The Old Police Station — Restaurant in Bassetlaw

We stayed at the attached hotel to attend an event in Retford. There is a review on their page as the two experiences were very different and justify, in our opinion the separation. Having checked in we were told the restaurant was not open that evening, but the bar was. This was disaappointing as we planned to eat there because it has good reviews and was convenient. We decided to get drinks there and research alternative dining options. As we approached the bar, the lady behind said she would be one minute. She approached two gentlemen at one of the tables and as she did so one of them just shook his head a her. She returned to us and informed us that she could not serve us anything alcoholic. When my wife asked why, she looked very sheepish and seemed to struggle for an answer, again glancing to the two men, before saying there were licensing issues. It all seemed a little cloak and dagger, and very awkward, not to mention a further inconvenience to us. In the morning we went downstairs to breakfast. We were greeted by the same lady from the night before and seated, and a short while later she came for our drinks order. She took this and said she would return for our food order. After serving another couple their food, she did just that. She informed us that the options were any combination of a full English breakfast componants, which we could work with, but there was no menu offering the kinds of options seen in previous reviews. My wife ordered scrambled eggs on brown toast, I ordered the full English with no tomato and a poached egg. She took this order to the kitchen, and to the best of my knowledge they were only cooking our order at that time. I could see no one else waiting for food. After about ten minutes the young chap in the kitchen placed two plates on the counter with some food on, I couldn't see what. A minute or two later he spooned scrambled egg onto one of the plates. After about another five minutes the lady asked if she could serve the plates, to be told one needed some bacon on it. After both plates had been sat for twenty minutes, he added the poached egg to mine and we were served! There was no apology for the wait. There were no condiments of any kind on the table. I asked for butter for my toast, which was duly delivered, but no offer of anything else ie brown or red sauce, salt or pepper. We had obviously both finished our drinks, and weren't offered any top up, in fact after delivering the butter, the lady dissappeared. Obviously all of the food, with the exception of the poached egg was cold, not even warm, cold. The beans with mine had a thick skin on the top. The toast on which my wifes scrambled eggs were spooned was actually burnt black in parts, and had no butter on it. It was without doubt the worst breakfast experience we have had anywhere. We both tried around two mouthfuls, the second only really to confirm how bad it was, before getting up to leave. As we did so, I looked for someone to complain to, but there was no-one to be seen. We collected our belongings from the room and I looked again for someone in the resturant with the same result. We went to reception to leave the room card, and one of the gentlemen from the bar the previous eveing was there. I expected him to ask if everything had been alright, but he just smiled and said 'enjoy your day' This experience in the bar and restaurant was an absolute farce. The young man doing the breakfast seemed to only be able to focus on preparing one ingedient at a time, barely! The lady seemed to be embarrassed about the whole situation, as would I have been but also a little apologetic at least. Not running and hiding having just given someone the worst breakfast ever. If I must pick some positive from this, the place is very nice and the ingredients of my breakfast looked to be of a good quality. I'm inclined to think we unfortunately caught them on a particularly difficult time, looking at previous reviews and I genuinely hope this is the case. None of which defends however, the appaling service we experienced...

We booked 2 rooms here for one night. Parking is very close by and free until 10am. A pleasant check in was followed by quite a bizarre room. First impressions of our room was big enough for our needs with a very nice sized bathroom. We then noticed another door in the corner of our room, there was no lock on the door so we were confident that it wasn’t a connecting door to another room, assuming it to be maybe a storage cupboard or similar we tried to open it. It opened about 4 inches and then hit an obstruction on the other side. My wife went into the hallway to see what doors were next to ours and found an unmarked, unlocked door down the corridor from us. The mystery door gave way to a small unmade bed, a pile of clothes and sandals and a chest of drawers, which was what was obstructing our connecting door. From the basic look of the room we assume it was the reception man’s bedroom. Pretty freaked out we went back to our room where my wife used the loo, only to have the cold tap fall apart when she went to wash her hands. Not wanting to create a fuss we used the table from the room and some other objects to prop under the joining room door handle. As we were leaving for dinner that evening we mentioned to reception about the mystery door, the man in reception didn’t know that we’d found where the door went and told us not to worry and that the other side was locked so no one would be able to access our items. We’d propped the handle so felt comfortable enough. We also mentioned the tap and were told very matter of factly that it was broken by the last guests. No offer to get it fixed or apology. We asked about food in the hotel, but that unfortunately is no longer an option apart from breakfast. A nice meal in town and then back to the hotel. Settled down for the night and all pretty peaceful apart from hearing the snores of the reception guy next door ( maybe the door could be soundproofed as well as a lock fitted). Little things that could be improved - 2 plastic cups, seriously, how much would 2 glasses cost ? Breakfast - run out of a few items and didn’t really have many items in the first place. A lovely dining area though that should be used more. Our other family member had a pleasant stay in their room, but did comment on the urine on the underside of the toilet seat that hadn’t been cleaned when she went in. Room good though apart from that so just an oversight ? She also had 2 glass glasses.

Overall an ok stay, we wouldn’t come back though if we found ourselves in the area again, which is a shame as we did get the impression that they’ve tried hard to make it as nice as...

Visited on recommendation, love how it’s been converted. Decided to have the Sunday roast of beef, unfortunately the meat was poor and very very rare. The knives supplied couldn’t cut it due to so much sinew and having finally ‘ripped’ a piece off, I chewed it for so long I couldn’t swallow it. Explained to the waitress and asked if we could change our choice, which she happily agreed. Not so the chef who’s food prep area is in the restaurant and he obviously took offence stating “there’s nothing wrong with it, nobody else is complaining”. This was said in our presence and totally unprofessional. There were only 4 tables seated and 3 of them including ours left the beef, one other table did complain about the meat but not until their table was cleared. Waitressing staff were excellent as was the ambiance, but that one meal choice was very disappointing and the ‘chef’ Should accept food being returned if it isn’t edible. Restaurants rely on good service...