Review of Kings Head Hotel 4*

This hotel unfortunately did not live up to it’s reputation. Yet it has the potential to be quite wonderful. The build itself is stunning. Most of the staff are very friendly and accommodating. We arrived quite late and felt the room was a little chilly, so we put the heating on whilst we went to dinner. Only one starter came. We waited thinking another was on it’s way, but were told we thought you only wanted one to share? Another starter was produced but by this time my partners had gone cold. Bad start but hey mistakes happen… Unfortunately my main course had not been seasoned at all. Ox cheeks are supposed to be full of flavour. It was completely tasteless, I didn’t eat it. Asked if I’d like it replaced by something else but as I didn’t want my partners to go cold again waiting and for myself to eat alone. We shared and ordered some extra bread. Not the romantic meal we had expected. The waitress was very apologetic and said she removed it from the bill. But when it came to pay the manger was very rude and abrupt. She said she had not agreed to remove it. No apology. We returned to our room to find the heating was not working at all but had been blowing out cold air. It was only one degree outside so you can image it was very cold. We phoned down to reception several times, left message but nobody came back to us so we went down and eventually were advised to move rooms. By this time it’s 11pm, I’m slightly tipsy and we had to pack up all of our belongings and trawl through the hotel. The first was a very small double (we had paid for an executive suite) We were finally given a feature room which was lovely, cosy but with a very damp bathroom of which the ceiling was pealing (looked like it was going to fall in) and very smelly. With a terrible view. But as there were no other rooms available, there was no other choice. The breakfast was ok, nothing special. We over heard another people discussing how terrible the food had been. We booked The Grill for our second evening meal hoping for a delicious meal. My langoustine risotto was tasty but had literally half a langoustine cut in half. The lamb pie with basil mash and roasted carrot main course was a Shepard’s pie that was swimming in gravy that looks like dirty dish water (even the waitress said oh dear that does not look good) very, very poor. The following morning we had again, a very poor breakfast. Eggs Benedict, not poached but hard boiled eggs … The couple next to us remarked how awful her breakfast was, she had not eaten it. The music coming out of the kitchen was hardcore drum and bass. Not at all what you’d expect from what’s supposed to be a luxury boutique hotel. On a brighter note, most of the staff are helpful and it’s a dog friendly establishment. We were refunded for the items we didn’t eat but the point is it did spoil our break.