We stayed at this hotel for the second time and were very dissapointed by the service of the bar/waitress staff for our evening meal, all other staff were lovelly as they were on our previous visit (I don't know about the manager because he never replied to me). I wrote a letter which follows (slightly edited):
Mr Mohammad Khalil, Fownes Hotel 14 November 2011. It is with regret that I am writing to you to make a complaint about the attitude and behaviour of your bar/waiting staff in the restaurant on the evening of 5th November last.
My partner and I have stayed at your hotel before and recommended you to a number of friends and colleagues. We were therefore very surprised by the bad service provided by your staff.
We were staying on a bed, breakfast and evening meal basis and had a table booked for 8.30 on Saturday evening. We arrived at 8.20 and approached the bar where we were told to take a seat and someone would come to our table to serve us.
By 8.40 we had still not been approached to ask if we wanted any drinks and were unable to catch the attention of the girl behind the bar, who was mopping the floor with a bleach solution.
I approached the bar and requested two drinks and to ask what the situation was with regard to ordering our meals on the basis of our stay. The girl said she thought we could have a choice of two meals from the menu or three courses from the specials board but, as she was not sure, the other girl (whose name I later ascertained was Alex) said she would check with reception.
When our order was taken by the first girl I asked what the liver starter came with and was told rustic bread, which I then ordered. When the starter arrived it came with small crisp breads. I said to Alex that I was told this came with rustic bread and she said she would check. Whilst I waited my partner finished his starter and Alex had still not returned. I noticed she had returned to the bar so went over to ask her about my starter and was told, with a shrug, that the previous chef used to serve this starter with rustic bread but this chef did not. I said that this was one of the reasons I ordered the starter. Due to her attitude I requested to see the Duty Manager and was told that as it was after 9 pm there was no Manager or Supervisor in the Hotel and I would have to wait until the morning. Eventually Alex said she would return to the kitchen to see if they could find some bread.
The bread was brought together with a tray of dipping oils. A young chef then approached our table to say that he had to take the oils away as one of them contained mustard and he understood I was allergic to mustard (I did ask at the time of ordering our meals whether the sauce on the steak contained mustard as I did not like it!). I told the chef that I was not allergic but just did not like mustard so would avoid that oil.
By 9.30 our table had still not been approached to ask if we required any further drinks and again being unable to catch the eye of either girl behind the bar I had to again approach the bar to order our second drinks.
We were served our main course by the young chef who was very polite and friendly.
We completed our meal at around 10 which was a very long time to have just two courses.
Whilst I am writing I would like to say that all other members of staff that we have met both breakfast and on reception have been very polite, friendly and helpful as with our earlier visit.
We were very surprised not to get a reply.
Room Tip: Our room was by the entrance and people congregated there to smoke and chat, not recommended.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
