Poets House

Great breakfast, beautiful rooms! Close to the Cathedral and schools nearby.

Wonderful customer service, nothing was too much trouble. All staff very attentive and helpful. Beautiful hotel, Excellent - will return. The Hotel Manager was brilliant and her conduct and role modelling was refelected in the staff customer services. Beautiful rooms, clean and very large.

A friend bought us a voucher for afternoon tea for two for my husband's 50th birthday in March, we thought it would be nice to add the children on and go as a family for Father's day. I called and made the booking and paid the extra for our two children. We arrived and the hotel had very good wheelchair access and it looked very well presented. We were greeted by friendly staff, who offered us a choice of where we sat. We sat in the lounge/ bar area, where another family were also enjoying afternoon tea. We were asked about drinks and I decided to find the accessible toilet. The toilet was nicely decorated and had good access, however, the bin was overflowing and it had a strong smell, I'm not sure this had been looked at by staff since the start of the day, our booking was 3pm. The waiter put the small plates and cups and saucers out like frisbees, my 12-year-old daughter was giving me raised eyebrowed looks as he was doing so, surprised they didn't break! The sandwiches and cakes were ok, nothing spectacular and the bread felt dry and almost stale. They arrived before we had even had our drinks order taken After the tea was served, not one single member of staff came over to a) see if everything was ok and b) if we perhaps wanted more drinks. There were two or three quite young staff members talking at the bar behind us, yet the family that was also having afternoon tea had been gone a fair amount of time and their table, adjacent to ours had not been cleared and was putting me off as they were all standing gossiping. My husband was going to have a coffee as his teapot had gone cold but as it was abundantly clear no staff were going to come near our table, we decided just to go. I asked about taking some of our leftovers home and without a word, or a smile, a member of staff handed us a box. Upon leaving there was not a word, no goodbye, thank you for coming, nothing. Very disappointing as it was Father's Day, my husband commented that he felt rushed the moment we arrived. I appreciate the table was booked at 3, but there may well have been a shift change, this is not our fault and we did not feel very welcome, nor well looked after.

Visited Poets House for afternoon tea today and it was amazing. It was so well presented and tasted fantastic. The fruit scones were the best we have ever tasted, so light and airy and definitely worth returning for. The setting itself is beautiful and there is a nice outside space if the weather is nice (unfortunately it wasn’t when we visited). The staff were really friendly and welcoming and checked in occasionally to make sure we were happy and to offer more tea which was nice. Overall the experience was lovely and the hotel is so beautiful. I would definitely recommend the hotel and of course the afternoon tea as it was such a lovely treat and great value for money.

We have dined here as a couple and with some of our dearest friends. The Staff at the Restaurant are courteous, friendly, kind and serious about their dishes and feedback. It has made us loyal customers now. Our favorites are their cod goujons and seabass. It's a pleasure to meet our favorite people each time we are here.

The room was very boujee. Creature comforts such as robes, slipers, and toiletries get a big thums up. Room 19. The door handle to the room door was concerningly loose. It was escalated to the front desk but still awaiting repair after two nights stay. The underfloor heating in the bathroom was too hot. It could do with controls that we could adjust.

Excellent customer service. Lola was especially professional, helpful with my request for additional provisions for our room, without hesitation and a pleasant manner. She is a credit to your team.

Our room was a good size and at the front of the hotel, overlooking the green. I was a little concerned about traffic noise as we were facing the road, the windows looked quite old with just some secondary glazing fitted, but it wasn’t an issue and we slept well. Facilities included a TV, safe, coffee making facilities, etc., as well as complimentary water, biscuits and crisps. The shower was a bit on the feeble side and the temperature fluctuated somewhat, but other than that it was all very nice. Our deal included a meal on the first night. The small print is that it’s limited to £30 per person, and only includes food, not any drinks. Depending on what you choose you can certainly get a couple of courses for your £30, or very close to it, but if you want one of the more expensive options, or three courses, that will be extra. That said, I think if you did pay any extra you’d be sorely disappointed. Our Avocado Crispy Bacon and Egg Salad to start sounded good, but there was very little avocado or bacon, instead it was about 95% salad leaves. A main course of Prawn linguine with garlic, chilli, shallots, cherry tomato, parsley and white wine did better in terms of the prawns with a few plump and juicy ones in there, but it was bland in the extreme, no flavour at all. After heaping on a ton of salt and pepper with little improvement we asked for some parmesan. Obviously I expected it to be grated, but it seemed as though the chef cut a few small slices off with a knife and we got these in a bowl. I was so gobsmacked I didn’t even think to question it. By then we were a pound over our allowance, and based on what we had so far, decided to skip any desert. On the plus side though, the restaurant itself it quite smart, and the staff very friendly. The breakfast was a mix of help yourself buffet for the cold food, and ordering for hot. Choice in both areas was a little limited, with no cold meat or cheese and only plain yoghurt for example, and some of the hot options being rather restricted such as just scrambled eggs on toast but no smoked salmon, or just avocado on toast with no poached egg. The buffet was not kept restocked, with no orange juice on the first day, and just one solitary croissant left from the pastry selection. The full English was pretty good, but the scrambled eggs on toast were a little disappointing, with the eggs being quite crusty in places, almost more omelette like, and the toast was burnt on one side and soggy on the other as though they had been standing around for some time. Overall, this was a nice hotel, a good location and friendly staff. But the catering let it down, and I thought it seemed very expensive for what we got, with our room being over £300 per night. If it wasn’t for that it would have got four stars.