The Colesbourne Inn — Restaurant in Cotswold District

We stayed at the Colesbourne Inn (Mon to Fri) during the first week of June 2017. The inn is situated on the A435 which has regular traffic, but is quiet at night. It’s centrally based within the Cotswolds area of natural beauty so is ideal for exploring the whole area and its surrounds.

The four night stay (cooked breakfast included in the price) was excellent value for the area and we were impressed with the whole guest experience from start to finish.

Check-in was straightforward and the rooms are separate from the main bar and restaurant. The room decor was of a very good standard and the bed was comfortable - we slept well. Our double-bed was the “two singles zipped together” style which gives a bit more room than normal. Tea and coffee making facilities are well equipped with four whole-milk pots and four skimmed-milk, two packs of great quality biscuits, sachets of standard and decaf instant coffee, a pack of ground coffee with a cafetiere, standard tea and fruit/herbal tea and plenty of sugar etc. You can also get a jug of fresh milk and other supplies when needed from the bar. There is a flat screen TV opposite the bed and plug sockets either side of the bed so you can easily charge your phone. The bathroom has a bath with shower at one end with a range of the normal shampoo/conditioner, shower gel etc. in small bottles. Towels provided are a hand towel and a massive bath sheet each. Also in the bathroom are two glasses (tumblers) and two bottles of water. There is a heated towel rail and the excellent touch of a heated mirror which means you can still use the mirror immediately after showering. Extra points awarded for that!

Nothing’s perfect, and on the negative side there was some visible dust above the bed (on the wall) which showed up when the lights were on and the carpet needed a better hoovering (perhaps the vacuum cleaner needs renewing?). The room above Room 3 has creaky floorboards which means we were woken up earlier then we’d have liked when the occupant above us walked around - a lot! This was only on a couple of mornings and screwing down the floorboards should fix this.

Back to the positive: Breakfast was included and there was a very good selection of yogurts, fresh fruit, cereals and juices to choose from in addition to the cooked selection which ranged from porridge to full-english. You can request how you’d like your eggs (fried, scrambled or poached). Plenty of tea or coffee with toast and spreads are provided too.

We ate at the restaurant on three evenings and each time the food was excellent and a reasonable price for the area. There were various specials throughout the week such as Monday grill night, Wednesday fish and chips (two for the price of one) and a specials menu (two or three course) if you order before 7pm. My wife is a vegetarian and had no issues with ordering food - though it could become repetitive if staying longer than a week. Portion sizes were good - certainly not tiny and not over-sized either. The cod with the fish and chips though was enormous (much to my delight)!

The front-of-house staff were very helpful, friendly and efficient. We had no problems and nothing was too much trouble for them. We’d recommend the Colesbourne Inn to anyone looking to explore the Cotswolds and their...

Firstly let me say that this is located in a wonderful location, with lovely cotswolds stone buildings and wooden beams. The beds are comfy and the room was clean. This is where my positives end.

I’m going to start with the room… The room i stayed in needed a good lick of paint, the silicone was peeling, there were cracks in the walls and the tiles were discoloured. They don’t look like they have decorated in 20 years.

Now the restaurant, i know there is staffing issues but omg I have never felt more unwelcome in an empty pub in my life. It was like we were an inconvenience. We were told we had to vacate our table at 10… absolutely fine…however at 9, they then came over and said they actually needed us to leave at 9:30pm… that was fine too, we got out of our seats at 9:25 and stood around talking and saying goodbye. A waiter rudely at 9:31 said ‘you must leave now’ and forced us out of the area we were sat. The waiter also sarcastically humiliated one of our party and the food was average, but I would say expensive- we paid £80 for the two of us with only 2 alcoholic drinks (I wouldn’t mind paying this if the service and food was actually good).

Lastly, and this is where is really gets concerning. We were out for a wedding, hence the reason for our trip. When we arrived back (12:30am) we realised that we had forgotten our key. We spent 30 mins trying not to inconvenience the owner ( as we felt unready unwelcome) however we had no way to get our key back ( no taxis ect). So we had to call the owner. I have never had such a rude conversation with someone trying to run a hospitality business. The lady said ‘right, I guess you’ve forgot your key, I will come and let you in but you are not having breakfast tomorrow’. When entering our room, she also said the other members of our party were not allowed breakfast and to let everyone know. So basically, our mistake meant that 6 rooms were not allowed to have what they paid for because of a simple mistake which any other hotel or B and B would have just sorted. We understood that this would be annoying however it was an accident and by running a B and B you are expected that this things may happen. In the words of the women who let us into our room ‘this is why we don’t allow wedding parties. They act like t**ts.’ Can I just stress how apologetic we were throughout it all and yet were still met which this attitude.

I believe one room was able to get breakfast in the morning as they were unaware this event had taken place. However the other 5 rooms were to frightened to ask for the breakfast they have paid for.

This is the worst customer service I have ever had. And hopefully will ever recieve.

Do not waste...

Sadly very disappointed. It is set in such an idyllic location and feels really inviting because of its surroundings, however some really big disappointments.||Food - The menu seemed priced reasonably, but gave the impression of fresh or perhaps locally sourced produce. This certainly is not the case. We had a Charcutier to start and it didn't match what the menu said. It was 6 slices of meats, 2 slices of cheese, a ramakin of hummus, a ramakin of oil and some bread slices. Then a poorly presented salad of leaves, tomato, onion and cucumber. The menu said something regarding balsamic onions which were not there and it was pretty steep at £18.95 to share. This sadly was not value for money, nor was it in anyway a delight for the tastebuds or visually attractive.||Main Course - We both had the 'Portuguese Slow Roasted Pork'. It sounded fantastic on the menu, and i thought wow, this could be exciting. We didn't eat it. Very low quality pork, and the sauce and glaze were tasteless. The chips were 'garlic and paprika' but had a quick shake of paprika. I could tell our mains had been sat under a hot lamp for quite sometime given that the top of the dish was exceptionally hot but the core of the meat was not. The sauce had started to dry to the side of the plates as the food reached the table. We decided not to eat it and when the waiter saw we had visibly not eaten it, there wasn't an attempt to rectify. We didn't want to complain, but stated 'it really wasn't for us'|We had 2 bottles of wine, one with dinner and one we took back to the room and our bill was over £140. The wine itself was lovely, but for the money, the food was of a really low standard. We overheard that the bingo night was cancelled but it wasn't communicated to us, which was a shame as i felt that could of been good entertainment.||Accommodation - so scenic and genuinely had this really nice Cotswold charm about it. It was clean, but it was sweltering due to lack of opening windows or ventilation. The mattress is way beyond its shelf life, given that both me and my partner woke multiple times due to back pain. ||Overall, service was friendly if not overly attentive. I can see a huge amount of potential, but as for the food it really disappointed. Would avoid going again unless a full menu...