Sambuca Windmill — Hotel in Great Britain

I rate Sambucca highly from my previous visits to the Windmill restaurant and the one in Church St Hartlepool. My experience from last night changed all that unfortunately. A table was booked for 7 adults & a baby to celebrate my birthday and remember my father in-law who died the year before on my birthday. On arrival we were taken to a the table by a pleasant young lady. On checking the table size after being sat for a few minutes, I noticed the table was for only 6 adults, our party size was for 7 & a baby. We were moved to another table to accommodate our party size, my wife said it's like musical chairs. I like Guinness, unfortunately they did not have this on tap only small sized bottles, I didn’t like this option so settled for a different beer as I'm not a great larger drinker. Sat waiting for another couple in our party to arrive we heard and watched a male in the kitchen doing maintenance work, drilling and doing what you do. The noise was pretty loud and at no time did a member of mgmt or staff approach our table or other tables to apologise for the noise. We ordered our meals, I had the belly pork & black pudding starter, a favourite of mine and noticed the belly pork being quite hard, to the point I couldn’t cut it. My wife ordered Mussels as a main, my mother in-law ordered rib eye, my son and myself ordered the mixed grill with the remaining party with different choices. My wife started to eat her Mussels and was struggling with the empty shells, my son emptied his chips on his plate so she could put the shells in the dish. After around 2/3 minutes a staff member walked passed, noticed the shells in the dish, then returned to the kitchen to bring back a larger dish. This should have been brought over with the meal not for my son to prompt the staff. I along with my son started to eat our grill, to find the bacon hard and full of grease, the black pudding also hard, the mushrooms were soft to the point I couldn't push the knife through as it was like a sponge and releasing grease. The sausage had no colour and were a cheap option as there was no meat inside, mainly rusk (I’m an ex butcher who made sausages) the steak was meant to be rare, this was firm and grisly. The belly pork was hard to the point I couldn't cut through this and the skin was as hard as pork scratching. My plate was covered in grease and would suggest that this meat had been stood on a hot plate for some time along with the egg as the yolk was hard. I ate 1 mushroom, 1 sausage, a small amount of steak, a small portion of lamb chop, a small amount of belly pork, my sons black pudding as he said this was hard and dry (which this was) and didn't touch the chicken but I ate most of the chips as these were freshest. Both my son and myself left about 75% of the grill as it was that poor. My mother in-law ate less than half of her steak (rib eye) as she said it was to hard and took the remainder home for her dog. I was asked if everything is alright were I informed the male, no it wasn’t , the meal was horrible. The head honcho came over, asked what the problem was, were I informed him the whole plate is covered in grease, the food wasn't good and that it had been left on a hot plate for some time and wasn’t fresh. He informed the food was cooked fresh and agreed the belly pork had been cooked in the morning is it takes longer to cook, wow. I was offered a steak in place of the meal for both my son and myself were I declined this offer as it was too late. We did receive a couple of garlic breads due to not having a drink of choice, we received a refund for the grills but the damage was done. Sambucca, you need to pay closer attention to how you operate, from apologising for the noise from maintenance, to making sure enough crockery is on the table to accommodate meals to ensure your food is cooked fresh instead of being on a hot plate for sometime. As a number of the party were disappointed with their meal, they have said they will...

We took two rooms for a short stay at this hotel, which is part of and adjoined to a large pub. The rooms were fine for size, relatively clean and with nice enough furnishings, tea/coffee facilities, and a small TV. Here ends what good I have to say.||||The bathrooms were internal with no windows or working extractors, so they smelled damp and mouldy (and also were visible mouldy). In one of them, the toilet roll dispensor was jammed, and no one was able to fix it because no one had the key to open it. We were provided with a loose, half-used roll to balance on top. I also noticed that several things were in a state of poor repair, for instance the actual handles/locks on the doors seemed ready to tear off.||||Rooms are not serviced in any way if you stay for multiple nights. And despite being part of a pub that serves food, there is no breakfast service. It would have been helpful if we had been told about this in advance, because you are in the middle of nowhere, so breakfast is not easy to come by.||||The service was extremely poor. The pub staff are utterly clueless about anything to do with the hotel. The only member of staff that can help whatsoever in regards to the hotel is a single individual. If he is not at his desk, you're stuck. (However, when he was around, he was friendly and helped if he could.)||||Heaven preserve you if you attempt to call the hotel with any questions in advance of arriving. You can only get through to the pub staff, who, as mentioned, have no clue. You cannot book or amend your booking by calling. Their system is entirely automated and online; no one can help you. I did eventually manage to get some minor information from someone on the pub staff, but they were clearly extremely busy and rushed me off the phone.||||The hotel is situated halfway up a stretch of the A1. This means it is only accessible if you are coming from the north. There is no overpass if you're travelling from the other direction. You have to go all the way up to the next roundabout, then all the way back down. This will definitely inconvenience you.||||We requested rooms that were as far away from the motorway as possible. To the hotel's credit, they accommodated this request, and we found that the sound of traffic was much quieter and did not disturb sleep.||||Car parking was provided. I found puddles of vomit on the paths leading through the carpark, these were not cleaned away during our stay.||||Overall, it was the cheapest semi-inhabitable place within a few miles of Hartlepool, so if that's where you need to be, your options are limited. For a better experience, pay the premium to go stay at...

We took two rooms for a short stay at this hotel, which is part of and adjoined to a large pub. The rooms were fine for size, relatively clean and with nice enough furnishings, tea/coffee facilities, and a small TV. Here ends what good I have to say.||||The bathrooms were internal with no windows or working extractors, so they smelled damp and mouldy (and also were visible mouldy). In one of them, the toilet roll dispensor was jammed, and no one was able to fix it because no one had the key to open it. We were provided with a loose, half-used roll to balance on top. I also noticed that several things were in a state of poor repair, for instance the actual handles/locks on the doors seemed ready to tear off.||||Rooms are not serviced in any way if you stay for multiple nights. And despite being part of a pub that serves food, there is no breakfast service. It would have been helpful if we had been told about this in advance, because you are in the middle of nowhere, so breakfast is not easy to come by.||||The service was extremely poor. The pub staff are utterly clueless about anything to do with the hotel. The only member of staff that can help whatsoever in regards to the hotel is a single individual. If he is not at his desk, you're stuck. (However, when he was around, he was friendly and helped if he could.)||||Heaven preserve you if you attempt to call the hotel with any questions in advance of arriving. You can only get through to the pub staff, who, as mentioned, have no clue. You cannot book or amend your booking by calling. Their system is entirely automated and online; no one can help you. I did eventually manage to get some minor information from someone on the pub staff, but they were clearly extremely busy and rushed me off the phone.||||The hotel is situated halfway up a stretch of the A1. This means it is only accessible if you are coming from the north. There is no overpass if you're travelling from the other direction. You have to go all the way up to the next roundabout, then all the way back down. This will definitely inconvenience you.||||We requested rooms that were as far away from the motorway as possible. To the hotel's credit, they accommodated this request, and we found that the sound of traffic was much quieter and did not disturb sleep.||||Car parking was provided. I found puddles of vomit on the paths leading through the carpark, these were not cleaned away during our stay.||||Overall, it was the cheapest semi-inhabitable place within a few miles of Hartlepool, so if that's where you need to be, your options are limited. For a better experience, pay the premium to go stay at...