Returning this year, we found the hotel, the welcome and the food as good as ever. It remains somewhere special in a beautiful, peaceful part of England with wonderful scenery and nearby coastal views and walks. The service standards are very well maintained by the owners, Anne and Eddie Eyles, and their small team. To match the food, there’s a good, varied selection of reasonably priced wines and for those with a good appetite the tarriff includes a generous afternoon cream tea. We’ve booked another visit.

We spent two nights here recently. Eddie and Anne Eyles are excellent hosts,the place is characterful and very quiet and the food of a very high standard.
It is ideally situated near the coastal path for walking and the approx 6 mile walk to Lynton takes in some pretty monumental and rugged coastal scenery.
I would thoroughly recommend this hidden gem.

Just stayed at heddons gate hotel for our anniversary it was very good, peaceful, beautiful, well maintained, friendly staff, good food, comfortable room.

We endorse the positive reports for this hotel with enthusiasm after a 5-night May visit there. We'd also emphasise the excellent food and the wonderful country at this long established favourite hotel of ours.

We've known it since the 1970s, but due working and living abroad, hadn't visited for 11 years. It was therefore marvellous to return and find it as good as ever. The current owners started there four years ago and are only the second owners in 40 years. They are clearly sticking to a proven formula

We'd emphasise the hotel and its décor are very English, not to say a little eccentric in the nicest possible way. Not a place for modernists, style-fascists or make-over enthusiasts. We point this out particularly for passing Californians (reading the hotel's only bad TripAdvisor entry) and perhaps other non-Brits, although a Swiss family staying during our recent visit were regular satisfied guests.

The dinners are the highlight of the stay, with consistently delicious soups (sweet corn with red pepper pesto, lettuce pea & mint, tomato & basil, mushroom, - all served with a selection of lovely warm rolls), excellent imaginative second (pre-main) courses, e.g. a salmon mousse, a filo pastry tart filled with Mediterranean vegetables topped with grilled goats cheese, warm salad of pigeon breast with beetroot. Main courses (choice of two each evening – one meat, one fish) included sirloin steak with whisky sauce, salmon with dill sauce, duck breast, lemon sole, chicken breast with tarragon sauce – all served with varied and beautifully cooked and presented vegetables. Everything was prepared with loving care and attention; even the baby broad beans were peeled. The emphasis with all produce is top quality ingredients, locally sourced wherever possible.

The proprietor was apparently a pastry chef in a previous existence and you just have to make room for the desserts – incredibly light chocolate tart, raspberry & almond cake with clotted cream, poached pineapple with ginger ice cream, to name but a few of the most memorable. Not to mention the home-made scones (with local jam and clotted cream) that are just one of the delights on offer with the complimentary afternoon tea.

There's a modest, reasonably priced wine list with a fair round-the-world selection. A South African (SA) chardonnay, (Clüwer of Elgin, SA), was surprisingly and especially good, as was a dessert wine by the same winery.