Friday Frolics...

Backblipped 10.02.19

A quiet day till Ele and Kenny arrived at 4.30pm.  

After coffee and a catch up we disappeared upstairs to spruce ourselves up as we'd booked dinner at the restaurant of a local, newly re-opened hotel.  

The hotel has the potential to be amazing but has a bit of chequered history.  

It was closed when we moved here but was bought over by a hotel chain in 2011 who spent over £3m turning it into a very bling, boutique hotel.  It got off to a great start with amazing reviews and industry awards and we had a lovely lunch there and an afternoon tea.  

As time went on we had lunch and dinner there a few times but it never quite lived up to it's initial promise with disappointing food (one example, we were served frozen bread with our soup.  No ideal for a place trying to pass itself off as 5*) and the service levels dropped.   It was put up for sale at the end of 2016 and was bought by a local business owning family.  

It has since been completely refurbished again.  All the glass, studded white leather, diamonte and black velvet decor has gone, to be replaced with a warmer and much more relaxing interior.  

We had drinks in the bar before dinner followed by a delicious meal.

And our verdict...well the surroundings and the food are excellent.  The service was also good but with a few glitches that we are putting down to the fact the hotel only re-opened at the start of this month and the staff are still getting into their stride.  We'll definitely go back.