Hunters Hall Inn Kingscote — Restaurant in Cotswold District

I have just returned from my daughter's wedding weekend which was a wonderful and moving occasion for family and friends. We thought we would end the celebrations with a wedding breakfast for a few close family members at the above location. This was booked and confirmed weeks in advance. Unfortunately we had disappointing and upsetting experience well below the standards I would expect for Old English Inns.

We arrived at 09.30 as agreed, a small party of 27, we seated ourselves as there were no staff available. The self service selection of cereals was poorly displayed with no fruit juices available for several guests. Once seated we waited and waited, on my table of four including my two year old grandson, it took 45 minutes for toast to arrive. Coffee and tea didn't arrive so we had to share with another tables. The full english breakfast took another 45 minutes along with the boiled egg for my grandson. The boiled egg was served on a flat plate with no egg cup as they have none. Several guests had no cooked breakfast although others on their table were served. At one point we were told that the delay was due to the kitchen running out of food because the number in our party.

With regards to health and safety, your waitress placed hot plates, coffee and tea pots directly in front of children.

There appeared to be only two members of staff on duty, a young waitress with hearing difficulties and the manager who appeared to be dressed as the gardener. The restaurant was not busy with maybe eight other guests who also appeared to have been waiting for some time. The manager warned one child not to get in his way when she was only returning from the toilet!

I asked to speak to the manager to discuss our dining experience and was given lengthy excuses regarding the problems of serving such a large party of 27 with a full english breakfast. I did point out that we were sitting in a eating establishment with "food of the highest quality" as per your literature. Drive to the A46 and eat at the roadside caravan, the food and service will be better!

Wrote to head office CEO who refunded full payment due to the unacceptable service. Don't make the same mistake, book somewhere else. Bad service, poor management...

2nd Update 8 months on and I still think I'm checked in.... disappointing to see that the hotel responds to positive posts but not those where customer's experiences haven't been so positive. It's such a shame as the accommodation was lovely, just the very poor communication and safety issues that let it all down.

Update I emailed the hotel and the chain after our stay and have received no response which is very disappointing. This just reflects how the business feels about its customers and their safety. Such a shame.

We had a lovely room and 2 night stay until we tried to get breakfast and checkout on our last morning which highlighted a safety issue. We stayed in rm 9 a lovely family room which is well thought out (although could benefit from a coffee table in my opinion!). It was warm, comfortable, and clean. Our first morning we had breakfast at the pub at 7am before heading off to an appointment. The 2nd morning however, we ran through the rain to get into the pub at 7am for breakfast (as confirmed with us at check-in and shown on the website in numerous places) but the pub was in darkness and no one around. We waited 35 minutes in our room getting ready for another appointment, risking children in smart clothing needing to still eat breakfast, but still no one to be seen in the pub. We then realised we needed to check out but couldn't as there was no staff present. As it was 0740 by this point I tried calling the emergency contact number affixed to the door but this was a dead line according to the automated message I heard. I tried again but it was definitely a number not in use anymore. How anyone would be able to contact the hotel overnight in an emergency I have no idea but not safe at all. In the end, we posted the key through the door and left a voicemail asking for someone to call to confirm we had been checked out. 2 weeks on and no call so I assume I'm still checked in at the hotel 🤷🏻‍♀️

All of this said, we would stay here again, but I would need to be assured the emergency...

We visited the restaurant on Saturday night as a table of 4. It took more than 5 minutes for someone to appear to show us where our table was so not off to a great start. Served fairly quickly once seated, food and drink came fast and was nice. However, after this we had no offers of more drinks and felt very much forgotten until at 10pm when the staff started to glare at us for having the audacity to still be at our table enjoying a catch up. Que a rather aggressive "are you alright ladies" at 10.15pm where we would have still considered a drink but were beginning to feel unwelcome, followed up by a "please pay your bill so we can cash up". The closing hours stated 11pm. We should not have been felt to over stay our welcome before 10.30pm. We had not recieved our bill, and when we did, rather than explained that the card reader wasn't mobile and we needed to go up to pay there was another 20 minutes of glaring while we waited at our table to pay- cards out ready- until finally at 10.40, still 20 minutes before the closing time, we were asked to go up to the bar to pay on our way out but clearly with no choice but to leave right that second. We knew the till right by our table worked- we had seen another couple pay there. I can only assume the rest of the clients were people staying in the hotel or they were told/had to ask how to pay. Poor service after the food had been delivered which is a shame as it has put us off returning and we will find a more welcoming establishment to spend our money in in the future. I wouldn't recommend going here unless you were literally going to eat and leave immediately- and even then you need to be a mind reader to know where your booked table is and how they like you to pay. 2 stars as the...