Down Hall Hotel, Spa & Estate

Bad restaurant experience

I booked a one night stay for my wife's birthday. The hotel itself is very nice and the grounds are beautiful. We checked in early and room was ready . I phoned down to reception for the champagne which had been explained it may not be in room as we were early but that was fine - it was brought up to the room in 10 minutes. We had a prestige room which was lovely. My wife said she wouldn't have any treatments this time. The only disappointing part of the stay was the evening meal. We booked for 7.30 - order was taken and the wine brought to table - we didn't fancy anything from the starter but were asked if we would like some olives - I said yes - they never arrived. My wife ordered the rib eye steak and I ordered steak and ale pie from bar menu for main. We saw other people coming in and out of restaurant - it wasn't busy and only about 20 people in there as it was a Wednesday - they all had their food. We finally had ours brought to the table at 8.40 - We started eating it - wife's was luke warm - can only imagine it had been sitting on the side. My pie was hot but vegetables cold. My wife called manageress and it was sent back - she asked for mine to be sent back as well so we could eat at the said time (it wasn't offered). It arrived back after about 10 minutes - still cold. We didn't end up ordering dessert as just wanted to leave restaurant. My wife noticed 10% discrectionary service charge would be added which we would normally pay but because of the bad experience we informed manageress we wouldn't pay. As we left the restaurant we relayed our thoughts and the wine price was waived and we were also brought out a 'Happy Birthday small dessert plate' which we took through to the bar area and finished our wine. All hotel staff are friendly and hotel well maintained and should imagine it is a lovely venue for wedding . All in all a beautiful hotel spoilt by the bad restaurant experience.

Disappointed

The hotel was beautiful and the room large and spotlessly clean, the service at the restaurant in the mornings was very friendly as were the reception team on our check out.  However, the restaurant service on the two evenings spoilt the ocassion. The waiter on the first evening was very friendly, however, the £30pp was not what it seemed and the staff were very unhelpful (one quite rude) when customers (and there were many) merely wanted clarification. Unfortunately, this made our stay very uncomfortable.

Disappointing

I booked to stay here with my 2 daughters for my eldests 18th birthday. Firstly our sat nab took us the wrong direction but when I phoned twice for directions (we were only a mile away) the receptionist was quit unhelpful. We were therefore late to our afternoon tea that had been pre booked for 2pm. We arrived at 2.40 and were told to go straight the restaurant, which we did. I have my name but was told that there was no booking. The waiter eventually found it booked in for 3.15?? He afternoon tea was very dissapointing especially at 25 a head. We were unlucky that they had just started a Halloween special for the menu but most of it was inedible. The only savoury section was the multicoloured sandwiches and my section were cut so thin there was hardly anything of them. The fruit scone was nice, but was disappointed to find the second scone to be plain not cheese so another sweet scone that we couldn't eat. The desserts on the top were disgusting, and looking round the room we were not the only people to think that looking at the hardly touched food left. Me and my youngest daughter had green tea - and apart from the 1st cup it was so strong it was a dark red colour and burnt as you swollowed it because there was just too many leaves inside. We are asked for a new pot but got the same one back again with more leaves so this was just undrinkable.

We then checked it, but whilst queuing was chased by a waitress asking us to pay for the afternoon tea but I had paid for the whole stay in advance. When checking in, nothing was explained to us about the hotel, facilities or the restaurant or breakfast. We were just asked to pay a holding deposit and given our keys.

The rooms are nice and spacious with a large bed but we had an adjoining room and our neighbours were very noisy until 2/3 in the morning as all the sound came through the locked adjoining door.

We couldn't get into the sauna area as you needed a pin code and this had t been explained to us or provided which was a shame. I remember the days staying there when you had easy access to a pool and sauna but these facilities have gone now sadly.

The grounds were lovely as was our evening meal, albeit expensive.

We then missed breakfast the following day as I had mis read the time slot for breakfast so this was the ending to our dissapointing weekend away.

Sadly I won't be rushing back to stay there again. I was never made to feel welcome or that the staff would go out of their way to make your stay enjoyable, which is why I didn't ask if they would help with my breakfast mistake as I know what the answer would have been. . I have had much more friendly staff at premier inns for a fraction of the price!!