We are quite local to this hotel and it's a great go-to place for a great experience. The hotel has been decorated for Xmas beautifully and no expense has been spared. We had drinks in the bar, then went to the main restaurant. The service, wine and our meal was amazing and we have no complaints. I actually asked to speak to the restaurant manager as our server, Alex provided great service, conversation and additional treats. Cannot fault anything. I will agree with other reviews that there were a lot of children in the restaurant but not sure how this would distract from an amazing experience and warrant a poor overall score. Most children were well behaved and it makes the hotel a great place to be and a great atmosphere. In fairness, one would expect lots of children this close to Christmas. Please keep up the good work.
Christine S
We visited the Wild Carrot bar for my friend’s birthday and had a wonderful evening. The staff were extremely friendly, attentive and very knowledgeable so made excellent cocktail recommendations when we couldn’t decide what to have - literally nothing was too much trouble. I had ordered a surprise birthday cake which was delicious. We’ve decided it is the perfect place for all of our future birthday celebrations.
annmarie1957
What a wonderful treat this was! We went for the full buffet. All ingredients were fresh and tasty and there was a huge variety of both cooked and continental foods. An abundance of gluten free options. Copious tea and coffee served and a glass of sparkling wine included The staff were so friendly and nothing was too much trouble. The weather was wet and windy so didn’t have the chance to enjoy the grounds but will return in the Summer and schedule in a walk. Thoroughly recommend!
frangipan
First, the positives! Good service, lovely staff and great food!!Unfortunately it was like sitting in the middle of a child friendly pub, which we could have gone to for a quarter of the price. Looks like the Four Seasons has lost its way, if they are trying to promote themselves as a fairly average family hotel, rather than a 5 star luxury experience perhaps that should be made clear. We are local to the hotel and, as such, we were looking for a special restaurant for a group of 8 friends to enjoy fine food and wine in a refined restaurant. This was definitely not it, such a a shame, felt bad for the staff as they are obviously aware of the problem and were very professional. Such a shame, we all agreed none of us would return!!
Waferthin100
Very loud “loose” children running around. Unpleasant experience. It didn’t help that my main course was very unbalanced. The service was good and starter was good. They kindly gave me a discount for the issues. It is expensive and not appropriate for the only restaurant available in this otherwise top hotel. But I won’t be going back anytime soon.
Gary Loney
Food is ok but completely over priced.
mrvot
Extortionately overpriced for basic pub grub, plus poor service and no allergen menu. First of all, my wife and I regularly frequent very high end establishments. This isn’t what you would expect at this price point. The location is beautiful, the staff are well dressed and courteous, however, the decor on the wild carrot is tired and the food is 50/50… read on… On arrival we were seated at a dark table with no view, when there were plenty of nicer tables (it was quite quiet). We shortly asked to move which was a waste of of our time. My wife has an egg allergy and was horrified to discover they had no allergen menu they could share with us, plus the two waiters said they had no idea about allergens so had to check with the chefs each time, which made us nervous. I’m fairness the cocktails were good. The Wild Carrot starter, which was meant to have rainbow radishes and crudités was a £0.75p - £1 bag of mixed leaf salad you’d get in a supermarket with some cherry tomatoes and sliced carrot, no radish. The fish and chips had thick undercooked doughy batter and they hadn’t removed the skin on the fish. The chips were supermarket chunky McCains type frozen chips and undercooked. For £28 I expect far, far better. This was more £18 pub grub at best. My mushroom toast was excellent and the mushroom pasta was also good but the side of fries for which I didn’t ask the cost was £8 (!!) they were limp and flavourless, essentially KFC/McDonalds level when not fresh, small portion too. My wife left about 30-40% of her food it was so bad, I ate mine as I’m more stubborn, but in hindsight, it really wasn’t worth the money as experiences of that price point should be equal, certainly not compatible to pubs and takeouts. The correct cutlery wasn’t laid out and our water wasn’t topped up once. To make matters worse, they added 15% to the bill but didn’t bring the itemised bill, just put the total on the card machine and brought that, at this point we just paid up and made for the exit. A totally embarrassing set up with incompetent staff and horrendous poor quality produce and cooking. Felt like daylight robbery and ruined our day. Read the other reviews, there’s a running theme for being overpriced and disappointing here and it’s letting what looks to be a very nice hotel down. Everything needs changing here except the cocktails and the mushroom toast starter. Also, other reviews are correct, wild kids everywhere, no wild carrots in sight. AVOID.
Rachel Rolph
Relaxed lunch today with children - excellent service by Fillipa, she was so accommodating and attentive to everyone's needs. Always such a good experience at 4S.
Youngishwildandfree
I booked a table for two for a Friday evening at 19.00 to celebrate a special occasion, and was very much looking forward to what looked like beautiful surroundings and a stunning menu, in the heart of the Hampshire countryside. However, the restaurant was completely overrun with children and babies, which ordinarily doesn't bother me, but this is pitched as a high-end fine dinning restaurant, where a three course meal and a bottle of wine for two will set you back approximately £300. Now we're not talking children who are sitting quietly and being well-behaved, we are talking about children running around, in and out of a set of nearby external fire doors causing gusts of wind into the restaurant, and jumping on the banquet immediately behind me with parents who appeared to make no attempt to ensure other dinners' experiences were not being affected. If the Wild Carrot wants to pitch itself as family friendly, it should ensure that adult only groups and couples dining, are seated in a different area of the restaurant, and people with children and families in another, it should also make it clear what type of standards the restaurant accepts, in terms of children running in and out and around the tables, in the same way it requires a smart-casual dress code. Whilst the food was very good, the service was not up to the standard we would expect when paying these sorts of prices in general terms, but some stand-out matters are as follows: on having our starter plates cleared we requested a ten-minute break before our mains arrived (this was, after all, a special occasion and we didn't want to be rushed), we were told that was not possible as our mains were on the counter immediately behind our table, the second basket of bread requested during our starters came out way after our mains were provided, the bottle of champagne we had ordered was placed on the other side of the restaurant and took five minutes for anybody to locate, and only after we'd requested it to top up our glasses (anybody paying this price for dinner would expect water and wine/champagne glasses to be topped up throughout a meal, almost un-noticeably). The bill came to over £330 (and I had ordered champagne, which inflates the bill slightly), and whilst I'm very happy to pay that kind of price (and am lucky enough to be able to do so semi-regularly for special occasions), this felt a bit like a shake-down: the children running everywhere was incredibly distracting and the service is not up to par, and certainly not the kind of service that justifies a 15% discretionary service charge (whilst I appreciate I could have requested that be removed, it already felt like a slightly disappointing evening and I didn't want to ruin it any further so simply paid and left). I certainly would not recommend the Wild Carrot to anyone looking for high-end fine dining. However, if you have kids, fill your boots!
Chi-chung Cheng
Super nice service, ultra good food quality. Will come again for sure.
I have mixed feelings of this restaurant. Set at the Four Seasons, the estate was amazing. The weather was nice when we went and the grounds looked beautiful.The restaurant was a little hard to find, door staff kind of were nice but also stand offish, but strangeWe booked a Sunday buffet lunch for 1230, the buffet started at 1230 and we were5 minutes early, the hostess was a bit cold and just told us that the table wasn't ready and we waited at the bar.1240 and we were still sitting at the bar when the couple that arrived after us were shown their table before us. I had to ask a waitress if our table was readyFood was good. nice selection, well cooked. Everyone in our group was appreciative of the setting and the buffet.The waiting staff were nice, friendly, but for some reason wasn't at our table much. I asked several times for our water Tobe topped up. Had to catch their attention for a drinks order etcNot sure if it was the table we sat on, but the staff seemed to look after every other table apart from ours.For example, it's a buffet, but plates were left on our table without being cleared pretty much for the whole meal. While the staff cleared tables which have just leftWe waited and chased for the bill, and then waited and chased for the card machineI have visited many Four Season establishments and the service and attentiveness I expect was not apparentMaybe just an off day, maybe short staffed but overall the grounds were nice but lunch was a bit meh. Definitely could do better
M
Truly amazing.
Paul W
I came here last night with my partner for our 20th anniversary and we had a lovely time.The food was delicious, the atmosphere was relaxed - with the sun setting over the valley through the window beside us, and our server Sarah couldn't have been more gracious a host, even suggesting we make the most of the sunset by offering to take our photo.Wonderful experience - we're looking forward to coming back and trying the new Italian restaurant next to the Wild Carrot.
Laura Fairburn
We visited on a Sunday night at the end of May for our wedding anniversary. We turned up for our 7.45pm booking to find the restaurant to be completely overrun with children, and many tables filled with old plates which hadn't be cleared away from a hotel buffet which people kept also milling around for. We were seated near some open doors, which children kept running in and out of, with parents having no decency to try and control their children to let other diners enjoy their experience. In fact I think we may have been the only group in there with no children. As we have two young children at home we did not want to be around this for our special dinner, so we asked if we could move but there was literally nowhere in the restaurant that you could escape the kids.So at this point we were moved to the bar. We were sat right next to the cash register in a very awkward spot which again we weren't happy with so moved to the corner of the bar on a stained sofa. We were then surrounded by a large family group playing charades loudly but obviously this is not the fault of the restaurant and of course people are allowed to have fun but this was not the type of fine dining experience we had expected when booking this meal.Drinks very pricey too, £20 for an average fruity cocktail, I've had nicer cocktails in a can from Tesco. There was also some misunderstandings with our waiter who noted down a couple of things in our order wrong and also had little knowledge of what mocktails were.The food was mediocre at best and incredibly expensive for the portion sizes. Small portions are not out of the ordinary for this kind of dining, but you would at least expect a great taste. The best part of mine was the starter, smoked aubergine. The lamb shoulder tasted extremely salty. The fillet was decent, medium but slightly charred on the outside for my taste but still nice. The desserts were awful. The Caribbean chocolate was extremely basic and the cocoa nibs it came with were literally disgusting and I was happy to get home and brush my teeth to get the taste out of my mouth! The pink grapefruit and white chocolate dessert did not really taste of anything at all.The bill came to over £250 - we are happy to pay this sort of price for great food and a great experience. Not mediocre food, poor service and bad experience on what should have been a special night. When we wanted to reduce the £35 service charge (we changed this to £15 - still generous for the treatment we had had), and voiced our complaints to the restaurant manager, he seemed to imply that we should have let them know in advance if we wanted a quiet table (we did specify it was an anniversary on the online booking - no mention of this by the restaurant whereas most places give a special touch). I don't see why a customer would have expected to have been sat in the middle of what felt like a children's buffet/play area/Harvester type set up when coming to a 5* hotel restaurant, and be told we should have told them in advance we wanted to be sat somewhere else?Even after voicing our complaints the restaurant manager didn't take anything off the bill (would have been a nice touch but the cost of the meal was secondary to the rubbish experience), and barely apologised and just said he'd raise what we'd said with the hotel management.I am not one to ever really leave a review but I would highly discourage anyone wanting to celebrate a special occasion from coming here for their evening meal, unless you like feeling like you're dining in the middle of a pre-school.
Laura S
We visited on a Sunday night at the end of May for our wedding anniversary. We turned up for our 7.45pm booking to find the restaurant to be completely overrun with children, and many tables filled with old plates which hadn't be cleared away from a hotel buffet which people kept also milling around for. We were seated near some open doors, which children kept running in and out of, with parents having no decency to try and control their children to let other diners enjoy their experience. In fact I think we may have been the only group in there with no children. As we have two young children at home we did not want to be around this for our special dinner, so we asked if we could move but there was literally nowhere in the restaurant that you could escape the kids. So at this point we were moved to the bar. We were sat right next to the cash register in a very awkward spot which again we weren't happy with so moved to the corner of the bar on a stained sofa. We were then surrounded by a large family group playing charades loudly but obviously this is not the fault of the restaurant and of course people are allowed to have fun but this was not the type of fine dining experience we had expected when booking this meal. Drinks very pricey too, £20 for an average fruity cocktail, I've had nicer cocktails in a can from Tesco. There was also some misunderstandings with our waiter who noted down a couple of things in our order wrong and also had little knowledge of what mocktails were. The food was mediocre at best and incredibly expensive for the portion sizes. Small portions are not out of the ordinary for this kind of dining, but you would at least expect a great taste. The best part of mine was the starter, smoked aubergine. The lamb shoulder tasted extremely salty. The fillet was decent, medium but slightly charred on the outside for my taste but still nice. The desserts were awful. The Caribbean chocolate was extremely basic and the cocoa nibs it came with were literally disgusting and I was happy to get home and brush my teeth to get the taste out of my mouth! The pink grapefruit and white chocolate dessert did not really taste of anything at all. The bill came to over £250 - we are happy to pay this sort of price for great food and a great experience. Not mediocre food, poor service and bad experience on what should have been a special night. When we wanted to reduce the £35 service charge (we changed this to £15 - still generous for the treatment we had had), and voiced our complaints to the restaurant manager, he seemed to imply that we should have let them know in advance if we wanted a quiet table (we did specify it was an anniversary on the online booking - no mention of this by the restaurant whereas most places give a special touch). I don't see why a customer would have expected to have been sat in the middle of what felt like a children's buffet/play area/Harvester type set up when coming to a 5* hotel restaurant, and be told we should have told them in advance we wanted to be sat somewhere else? Even after voicing our complaints the restaurant manager didn't take anything off the bill (would have been a nice touch but the cost of the meal was secondary to the rubbish experience), and barely apologised and just said he'd raise what we'd said with the hotel management. I am not one to ever really leave a review but I would highly discourage anyone wanting to celebrate a special occasion from coming here for their evening meal, unless you like feeling like you're dining in the middle of a pre-school.
We are quite local to this hotel and it's a great go-to place for a great experience. The hotel has been decorated for Xmas beautifully and no expense has been spared. We had drinks in the bar, then went to the main restaurant. The service, wine and our meal was amazing and we have no complaints. I actually asked to speak to the restaurant manager as our server, Alex provided great service, conversation and additional treats. Cannot fault anything. I will agree with other reviews that there were a lot of children in the restaurant but not sure how this would distract from an amazing experience and warrant a poor overall score. Most children were well behaved and it makes the hotel a great place to be and a great atmosphere. In fairness, one would expect lots of children this close to Christmas. Please keep up the good work.
We visited the Wild Carrot bar for my friend’s birthday and had a wonderful evening. The staff were extremely friendly, attentive and very knowledgeable so made excellent cocktail recommendations when we couldn’t decide what to have - literally nothing was too much trouble. I had ordered a surprise birthday cake which was delicious. We’ve decided it is the perfect place for all of our future birthday celebrations.
What a wonderful treat this was! We went for the full buffet. All ingredients were fresh and tasty and there was a huge variety of both cooked and continental foods. An abundance of gluten free options. Copious tea and coffee served and a glass of sparkling wine included The staff were so friendly and nothing was too much trouble. The weather was wet and windy so didn’t have the chance to enjoy the grounds but will return in the Summer and schedule in a walk. Thoroughly recommend!
First, the positives! Good service, lovely staff and great food!!Unfortunately it was like sitting in the middle of a child friendly pub, which we could have gone to for a quarter of the price. Looks like the Four Seasons has lost its way, if they are trying to promote themselves as a fairly average family hotel, rather than a 5 star luxury experience perhaps that should be made clear. We are local to the hotel and, as such, we were looking for a special restaurant for a group of 8 friends to enjoy fine food and wine in a refined restaurant. This was definitely not it, such a a shame, felt bad for the staff as they are obviously aware of the problem and were very professional. Such a shame, we all agreed none of us would return!!
Very loud “loose” children running around. Unpleasant experience. It didn’t help that my main course was very unbalanced. The service was good and starter was good. They kindly gave me a discount for the issues. It is expensive and not appropriate for the only restaurant available in this otherwise top hotel. But I won’t be going back anytime soon.
Food is ok but completely over priced.
Extortionately overpriced for basic pub grub, plus poor service and no allergen menu. First of all, my wife and I regularly frequent very high end establishments. This isn’t what you would expect at this price point. The location is beautiful, the staff are well dressed and courteous, however, the decor on the wild carrot is tired and the food is 50/50… read on… On arrival we were seated at a dark table with no view, when there were plenty of nicer tables (it was quite quiet). We shortly asked to move which was a waste of of our time. My wife has an egg allergy and was horrified to discover they had no allergen menu they could share with us, plus the two waiters said they had no idea about allergens so had to check with the chefs each time, which made us nervous. I’m fairness the cocktails were good. The Wild Carrot starter, which was meant to have rainbow radishes and crudités was a £0.75p - £1 bag of mixed leaf salad you’d get in a supermarket with some cherry tomatoes and sliced carrot, no radish. The fish and chips had thick undercooked doughy batter and they hadn’t removed the skin on the fish. The chips were supermarket chunky McCains type frozen chips and undercooked. For £28 I expect far, far better. This was more £18 pub grub at best. My mushroom toast was excellent and the mushroom pasta was also good but the side of fries for which I didn’t ask the cost was £8 (!!) they were limp and flavourless, essentially KFC/McDonalds level when not fresh, small portion too. My wife left about 30-40% of her food it was so bad, I ate mine as I’m more stubborn, but in hindsight, it really wasn’t worth the money as experiences of that price point should be equal, certainly not compatible to pubs and takeouts. The correct cutlery wasn’t laid out and our water wasn’t topped up once. To make matters worse, they added 15% to the bill but didn’t bring the itemised bill, just put the total on the card machine and brought that, at this point we just paid up and made for the exit. A totally embarrassing set up with incompetent staff and horrendous poor quality produce and cooking. Felt like daylight robbery and ruined our day. Read the other reviews, there’s a running theme for being overpriced and disappointing here and it’s letting what looks to be a very nice hotel down. Everything needs changing here except the cocktails and the mushroom toast starter. Also, other reviews are correct, wild kids everywhere, no wild carrots in sight. AVOID.
Relaxed lunch today with children - excellent service by Fillipa, she was so accommodating and attentive to everyone's needs. Always such a good experience at 4S.
I booked a table for two for a Friday evening at 19.00 to celebrate a special occasion, and was very much looking forward to what looked like beautiful surroundings and a stunning menu, in the heart of the Hampshire countryside. However, the restaurant was completely overrun with children and babies, which ordinarily doesn't bother me, but this is pitched as a high-end fine dinning restaurant, where a three course meal and a bottle of wine for two will set you back approximately £300. Now we're not talking children who are sitting quietly and being well-behaved, we are talking about children running around, in and out of a set of nearby external fire doors causing gusts of wind into the restaurant, and jumping on the banquet immediately behind me with parents who appeared to make no attempt to ensure other dinners' experiences were not being affected. If the Wild Carrot wants to pitch itself as family friendly, it should ensure that adult only groups and couples dining, are seated in a different area of the restaurant, and people with children and families in another, it should also make it clear what type of standards the restaurant accepts, in terms of children running in and out and around the tables, in the same way it requires a smart-casual dress code. Whilst the food was very good, the service was not up to the standard we would expect when paying these sorts of prices in general terms, but some stand-out matters are as follows: on having our starter plates cleared we requested a ten-minute break before our mains arrived (this was, after all, a special occasion and we didn't want to be rushed), we were told that was not possible as our mains were on the counter immediately behind our table, the second basket of bread requested during our starters came out way after our mains were provided, the bottle of champagne we had ordered was placed on the other side of the restaurant and took five minutes for anybody to locate, and only after we'd requested it to top up our glasses (anybody paying this price for dinner would expect water and wine/champagne glasses to be topped up throughout a meal, almost un-noticeably). The bill came to over £330 (and I had ordered champagne, which inflates the bill slightly), and whilst I'm very happy to pay that kind of price (and am lucky enough to be able to do so semi-regularly for special occasions), this felt a bit like a shake-down: the children running everywhere was incredibly distracting and the service is not up to par, and certainly not the kind of service that justifies a 15% discretionary service charge (whilst I appreciate I could have requested that be removed, it already felt like a slightly disappointing evening and I didn't want to ruin it any further so simply paid and left). I certainly would not recommend the Wild Carrot to anyone looking for high-end fine dining. However, if you have kids, fill your boots!
Super nice service, ultra good food quality. Will come again for sure.
Restaurantji Recommends
I have mixed feelings of this restaurant. Set at the Four Seasons, the estate was amazing. The weather was nice when we went and the grounds looked beautiful.The restaurant was a little hard to find, door staff kind of were nice but also stand offish, but strangeWe booked a Sunday buffet lunch for 1230, the buffet started at 1230 and we were5 minutes early, the hostess was a bit cold and just told us that the table wasn't ready and we waited at the bar.1240 and we were still sitting at the bar when the couple that arrived after us were shown their table before us. I had to ask a waitress if our table was readyFood was good. nice selection, well cooked. Everyone in our group was appreciative of the setting and the buffet.The waiting staff were nice, friendly, but for some reason wasn't at our table much. I asked several times for our water Tobe topped up. Had to catch their attention for a drinks order etcNot sure if it was the table we sat on, but the staff seemed to look after every other table apart from ours.For example, it's a buffet, but plates were left on our table without being cleared pretty much for the whole meal. While the staff cleared tables which have just leftWe waited and chased for the bill, and then waited and chased for the card machineI have visited many Four Season establishments and the service and attentiveness I expect was not apparentMaybe just an off day, maybe short staffed but overall the grounds were nice but lunch was a bit meh. Definitely could do better
Truly amazing.
I came here last night with my partner for our 20th anniversary and we had a lovely time.The food was delicious, the atmosphere was relaxed - with the sun setting over the valley through the window beside us, and our server Sarah couldn't have been more gracious a host, even suggesting we make the most of the sunset by offering to take our photo.Wonderful experience - we're looking forward to coming back and trying the new Italian restaurant next to the Wild Carrot.
We visited on a Sunday night at the end of May for our wedding anniversary. We turned up for our 7.45pm booking to find the restaurant to be completely overrun with children, and many tables filled with old plates which hadn't be cleared away from a hotel buffet which people kept also milling around for. We were seated near some open doors, which children kept running in and out of, with parents having no decency to try and control their children to let other diners enjoy their experience. In fact I think we may have been the only group in there with no children. As we have two young children at home we did not want to be around this for our special dinner, so we asked if we could move but there was literally nowhere in the restaurant that you could escape the kids.So at this point we were moved to the bar. We were sat right next to the cash register in a very awkward spot which again we weren't happy with so moved to the corner of the bar on a stained sofa. We were then surrounded by a large family group playing charades loudly but obviously this is not the fault of the restaurant and of course people are allowed to have fun but this was not the type of fine dining experience we had expected when booking this meal.Drinks very pricey too, £20 for an average fruity cocktail, I've had nicer cocktails in a can from Tesco. There was also some misunderstandings with our waiter who noted down a couple of things in our order wrong and also had little knowledge of what mocktails were.The food was mediocre at best and incredibly expensive for the portion sizes. Small portions are not out of the ordinary for this kind of dining, but you would at least expect a great taste. The best part of mine was the starter, smoked aubergine. The lamb shoulder tasted extremely salty. The fillet was decent, medium but slightly charred on the outside for my taste but still nice. The desserts were awful. The Caribbean chocolate was extremely basic and the cocoa nibs it came with were literally disgusting and I was happy to get home and brush my teeth to get the taste out of my mouth! The pink grapefruit and white chocolate dessert did not really taste of anything at all.The bill came to over £250 - we are happy to pay this sort of price for great food and a great experience. Not mediocre food, poor service and bad experience on what should have been a special night. When we wanted to reduce the £35 service charge (we changed this to £15 - still generous for the treatment we had had), and voiced our complaints to the restaurant manager, he seemed to imply that we should have let them know in advance if we wanted a quiet table (we did specify it was an anniversary on the online booking - no mention of this by the restaurant whereas most places give a special touch). I don't see why a customer would have expected to have been sat in the middle of what felt like a children's buffet/play area/Harvester type set up when coming to a 5* hotel restaurant, and be told we should have told them in advance we wanted to be sat somewhere else?Even after voicing our complaints the restaurant manager didn't take anything off the bill (would have been a nice touch but the cost of the meal was secondary to the rubbish experience), and barely apologised and just said he'd raise what we'd said with the hotel management.I am not one to ever really leave a review but I would highly discourage anyone wanting to celebrate a special occasion from coming here for their evening meal, unless you like feeling like you're dining in the middle of a pre-school.
We visited on a Sunday night at the end of May for our wedding anniversary. We turned up for our 7.45pm booking to find the restaurant to be completely overrun with children, and many tables filled with old plates which hadn't be cleared away from a hotel buffet which people kept also milling around for. We were seated near some open doors, which children kept running in and out of, with parents having no decency to try and control their children to let other diners enjoy their experience. In fact I think we may have been the only group in there with no children. As we have two young children at home we did not want to be around this for our special dinner, so we asked if we could move but there was literally nowhere in the restaurant that you could escape the kids. So at this point we were moved to the bar. We were sat right next to the cash register in a very awkward spot which again we weren't happy with so moved to the corner of the bar on a stained sofa. We were then surrounded by a large family group playing charades loudly but obviously this is not the fault of the restaurant and of course people are allowed to have fun but this was not the type of fine dining experience we had expected when booking this meal. Drinks very pricey too, £20 for an average fruity cocktail, I've had nicer cocktails in a can from Tesco. There was also some misunderstandings with our waiter who noted down a couple of things in our order wrong and also had little knowledge of what mocktails were. The food was mediocre at best and incredibly expensive for the portion sizes. Small portions are not out of the ordinary for this kind of dining, but you would at least expect a great taste. The best part of mine was the starter, smoked aubergine. The lamb shoulder tasted extremely salty. The fillet was decent, medium but slightly charred on the outside for my taste but still nice. The desserts were awful. The Caribbean chocolate was extremely basic and the cocoa nibs it came with were literally disgusting and I was happy to get home and brush my teeth to get the taste out of my mouth! The pink grapefruit and white chocolate dessert did not really taste of anything at all. The bill came to over £250 - we are happy to pay this sort of price for great food and a great experience. Not mediocre food, poor service and bad experience on what should have been a special night. When we wanted to reduce the £35 service charge (we changed this to £15 - still generous for the treatment we had had), and voiced our complaints to the restaurant manager, he seemed to imply that we should have let them know in advance if we wanted a quiet table (we did specify it was an anniversary on the online booking - no mention of this by the restaurant whereas most places give a special touch). I don't see why a customer would have expected to have been sat in the middle of what felt like a children's buffet/play area/Harvester type set up when coming to a 5* hotel restaurant, and be told we should have told them in advance we wanted to be sat somewhere else? Even after voicing our complaints the restaurant manager didn't take anything off the bill (would have been a nice touch but the cost of the meal was secondary to the rubbish experience), and barely apologised and just said he'd raise what we'd said with the hotel management. I am not one to ever really leave a review but I would highly discourage anyone wanting to celebrate a special occasion from coming here for their evening meal, unless you like feeling like you're dining in the middle of a pre-school.
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