Review of The Brickwall Hotel 3*

Having visited around four times, my family has always found the Brickwall to be a most pleasant hotel. The staff are friendly and helpful and the rooms comfortable. Though the highlight has always been the excellent food. This time, we were pleased to see that the rooms have been spruced up and much of the older furniture either reupholstered or replaced. Very comfortable king sized beds were in evidence. The staff were personable but less efficient than in the past. That said, both Julio the manager and Mr Pollio (owner) made us feel welcome. However, this time we had some problems with our Saturday breakfast and dinner. My children ordered scrambled eggs for breakfast and when it arrived neither tucked in with their normal gusto. When we tasted it there was a definite "burned" flavour as if the pot had "caught" and tainted the batch prepared. We pointed this out to the waiter who did not offer an alternative. For my wife's birthday dinner on Saturday our party sat down to a very pleasant series of starters. When the mains arrived there were a few problems (4/7). The bream and cod had a very strong odour more akin to frozen Pollock this made my daughter feel a little off colour and she ate little (in spite of being a great fan of cod) Three of us ordered the duckling and two of the three servings were extremely tough and over-cooked. I asked for them to be replaced and this was effected but this is not quite the high standard one usually experiences here. Also the our group felt neglected in favour of the later wedding party. The attentions of the staff were certainly not with the seven of us. In their defence, the staff were being taxed by a rather confrontational man attached to the wedding party and this may have had a knock-on effect. Last time I rated the hotel a 4/5 because of the slightly worn rooms mitigated by excellent food. Now the rooms have been renovated but the dining side has slipped. I would like to rate rooms at a 4 and the dining a 2.5 but cannot be so specific! Overall our stay was, as usual, enjoyable but for reviews to be valuable, honesty is essential.