We returned here after a pleasant stay last year en route to the West country. This time it was also my birthday so we booked dinner not just B&B as before.
We were given a personal and friendly welcome by Peter the owner who seemed to genuinely remember us which was nice.
We had chosen the same room as last time so knew what to expect but it it seemed to need more airing despite the window being wide open while the sherry decanter was empty although it was re-filled when we reluctantly mentioned it.
The hotel was very busy with a funeral reception when we arrived and there was a wedding the next day which may explain why why we found things a bit chaotic.
When we came down to dinner we had to help ourselves to menus as no one came to offer us anything and then a waitress asked to take away the wine list we were looking at for another guest. Ordering was made unnecesarily complicated by the young , inexperienced waitress' clear lack of understanding of the dishes and we had to repeat our choices more than once and were asked to confirm again once she had been to the kitchen. We were also not asked how we liked the steak we ordered to be cooked. On that subject we checked with another waitress whether any supplement as shown on the menu was applicable for that dish as we understood it was an unrestricted choice from the menu for inclusive terms and she appeared to confirm that our understanding was correct.
While waiting in the bar a third waitress was struggling to open a bottle of wine for another guest. She kept saying it was her first day and noone had told her what to do. We and another guest helped her work out how to use the corkscrew. When it came to our own wine order of 2 large glasses she had no idea how much to pour or which glass to use and again we had to help her work out what to do. The bill the next day charged us for a whole bottle not just glasses but this was remedied by Peter when we noticed the mistake after paying. We were however charged the supplements for the steak despite being told verbally on a previous occasion as well as the night before that it would not apply.We also have an email more recently confirming it was a ' free' choice but the bill indicated otherwise
The starter of trio of seafood was very disappointing and came with no dressing as described and most notably no creme fraiche and 'caviar' so was just three small piles of mussels , salmon and prawn plainly presented and very cold. By the time we were able to attract the attention of a waitress, we had started to eat it regardless and there then followed further confusion as she tried to work out what the menu had said, first showing us a menu from 3 days before for us to point out what part of the dish was missing! As it didn't fetaure that day it didn't help and then she had to be told the date to find the menu for that day, looking at one point on her mobile phone we thought to check it. She was very well meaning but clearly out of her depth and it all made what was meant to be a special celebratory meal something of a farce . The chef sent her apologies for the mistake and provided the missing componets in a ramekin at our suggestion but it was not a good start or starter!
The steak dish saved the meal and was nicely cooked and flavoursome with a delicious sauce. The accompanying vegetables were interesting and tasty if only the waitress had been wiling to part with them. She spooned them out little by little in tiny quantities and went off with most of them even though we directly asked for a few more to be served. We found it all very embarassing and not at all the dinner experience we had hoped for.
Like the starters, the desserts (profiteroles and fruit meringue) were strangely simple and small with a blob of ice cream served in a ramekin on the side.
Breakfast was the treat we remembered it to be with nice kippers cooked by Peter and a good buffet spread with lots of welcome fresh fruits and good muesli. With impressive speed he produced the grilled tomatoes we had asked for after the lady who had taken the order had not passed on the request.
We hope all the confusion was just an 'off ' night not helped perhaps by there being two big events pulling on resources at the same time. We were also sorry to know that Peter's charming wife was away due to an enforced absence.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
20 July 2011
We can only apologise to this guest who seemed to have a really unpleasant stay with us, we wonder why none of these points were mentioned during their stay – Peter chatted to them on numerous occasions throughout their stay and again upon their departure where they said they’d thoroughly enjoyed their stay! This would have been the ideal time to have given us a heads-up that there were some issues. Tripadvisor is a great tool where you get your comments out to the public but good constructive comments are always welcome directly and gives us the opportunity to address the issue right away.
We’ve taken note on the other points, particularly regarding the inexperienced waitress, we did have a new youngster who has worked with us as a waitress, but hadn’t any bar experience, and hopefully this has been rectified with some extra training provided.
Fortunately Tripadvisor works both ways, where the hotel has the opportunity to critique the guest too – and on this occasion this guests needs to be exposed. From the start we had her tagged as difficult and demanding, we knew to be on-guard before she even arrived. In this day & age there’s a difference between smart negotiating and just being plain cheap or penny-pinching. On the first visit, it took many calls back and forth while she beat us down to an exceptionally low rate with an upgraded room – in addition we offered, within the rate, a complimentary cream tea, which she then had the cheek to continue their haggling to get the (free) cream tea upgraded to a full high-tea where they only paid the difference between the two, and then wanting it served late afternoon to substitute for their evening meal!!
On the second visit it started again – by demanding that the sherry decanter be re-filled – we only ever a token amount of sherry to whet the appetite before coming down to the bar – they wanted more! The £3.00 supplement on the beef was clearly marked on the menu – again they did everything in their power to get out of paying this, but we stood fast – and clearly they were upset having to dip into their purse. Breakfast is served between 8-9.30am – I notice no mentioned given that we gladly served them when they arrived at 9.45 am something else only difficult guests do without a thought of an apology or a thanks for our consideration. We could go on dissecting, but we won’t, I’m sure you get the point.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
