Spring Hill Inn — Hotel in Mansfield

It gives me no pleasure to write a negative review of a local business because we long for Spring Hill to be successful. However, our experience was one of the worst brunches ever. We offer our feedback in hopes of helping Spring Hill improve.

To schedule a reservation, I wrote an email and called. The voice mailbox was full and not accepting messages. No one answered any of my correspondences.

We went for Sunday Brunch with a jazz trio that was exceptionally talented and wonderful. Regrettably, literally nothing else about “brunch” was satisfactory at all — a tragic missed opportunity.

The service was immature and ineffective. The waitress brought water, but did not inquire about coffee — AT.A.BRUNCH. After a 5 minute wait, we received three cups of tepid, poor quality, weak coffee. Meanwhile, the cream was delivered in a small open ramekin bowl that had no spout and was definitely not meant for pouring liquids into a cup. As a result, milk dripped all over our cup and onto the table cloth. Additionally, the rolled flatware on the table included no spoons for coffee — AT.A.BRUNCH.

She did not return to take our order until we asked. The menu was promising with standard brunch fare like eggs benedict and pancakes. We ordered eggs benedict with a salmon cake, a Monte Cristo sandwich, and a Traditional Breakfast with scrambled eggs and home fries. All three were a disaster from start to finish.

The scrambled eggs were over cooked in a pan too hot for eggs, and dry, as if prepared ahead, rather than made to order, soft and hot. The home fries were cold and mushy — clearly all cooked at the same time earlier in the morning and without reheating them on a griddle to warm them up and get them crispy prior to serving. Finally, the “biscuit” — if one can even call it that — was a small, 1/4 inch flat and stale rock. I’m from the south and know my biscuits, unlike the person who had no idea how to prepare biscuit dough gently so that they rise to be tall, buttery, and above all — flakey. Any culinary professional examining this biscuit would see that it was overworked, failed to rise, and should never have been served.

The eggs benedict only had one redeeming feature — the poached egg was well prepared. The rest of the dish was so awful it was left uneaten. The Hollandaise sauce was extremely thick, cold, and tasteless. The salmon cake was far too thick and bready — like stuffing meant for a turkey — and barely tasted of salmon at all. It makes no sense at all to serve such a thick bread cake on top of an English muffin other than to cheapen the dish using breadcrumbs rather than fish.

Finally, there was literally nothing about the Monte Cristo sandwich to resemble the classic. Instead of two good, thick slices of bread dipped into egg so the sandwich comes between two pieces of French toast, the kitchen prepared this classic dish on a far too thick, day old hoagie bun. The top of the bun was toasted without an egg dip, and only the bottom half of the bread was dipped in egg before being cooked. Because this type of bread cannot absorb any egg, it failed to deliver the wonderful French toast qualities expected of a Monte Cristo. While the menu said that the sandwich would be made with ham and Swiss cheese, it had only one very thin slice of ham. Instead, wet, sliced deli turkey was substituted as the meat, rendering the inside of the sandwich wet, gummy, and without the taste of ham.

The waitress never returned to our table to inquire about our food or to offer even a 2nd cup of bad coffee — not once — AT.A.BRUNCH! When we complained about our disastrous dining experience, a woman came to our table and comp’ed our meal and listened attentively.

In summary it seemed that Spring Hill is pinching pennies — using old bread, substituting turkey for good ham, and overdoing the breading rather than salmon.

Please do better — better service and better food — or customers like us will...

So happy I chose Spring Hill Inn. I had a work event at the UConn sports facilities that went late into the evening and started back up early in the morning so I needed a place to stay close by for 1 night. The Inn was 5 minutes from campus and for an added 2 minutes you could drive through “downtown Storrs” for anything you may need (shopping, restaurants, pharmacy, coffee, etc). |I texted Lee to arrange check in and he was extremely accommodating. He met me at my requested time and showed me where everything was and how everything worked. My room was spacious enough (queen bed and single) with a desk and private bathroom. Everything was clean and comfortable. The fresh flowers, complimentary water and mints were a welcoming touch. There were toiletries and a blow dryer in the bathroom as well as ironing board and a room fan (AC temp was fine).|There was a coffee station open 24/7 with coffee, tea, fruit, yogurt and oatmeal. In the morning a basket of fresh fruit nuts and muffins/cinnamon bread were left for each room. I thought this was an adorably thoughtful touch. The owners were extremely kind and paid attention to detail even remembering my name and checking that I found everything I needed during my stay. |I felt safe and comfortable here. The location was perfect for me as I wanted to have as much time to sleep and as little time to travel to UConn as possible. All of the chain hotels I checked in the area were either too far or had bad reviews. The Inn offered a quiet comfortable night’s sleep and allowed me to get to and from UConn in 5 minutes. Would certainly stay again if needing a...

My husband’s family grew up here and they remembered this Inn as children. Of course, we decided to stay here for a memorial service of a dear friend of theirs. This is a charming bed and breakfast. Clean, the linens, pillows and bed are comfortable. You have to wait a little bit for the hot water before you hop in the shower—otherwise, you would think there’s no hot water! (that’s what our other companion thought and ended up using our room’s shower). The room was cold when we arrived, but my husband found the thermostat and adjusted the heat. This is an old inn, so the floorboards are sometimes squeaking when you walk. It is not good for elderly people who have problems with stairs because the rooms are on the second floor. The hand soap though was so watery it needed a new bottle. Some reviewers had written about the wonderful breakfast served here. Perhaps that was years ago, because our breakfast was downstairs in the “lounge”. Store bought muffins, K-coffee, bananas/apples, store bought granola. It would have been nicer if it was put on some nice containers (at least for the granola). There is a restaurant (seems like it is not part of the B&B—but they have menus in the room). Went there for a cocktail and was told we had to move to the lounge area because they...