The Orangery Restaurant

Audley St Elphin's Park, St Elphin's Park, Dale Rd S, Darley Dale
01629 258055

Recent Reviews

Andy Cope

Feels like God's waiting room.

Paul Thomasson

Lovely afternoon tea. Service was excellent.

Stacy Brown

Lunch for two.Staff were attentive and helpfulDelicious vegetable soup, roasted vegetable tart, crumble and custard.Generous portion sizes.Would definitely go againVegetarian options: More vegetarian options would be welcome.Low fat / calorie options would also be welcomed.

Richard Peel

Went for a boxing buffet, even though we were later in the day there was still a good selection of food and it all tasted really good.Service was hit and

Susan Hart

OK, rather pricey poor choice, especially on confectionary.

Abi B

Really poor experience, would not recommend for afternoon tea. It seems things have really declined at this place recently so be wary of older positive reviews as they do not seem to reflect the current level of food and service.We arrived and nothing was ready, so we had to sit and have a drink for 15 minutes before being seated.We then were seated, but no other drink order was taken.After approximately 30 minutes, afternoon tea arrived. By this time we had no drinks. We were not told what our afternoon tea consisted of. It was placed in front of us and the women walked away.No menus were provided at any time.Both the sandwiches and the cakes were basic and dry.The setting for the afternoon tea is lovely and the seats are very comfortable, but that was the only good thing about this whole experience.I went for my Grandads 80th birthday and we were all genuinely disappointed, I will never return.

Carol Pountain

I had a wonderful beef carvery this Sunday the second of December 2023 one of the best, the beef was excellent the staff lovely I was invited by a resident Jo.

Nathan

The venue is stunning the food excellent the staff are great. Was my first visit but will not be my last.

Amy Bray

Been here twice now! Such a stunning place.The first time was amazing and the staff were great! Couldn't fault the service.The second time wasn't so great- Amazing afternoon tea but the service was dire. They didn't bring any tea straight away, so I had to ask for a pot! 40 mins in and still no sign of afternoon! A staff member came over to say that nobody had let the kitchen know that we had arrived! They did apologise tho with a free glass of prosecco.An amazing place with a beautiful orangery but the service is letting it down!Parking: Good parking.

Pioneer30111711581

Where do I start! My husband and I were looking forward to afternoon tea at the Orangery restaurant, after perusing the menu online beforehand it sounded quite nice. When we arrived we were greeted and shown to our table, the place was almost empty, with only one more couple there. We were asked if we’d like tea or coffee, this came out after 5 minutes. The wobbly cake stand with the very sparse amount of sandwiches and selection of cakes came out much later and our teapot was nice and empty by this time! We weren’t offered a refill and tried in vain to get the attention of the waitress who was extremely busy chatting to the other couple about house prices for about 10 minutes. She noticed my husband waving his arms in desperation to get her attention and completely ignored him 4 times! Eventually she managed to fetch us another pot then took the rest of our milk away whilst she refilled it in the kitchen. I thought we were going to die of thirst! The sandwiches we received were not the ones advertised online. We were given plain ham, cheese and pickle, egg mayonnaise and salmon. Where were the watercress, horseradish, cress etc and the coronation chicken? 4 small fingers of basic sandwiches each…. Not enough and I could have made these at home! The scones weren’t warmed and the cakes bore no resemblance to the menu whatsoever! Where were the mango tarts, Victoria sandwiches, pistachio macarons? We received, very dry coffee and lemon cake, chocolate cake and chocolate macaron. Not very inspiring at all for the hefty £21.95 per head price tag! We couldn’t eat a lot of it as it was that rubbish! We did think we might get chance to take the rest home for the kids, but after waiting another 15 minutes to get any attention we gave up and left. As we stepped out of the door the waitress shouted across the room to us to see if we wanted to take the rest home. We said we would have if she had bothered to ask us 15 minutes earlier. Overall a dreadful experience, zero customer service, very inattentive staff, please don’t waste your hard earned cash on this place. Whilst we were there we looked at reviews on trip advisor and see that many people have complained. Short replies have been added by the Orangery saying that they have taken note of the comments, yet absolutely nothing has been done about any of it! We won’t be returning!

14kim04

Asked for a table of 4 hadn't booked was very welcoming. 2 friends was running late so we just looked at menus. Friends arrived we ordered 4 drinks which quite honestly we thought they'd gone to France to get the wine. We ordered 4 starters with 3 side salads and bowl of chips. Eventually 3 starters came I waited longer for a cold starter no side salads no chips. I said we ordered side salads waitress said no problem won't take a minute to to prepare you one. Chips came with a bowl of mixed leaves which i don't call a side salad £4.50p. We had all eaten our food a waiter came with 1 bowl of salad told him to take it back we had eaten. No one asked us if we wanted sauces or vinegar we had to ask. We all had coffees drinkable but warm not hot. We complained they took 15% of the bill but spoiled what could have been a lovely lunch. Certainly won't be returning the hospitality and service definitely needs addressing.

David Endersby

Not easy to find if you're someone who uses Google maps, a sat nav or expects a restaurant to have a sign outside with its name on it! It's like they don't want you to find it and when you do, they certainly don't appear to want you to park unless it's on the grass verge some walk down from the entrance. Staff were friendly and attentive but as a vegetarian, there were limited options. The food was tasty though and not horrendously priced. You can hear a pin drop in the room as it appears to be primarily for the older residents of the wider St Elphin Park/complex, so it's got less of a restaurant vibe and more of a hotel lounge vibe to it.Vegetarian options: Only two options available and the one I had wasn't amazing, although I accept it's difficult to make risotto taste nice.

Coral Andrews

I was treated to an afternoon tea here for my birthday. The place itself is beautiful and the staff were lovely. The afternoon tea was good - the scones especially ? they were still warm and got plenty of cream and jam to spread on them. The only thing I didn't like was the filling in the sandwiches, I don't know whether you can choose other fillings or not as I wasn't the one that booked it but might be worth checking if you're a fussy eater like me.

Lisa W

Visited one Saturday afternoon with a friend for afternoon tea. The Orangery is located in a historic building that’s beautiful inside & out. The restaurant itself is lovely, great decor & ambience. The staff were very friendly & welcoming. Afternoon tea itself was lovely; delicious warm scones, tons of clotted cream and a tasty selection of deserts. All I would say is that 3 very small fingers sandwiches isn’t quite enough & so the savoury side was lacking slightly. You do get a small slice of sausage roll though. For £44 for one tier, I’d expect a couple more sandwiches. Overall though, a very lovely place & enjoyable afternoon tea.

stephie

We booked this restaurant on our way back from York to London. The description on Open Table and the link to the restaurant did not mention that it is part of a luxury retirement home. We were surprised to find out when we got there. The food was good and the residents very friendly. We had a very nice lunch.

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