Waterfront Hotel — Restaurant in Dover

Myself & husband stayed at The Waterfront Hotel for my birthday over the weekend.|The location is amazing. The staff were all really nice and friendly and so helpful. I think we spoke to the owner once and he was sweet and helpful to us. So for the staff I would like to give five stars!|However, the room wasn’t the cleanest. It was clean but not if you are super fussy. We had long hair around the taps of the sink and in the bed which I just picked up and put in the bin, but I could see how that would put fussier people off. |Everything was fine apart from the shower situation. We were told that there had been a problem with the shower on our floor but that it was getting fixed. It never got fixed and was ice cold.|So we were told to use the shower on the floor above. This was an electric shower. It was either scorching or freezing and had barely any power, so to wash suds off and shampoo out was an issue. Also it was too small a room to get dry properly and change in to your clothes as there is literally barely elbow room and no hooks or places to hang anything. And the shower didn’t drain properly which made it dangerous and slippery if someone goes in after you.|We thought we’d try the shower on the floor above that and it was freezing.|The breakfast sort of redeemed the awful shower situation, as it was nice, a nice vibe in the breakfast rooms and the staff are lovely.|After we discovered how bad the showering was, out of interest I looked on Booking.com at the place a few mins away with its own en-suite bathroom and it was only £10 more in price. My fault for not doing the research!|I just saw the pictures and read the reviews and thought how lovely it looked.|The decor is a bit dated but it adds to the charm. But the decor in the bathrooms is terrible. The one on the floor we stayed on had a curtain with a kitchen sink, old decorating materials and forgotten about stuff shoved behind it.|The staff did clean the place as I witnessed that myself.|However, and I really hate having to put this, but after one night I was a bit itchy on my legs. I put it down to the heat as it had been hot that day (even though this has never happened to me before). The itching got worse and on the way home when returning to London, I stopped at the chemist and the pharmacist has said I have ringworm!|It can only be from this hotel. Which makes me sad to say as I hate leaving reviews about people that have been lovely and accommodating.|I don’t know if not being able to shower properly contributed or if it was the bedding or towels, but I certainly have ringworm confirmed by a pharmacist on the way home from there. |So, please be aware of this and the showering before you book...

It was a quiet Monday night and there were 4 of us, there must have been only a couple of other tables in at the time we were there but service was still a bit slow, our waitress was in training which I completely understand that everyone needs to be trained but it was happening so actively in front of us it was a bit awkward, of the 4 choices of red wine she didn't know which was which and when we'd selected one, she came back to us with a bottle of a different one asking if we'd like that instead, when we just wanted what we'd asked for. Also happened when we wanted to pay by card, she didn't know how to but rather than someone else coming over, someone came over and talked the trainee through it step by step, which I think maybe should be done away from customers. The food was nice, quite a odd mix on the menu with no real theme though (2 of us had ribs, while the others had a nice chicken dish and a prawn and salmon salad), eclectic is probably the best to describe it. Very broad range of desserts which is nice to see as many places only offer 4 or 5 at most. The music was also a bit peculiar, it was a nice restaurant setting but the playlist was songs frol grease and dirty dancing which was a bit out of tempo with the rest of the restaurant. Also from what I could find, which I may be wrong about, the toilet is the shared bathroom that's used for the hotel rooms complete with shower and bath, whether there were other toilets if someone was in there bathing I don't know but seemed a bit odd. Overall, food was good but maybe we just caught them on a quiet night and the ambience would be better on a weekend evening which I may try...

AVOID IF YOU HAVE SPECIAL DIETARY REQUIREMENTS Despite me emailing twice to check that I would be able to have a dairy free, gluten free roast dinner, and receiving two confirmation emails from Geoffrey and Mark saying they had checked with the kitchen and it would be fine, when we arrived it transpired that actually there wasn't anything that I could have that was both dairy and gluten free. The lady who served us was lovely and apologetic and tried to find something I could have. It was so embarrassing I just wanted the ground to swallow me up. I ended up having to have a mushroom omelette (which wasn't great) when everyone else had a roast dinner. My husband, who had a vegan nut roast, had a yorkshire pudding that looked exactly like the ones that the meat eaters had, so I assume that wasn't vegan as requested either. Luckily, he doesn't have a dairy or gluten intolerance like me. After our dinner, the lady who served us asked if we would like a gluten free, vegan sticky toffee pudding, so we said yes please. In actual fact they were not sticky toffee puddings at all, they were chocolate sponges with chocolate sauce. If people ask if there are options for their dietary requirements it is so important to be honest. We could have gone elsewhere where the whole party could have enjoyed a roast. Also, saying that any desserts can be veganised is not true- if only it were that easy. I emailed Geoffrey and Mark to complain about this and they didn't even have the common courtesy to reply to my email...