Simonstone Hall Hotel & Restaurant — Hotel in Great Britain

The weather being as it was that weekend (cold with lots of snow on the ground) meant there was little traffic on the roads. So, after a very nice lunch at The Posthorn in Leyburn we made our way to The Simonstone Hall Hotel. The hotel is very easy to find as apart from a farm and a small row of cottages there is little else in Simonstone. The car park was a bit snowbound, far more than the roads in The Yorkshire Dales, credit to the local authority and the farmers for sterling work. Upon checking in we were shown to our room via a walk over a glass covered well. The room was "U" shaped with the bathroom a pace or two down from the entry door. The main body of room contained a large chest of drawers with a flat screen TV on top and a king sized double bed. There was also hot beverage making facilities and a huge wardrobe. First impressions were very good, the cleanliness was excellent and everything well laid out. A quick lay down on the bed for testing purposes exposed the mattress to be on the "firm" side and also the bed was very high, so much so that my wife struggled to "climb aboard". Whilst laying on the bed I started to register small details about the room, such as, water stains, gaps between the window frames and the stonework which meant you could see daylight, the hole in the wall and water damaged and peeling wallpaper. Also noticeable was the failed double glazing panel in the main window. The temperature outside was 0 ish and despite turning the large radiator by the main window onto full it was only just holding its own, not helped by the fact that the smaller radiator wasn't working at all. On examining the bathroom we found that it was also very clean if a little tired around the edges much like the bedroom. However, the bathroom had a couple of it's own oddities, the extractor fan when turned on sounded like an old petrol mower and the WC had a door handle type flush that, to get it to work, had to be attacked with vigour, strangely, the handle was on the left hand side when there was plenty of space for it to be on the right. We had a table booked for dinner and the hotel very kindly provided a glass each of Champagne as it was our Silver Wedding Anniversary (this visit, my wife's present to me). Whilst we were in the bar we ordered our dinner, the starters we chose were, the duck and the salmon.For mains we both chose the rump steak ,my wife very well done and myself medium to well. For dessert we both chose the dark chocolate and to drink I had the local ale, my wife just water. Despite the weather the restaurant was reasonably busy and we were soon served with our starters. The salmon was very nicely cooked but for me the beetroot wasn't zingy enough to provide a counterpoint to the saltiness of the caviar and salmon. My wife enjoyed her duck with foix gras but I had to help her out with ginger items which she said tasted burnt but I regarded as best thing on the plate. The steaks arrived but I have to say, there was no discernable difference in their cooking unfortunately they were both very well done, they came with handmade chips, vine tomatoes and a mushroom. The dessert I'm sorry to say was the biggest disappointment of all. What you can say is, there was a lot of it. Different kinds of chocolate creams with a a macaron that was supposed to taste of Palma Violets, it didn't and nor did the chocolate taste of anything but sweet, neither of us finished the dessert, not because we were full but because it was just so underwhelming. We then retired to our moderately warm room to launch an assault on the North face of the bed. Breakfast was excellent, fresh fruit, homemade toasted bread, quality ingredients in the well cooked fried breakfast and good coffee, an excellent end to a rather...

I recently visited as a guest at a wedding, didn't stay over but was part of the entire day and stayed at a local cottage.

I just wanted to say wow. The premises are beautiful, the land around the area outside breathtaking, but the one thing that stood out for me was the staff. Every staff member I had crossed paths with were simply lovely. So accomadating & polite, friendly and lovely sense of humours. At no point did I feel I was in the way or that I was a niusance, even when I asked for a doggy bag for my burger at the end of the evening!

Really enjoyed the wedding, everything about it was perfect and this place made it possible. Thank you.

One thing I will say if you are just a guest and not staying here and need a taxi service, you WILL struggle. Me and my party phoned the ONLY taxi cab service covering this area for weeks before attending and couldn't ever get hold of the guy that owns it. We actually prepare the car with walking gear just incase we had to walk back to the cottage thats how insane it was. The day of the wedding we asked the staff here about taxis and they did grimace and passed a business card, it was for the same guy we had been trying. I rang and they didn't answer. I text, no answer. I decided to go on to the local facebook community page and searched taxi, and as I expected, this guys number came up again which had the entire party laughing. I then saw a tag of the taxi guy on facebook, so I decided to take one last ditch attempt and facebook messaged him, he replied!! Whippe! He did seem very short on messages, and kind of irritated that we had contacted him by facebook, and even said we should have booked in advance... to which I did state we had tried for weeks... With me begging him and saying we would give a tip (we had no other plan B other than hiking clothes!!) he accepted. He could only come the latest at 11pm though, so if you're wanting to stay with the wedding party until the early hours, I suggest you find another way as he said he doesn't work past midnight! I just thought it worth putting this here as we were miffed that no one else seemed to have this issue, but when we got to the venue, all the other guests there said exactly the same that it was impossible getting a taxi!! So it just seems no one writes about it, but it's very apparent its a thing haha! Great business venture there for anyone wanting to make a killing!

Other than the taxi nightmare, fun...

We have booked Sunday lunch on numerous occasions but after a short break we took 6 friend and after all traveled significant distances we were all extreamly disappointed We arrived to find a Christmas fair which was a pleasant diversion prior to being shown it a different dinning are due to the fair. The room was open a looked to be recently decorated. We looked at the menu a selected our food. The waitress was efficient and very good however 2 guest did not find anything to their liking. 2 of our party selected a scollop starter and the other 2 a chicken and mushroom roulade type of starter.we must say the starters came quickly and efficiently. It was down hill from there with the scallop starter being one small scollop only with a few small drops of dressing. How this could be called a starter we can only wonder served in a large black dish. The roulades where again small and greasy with the outside having a wrap of Savoy cabbage around it or so it appeared and again really disappointing. The waitress cleared the table prior to main being served when we asked why side plates had been set with butter knives but no breads arrived as we had always had previously but our waitress did not know The main course selected was roast beef, turkey, pork and stone bas. These mains where tasty with the stone bass being excellent although the dressing was missing. The veg arrived and again was on aired and with the serving plates not being warm even after we had been warned that the plates were hot this was not so.

Sweets followed but with most of the party being disappointed then only a few ordered with coffee for 6 to follow.

After many visits to Simonstone Hall from when Sunday lunch was a car very through what really used to be an excellent Sunday lunch then Sunday the 1st of December failed to live up to past glory’s in this recent reincarnation.

We will regrettably not waste our time booking again unless we are told that things have improved which is really...