Elephant at the Market — Restaurant in England

Arrived here around dinner time, welcomed quickly and showned to our room, First impression...weren't impressed, we had booked a deluxe double and could tell this was not the pictures that are located under deluxe double on booking.com but that of the cosy double! Upon asking the receptionist, she assured us we were definitely in a deluxe double. The room we was in 'flora' had a strong sewage like smell that just did not go away and came in waves, it got to the point I could not stand it any longer and went down to the reception to see if they had another room available, the gentleman I spoke with was super friendly and helpful, he couldn't personally smell the smell but did offer to move us upstairs. Arriving at said room 'pom' we where shocked to see almost a mirror image of the 'deluxe double' photos that we had originally booked (slightly different lay out so my guess is it's the room opposite 'pom')! The gentleman even joked about this room having a bigger bed! When I mentioned this room being essentially the one in the photos on booking.com, he disagreed. However, I have checked and confirmed to myself that I am right. (The pillows on the walls were missing, but the bed and appliances were all the same as the picture) The building definitely needs attention, cracks in the walls, and some parts have minor chips/mini holes. The wallpaper is striping away from the walls, which I can only imagine would be due to damp. We wouldn't personally stay here again but just be sure to check your rooms when arriving, if it wasn't for the smell in the first room we would never have thought any different as we took the word of the hotel and we would have paid 'deluxe double' prices for 'cosy double' standards. The next morning we had breakfast, which honestly in my opinion if I had a choice to eat breakfast there again I would personally not, the sausage and bacon was nice although the fat on the bacon was more burnt then crisp, the beans and fried egg was a little bland I feel like something definitely could have been added to them and the mushroom where so shrivelled up I could barely put them on my fork. Overall, I would say I did not have a restful pleasant stay,...

Stayed here this weekend, we had the Celeste Room, our friend luckily was in the Alexandra room over looking the dining area, unfortunately for us ours was right over front of the building, Friday was just about bearable but Saturday night was night from Hell noise even with windows shut tight was appalling, 4:30am and still outside revellers were shouting screeching and was crazy level of noise. I don’t think Kebab shop helps eventually shut round 5am last night as it is a magnet for drunks. Benches outside seem to be local meeting place from when other places close so from midnight through to think last place Walkabout was 3am close., it was wave after waver of groups people walking shouting some points aggressively through the Market Place waiting / going for Taxi or lifts etc is like grand city central for noise. No ear plugs in rooms even though said they were provided 🤷‍♀️and rooms unbearable hot no fans, bathroom like sauna, that heat in there was that bad the cold water was warm. Same in the other room. No way you could even think about having windows open, sound proofing really needs sorting asap staff well aware how bad it is!!! better secondary glazing and some form of air con even if it was portable ones would help. People in next room also looking out at the front said same thing. Such a shame as decor lovely, bed was great, pillows to die for , staff were great, paid to have full English once which was lovely but disappointed that you don’t just pay the difference from the complimentary Continental breakfast, which like other reviews isn’t really a continental as in other hotels. So Top tip steer well clear of the rooms at the front if you want to sleep, if you there at the weekends. Other negative no staff on site overnight any problems we were told on check in if an emergency you just have to ring 999……also Couldn’t see any other means of exit in an emergency apart from the out of hours front door which is bit concerning but must met fire regs I guess. So because of these issues I doubt we be back,...

I booked The Elelpant for my works Christmas party, after trying to choose one of the best (independent) places to eat out in Newbury. The food was nice the service was okay. It was not one "big" thing but several small things which slightly marred the evening - someone asked for non-alcoholic cocktail to be made using an alcohol alternative and we were told this was basically impossible. Despite the person asking if the non-alcoholic version could just be swapped for alcohol, and of course, they would pay for the 'shot' as it would have cost a bit more. But such a fuss was made they just ordered something else. I've worked in bars, most things are possible. The staff just couldn't be arsed. Several weeks prior I dropped in a pre-order form with the meals and on this there was a polite request asking for a substitution - roast potatoes instead of polenta. On the evening it wasn't possible for this to happen as apparently I was told this request had not been received. Clearly whoever took the pre-order form didn't read it properly. At the end of the meal people had to individually go to the bar to pay as we were told they couldn't split it and pay at the table. The outstanding balance was out by a few pounds but instead of coming and speaking to someone the staff were really rather rude and told the last lady to pay that she wasn't allowed to leave the pub until it had been paid. We, of course, immediately sorted this out and paid it.

I do feel somewhat let down as I've not eaten at The Elephant before and I chose to bring 16 colleagues to eat there. I do know now that I won't be returning or making any group bookings which is a shame as I try to eat and book local pubs and restaurants to support local business but the service was not quite good enough and we didn't feel we were very well...