it was a cold night outside.
I tried out the steam bath and jacuzzi. They were superb but two things annoyed - the changing room was unpleasantly cold coming from the jacuzzi and the shower (and I tried more than one) was unreliable. The shower water flow work hands free, there's nothing to push, so it was a light or similar. It went on and off randomly and despite me waving my hand over the 'light' pushing at it and so on it remained hit and miss with more miss than hit. I was tired and I found this to be irritating.
Then to dinner; we were seated quickly in the restaurant. I found the starter I had good, but not great and - at the price - it should have been great. The chilli sauce and the tartare sauce were out of jars.
My sea bass main was even more disappointing, again at the price it should have been top notch. It was poorly cooked, poorly seasoned, not as described on the menu (it looked more like trout) with overcooked, to near mush, side vegetables and not great chips either. I was tired too, so I decided to eat up what I could and shut up but I didn't enjoy it.
The waiter was not focussed on serving us as he should have been. The price of a glass of wine is the same as a bottle of wine in M&S and the price of one cocktail gets me an M&S Dine in for two with a bottle of wine.
Like almost everywhere else they sell those miserably tiny and annoying 200ml bottles of coke and nothing screams rip-off to me as loudly as these do but it's an all to common rip - off now.
It was a great nights sleep and the breakfast coffee, fish and croissants were ace. I also rant about the bacon and sausages served up. Like most hotels and this hotel seems no different it's the cheapest sausage and bacon that's served up.
Once a hotel is four star or above it really should use its buying power to do better. Sausages with artificial type skins should be banned, these are made of collagen, often derived from cattle skin, cellulose, or plastic. Likewise bacon loaded with phosphates make for an unpleasant eat.
So, it's 4 star on balance with the dinner food, under seasoned and unexpectedly poor value for money with haphazard service.
We are booked to return in April 2020 for a longer stay and we are looking forward to it, so watch this space.