The Old Court House — Restaurant in St. Brelade

Leaving Jersey Airport, the first town through which local bus #15 passes every quarter hour is St. Aubin, right on the bay. A 4-minute walk from the bus stand takes you to the epitome of Jersey hospitality tradition, the Old Court House Inn. It faces directly onto a little marina and the bay, of which our room had spectacular views.||For a structure whose guts date back half a millennium, the Inn provides every modern necessity: a spacious bedroom, excellent Wi-Fi connections, a shower to accommodate two, multiple electrical outlets, good lighting, a very comfortable bed, and efficient housekeeping. There were little things, too — like the four home-baked shortbread cookies that greeted us on arrival. ||The staff is highly solicitous of its guests, and we imagine the Inn is very solicitous of its staff. They seemed happy to attend to guests’ requests. We were also very satisfied with our dinner there on our first night — it was very well prepared and presented, and VERY satisfying to the palate. Our room rate included breakfast, but it was not simply an austere coffee-and-croissant Continental breakfast (though we could have had that if we wanted), but anything that piqued our interest on the extensive à la carte breakfast menu.||For each night we paid $295. Not cheap, but it IS high season, after all. ||And finally, a postscript (literally) that is la pièce de résistance: We remain attached to the dying art of sending traveler's postcard greetings, of which we churned out a few dozen while in Jersey. We were short of postage stamps for the last few cards, and had to leave for the airport before the nearby postal shop would open. The front desk staff -- Lucy and Prisca -- offered to post these last few cards for us (of course we'd leave the money for the postage). To our amazement, after our return home, we received a postcard that they themselves had written to us, thanking us...

Terrible experience. We booked seven nights in the Superior Sea View room, unfortunately due to heavy rain there was water penetration into our room on the first night. As this could not be resolved we had to repack and vacate the room that morning and at 3pm, after it was prepared, moved to a smaller double at the back of the hotel. We were told this was for one night. The following morning we had to repack again and after 3pm we were allocated another small double at the back of the hotel. This again was for one night. The following day we had to repack and were relocated to a top hotel about 6 miles away on the other side of StHelier with a room available from 3pm. Situated on a busy commercial road it was quite isolated from holiday amenities with an hourly bus service into StHelier and was not where we would have booked a holiday in any circumstances. Apart from the disruption, effectively, we were also without a room from 10am to 3pm for three days of our seven day holiday. Compensation received, two meals and a few drinks for my wife and I at the Old Court House waived and a meal at the second hotel paid for, plus, later, a £200 Liberation Company 12 month voucher. Because of the location of the second hotel we were also promised reasonable taxi fares into StHelier. Liberation also, quite properly refunded the difference between the rate for the room we had booked and the lower rates for the rooms we were moved to. Although we got receipts for taxi fares necessarily incurred these were never refunded as we had been promised. Neither did I get a reply when querying non-payment.|My wife and I are in our late 70s and the level of disruption to our holiday, that cost about £3,000, was dreadful, a...

We booked this venue six months in advance for a group dinner and were left extremely disappointed. Despite the long notice, the restaurant had run out of many dishes. The ordering process was frustrating: the waitress would take an order, return 10–15 minutes later to say it was unavailable, hand the menu back, and ask for another choice—only for the same thing to happen again. It was disorganised and disheartening.

Service throughout the evening was poor. The waitress was neither warm nor apologetic, and there was no sense of welcome or hospitality. Getting drinks became an ordeal. A bottle of wine was requested from three different staff members, only to be told the first choice was unavailable. The second option had just two bottles in stock, yet no alternatives were suggested, and service was so slow we cancelled the order altogether. Even a pint of beer had to be asked for three times before it eventually arrived.

The one saving grace was that the food itself, when it did arrive, was of good quality. Unfortunately, the lack of organisation, slow service, and the unhappy demeanour of the staff completely overshadowed this. What should have been an upbeat, enjoyable team dinner turned into a frustrating and disappointing evening.

I would not recommend this venue for groups. If you do go, be prepared to choose several backup dishes, as your first choice is unlikely to be available. Make sure you have water at the table, as you may be waiting a long time for any other drinks. Most of all, don’t expect to feel welcome—you’ll more likely leave feeling undervalued...