Guest User
May 21, 2024
We regularly visit The Manor House Hotel for afternoon tea, and have also stayed there. The last few ‘tea’ visits have been disappointing. On entering the grounds of the hotel, we have noticed them swarming with non-patron tourists, keen to take selfies with the hotel in the background. One family had even launched a drone to photograph the front of the hotel, and the noise was irritating to anyone sitting, legitimately, at a table on the nearby lawn, trying to enjoy a quiet cream tea. One pays a premium for a treat at The Manor House, but all exclusivity has now disappeared. After ordering cream teas at the bar, I asked for the table adjacent to ours to be cleared. It was laden with dirty dishes and what looked like a box of takeaway cakes and coffee cups, attracting a swarm of flies. The beverages came out, and I again reminded the waiter about clearing the dirty table. He assured me it would be done right away. A while later, when the tea was going cold, the scones were served. The correct way to serve tea (and certainly at this price and in a top 5* establishment) is to accompany it with a pot of hot water. This is to ‘top up the pot’ after the first cup has been drunk, ensuring that the second is neither too strong, nor tepid/cold in temperature. It seems to be a dying custom, but is a mark of good service, which has not been provided at The Manor House for some time, and always has to be asked for. With the scones on the table, I again asked for the filthy table adjacent to be cleared and, finally, on the third request, this happened. I remarked that it was a disgrace that such a mess should be left uncleared for a considerable time, and then only done at a customer’s request. I went back into the bar to pay the bill, and waited a good five minutes to be served. No-one appeared, so I trundled off to the reception. No-one was manning the desk there, either. I wandered around aimlessly, wasting precious time, then went back to the bar to find the bar-tender there. I expressed my disappointment about the slow response to my request for the dirty table to be cleared, the fact that no hot water was served with the tea (he had never heard of this custom) and the fact that there was quite a wait for the scones while the tea was going cold. I was half way through my gripe when he averted his gaze across the room (the height of bad manners, even if I was boring the pants off him). At this point, I asked for the service charge to be removed, and vowed never to return to The Manor House Hotel again