The Orangery at St Elphin's Park — Restaurant in Derbyshire Dales

Booked for Christmas Day lunch.We chose the 3pm sitting arriving at around 2.50 we had to stand outside the dining room until 3.15 as they were setting the tables from the 1.pm sitting....would have been less of an unpleasant experience had the cocktail bar been open and we were not standing around like spare parts with around 30 or so other people. When eventually we were shown to our table the table to was rickety and continually rocking all over the place ...not conducive to a nice dining g experience, particularly for Christmas dinner. However I must say looking at the decor in the dining room you would not have known it was Christmas other than a tree in the doorway there wasnt a single Christmas decoration a very sparse dining room with no atmosphere whatsoever, not even a little music or anything . As for the meal We both started with the amuse buses, an espresso cup of vegetable soup not even on a saucer just a cup plonked in front of you. The starter we chose was the lobster and smoked salmon cocktail , in itself ok but it was served in a dish with a slice of white bread stuck in the dish...would a basket of bread placed on the table have been to much to ask for rather than it chucked on the side of your dinner plate . On finishing our starter we waited over an hour to get our main course, by which time we had virtually finished a bottle of wine between the two of us.The big problem was the service, or lack of it, three youngsters trying to serve over 50 guest, unbelievably slow having been in their since 3.15 it was now almost six o'clock and they were just bringing the coffe cups out, by this time we had reached the end of our patience and decided to leave withou par taking in either the coffe or the mince pies, we paid the bill and left. A totally unpleasant and very disappointing experience and one we will not be...

I visited the Orangery for the Boxing Day buffet with my mum. At £29.50 per person, excluding drinks, we expected a reasonable standard of quality. However, the food was absolutely diabolical – I’ve had better meals at service stations. The so-called ‘buffet’ was extremely limited, and despite informing them in advance that one of us was vegetarian, we were led to believe suitable options would be provided. In reality, the only vegetarian offerings were stale, dry pakoras and what appeared to be cheap, frozen samosas.

Frankly, I wouldn’t have expected to pay more than £5–£10 per person for what was on offer – and even at that price, it would have been disappointing.

I expressed our dissatisfaction to several members of staff, all of whom seemed to acknowledge that my complaints were valid. However, the response was a dismissive, “Sorry, it’s just what it is; there’s nothing I can do.” Eventually, we were given 25% off the bill, but this was nowhere near adequate given the appalling experience.

Don’t be misled by the website – this is nothing more than a glorified community hall, completely devoid of atmosphere. There are several far better options just a couple of miles down the road in Matlock town centre.

Management should be...

Hi, On Sunday 28th July, we arrived at The Orangery for a carvery, my son had purchased a voucher for £100. We found the Orangery had no atmosphere, the food was mediocre. We had a starter and main course and couldn’t manage a dessert, my husband had pork and was disappointed to be told they had run out of apple sauce. On going to pay for the meal, we produced the voucher, our meal came to £59, we were then told we had to use all the voucher which was for £100, we were told that we couldn’t have another voucher for the balance, which was £41, and then we could only take wine to use up the money, which we didn’t really want. We were charged £32 for one bottle and £23 for the second one, which I had to pay another £14, we were charged full Restaurant price, even though there was no corkage, or service. We were both disgusted with this , we will not be using this restaurant again and will make sure our friends and family know how you treat people. We were both looking forward to a meal at your restaurant, having a meal bought for us by our son, but that was spoilt by yourselves.

Roland &...