Appalling food

Good day

We stayed at the property on Saturday. The room was excellent, but the service and the standard of food were shocking. I booked through booking.com. I have booked multiple times through booking.com for many establishments, and the process has always been to pay on arrival. Your receptionist took it upon herself to request payment before our arrival, causing my payment to decline and incurring unnecessary charges on my side and further embarrassing me in front of my partner. I have experienced ***** on my account/card multiple times. Hence, I have to authorize payment. No communication or mention was made that I would need to make prior payment. I would have been happy to make payment prior if it had been communicated.

Your staff are friendly but untrained and have little to no knowledge of what you offer or your services. We decided to have drinks at the bar before dinner. Your drinks menu is limited, and you do not offer ****tails. I received little to no assistance on what could be made for me. And I was told to get up and go to the bar because both gentlemen working in the bar area had no clue about what you had in stock ,which was even more shocking because your alcohol options to make up a ****tail are so limited. I then explained to the barman what combination he could do for a ****tail.

Dinner was appalling. We requested a wine menu which took forever to arrive as you only have one wine menu for all guests. The bread box/basket was bizarre. Clearly bought in commercial sour dough bread, bland meat***** , shortbread biscuits, and lurpak butter still in its original packaging. Starters: Duck carpaccio with a homemade store bought Sriracha, blueberries, and kewpie mayo, completely different from what was indicated on the menu. My mind is completely blown at this combination and the sheer lack of skill or knowledge used to execute this poor menu. This was served on lettuce, which also blew me away. The succotash was just poorly executed veggies and canned beans in a pool of vingary dressing.

Mains: A very average piece of salmon that was slightly overcooked, again with drops of kewpie mayo and poorly cooked veggies. It had possibly parsnip puree or a watery cauliflower puree. Store bought sweet chili sauce was also on the plate. All food was underseasoned. There is no salt or black pepper for the table. The waiter did not know what the gram of the beef was or the cut of the beef when we inquired, so my partner opted for the fish. The waiter first stated that it was 500g, which we knew was definitely wrong. FYI- There is no such thing as a ballontine of fillet. And there is incorrect spelling on your menu. Succotash should contain corn, and it did not. Cauliflower steak was undercooked. Again, poorly executed and undercooked veggies. The Tandoori sauce tasted nothing of Tandoori and was too creamy.

Dessert: The chocolate fondant was overcooked, and the outer was chewy. Also, eggy in taste. The ice cream was just regular commercial vanilla ice cream. The lemon tart was soggy, chewy, overworked pastry, eggy lemon curd filling which tasted of nothing but egg and the fridge. You can tell that it was old and kept in the fridge uncovered. There was some crumbled meringue on the top, also old and dusty in texture, which happens with old meringue.

The ingredients used to prepare these meals are of poor quality, and there is definitely little to no skill in the kitchen. Such poor food and service really ruins the entire experience.

Breakfast was poor as well. Soggy, undercooked poor quality croissants, cheap cuts of ham. There is no teas****s to eat the yogurt cups. Scrambled eggs were overcooked. Asked for the beef sausage to be swapped for bacon. Still received a beef sausage on the plate. The beef patty was tough. Mushrooms had no flavor. Tastes of microwaved mushrooms. Mushrooms were overcooked. I asked for regular ground coffee, as only decaf was offered in the room. We were sent decaf coffee again. No offering of toast of breakfast juices was offered. Anything we asked, staff did not have an answer or knowledge of. One expects a far better service and dining experience from a 5 star establishment. Sadly, I would not recommend this establishment to anyone.

Received a total generic, indifferent response from the GM. One can tell by his response and how this establishment is currently being run that there is a total intransigent attitude. Just disgusting.