Hartford Hall, Hartford — Restaurant in England

As a pub I'm sure this is a great establishment to visit, alas as a place to stay for the night I'm afraid this wasn't a great night for me. On the back of almost 6 days straight travelling to different cities and hotels I was weary and just looking for a decent night's stay. I arrived to a pretty packed pub (after all it is Christmas), and I have to say I am never a fan of having to drag my luggage in to the bar to check-in. However, a warm greeting and table booked for dinner easy enough. ||||The room was a decent size, although it feels like someone went overboard on the extras (why 2 bulbs in a cage lights and a Robert's retro radio was necessary is beyond me) and design. It was chilly in the room, so I headed straight to put the radiator on and could feel quite a breeze coming from the window assuming it was open. Well technically it was, it doesn't fully close so that didn't fill me with confidence. I turned the valve on to hear quite a noise coming from the radiator which lasted all through the night and morning. I did inform reception about the radiator and window issue (you can see it open from the car park), and was informed that as the building is old it can take a while to heat up. The window was not acknowledged. Taking them at their word, I went for dinner. It's a decent menu, typical pub fair, I opted for a salad so hard to get wrong and good wine list. By this time there was a private function in which took over the entrance passage to the rooms which was not fun to get through. I opted for 1 of the entrances on the car park of which I found the only warm part of the building with a radiator on (none on the rest of the hallway which flagged an issue to me) and I was alarmed to see that neither doors from the car park have any security and are just on the latch. ||||The radiator never got hot, only the bottom portion of the radiator had any heat and I could audibly hear traffic and car park noise through the window. I slept somewhat, but woke at 4am and headed to the local gym in the hope of getting warm. ||||The bathroom was nicely done but very compact and not overly practical. I'm an athletic build, but there is no way you can stand at the sink and bend towards it as you are stopped by the shower screen and a shelf hanging from the mirror. There was nice victorian radiator which again didn't work (this was electric and despite turning it on at the socket nothing happened).||||Breakfast for me personally was a lacklustre affair, staff seemed totally uninterested and I had to ask for a menu in order to be able to order. What came, well it wasn't pleasant and I left it untouched all bar 1 mouthful. I left it at the edge of the table and tried to get the attention of a member of staff but no one came over. They did knock this off the bill as I told them when paying, but it wasn't a pleasant exchange. ||||I was going to work in my room for the first part of the morning but it felt so miserable and cold that I decided to leave and go and work in somewhere more welcoming. Upon check out I did mention the heating again and the window - and was then told a different story that the valves weren't working and they couldn't get them fixed the day before... so effectively telling me they were happy to sell rooms with no functioning heating in winter. Whatever the story, get it straight.||||I love staying a range of different accommodation when travelling, and sadly this was a massive fail for me. Not being able to offer a warm room, with a window that hasn't been shut for some time, is not acceptable. I appreciate it's an old building, but it's also supposed to be offering a service. ||||Had I not been travelling on business, I probably would've enjoyed the pub experience more, but on this occasion my basic need for sleep...

As a pub I'm sure this is a great establishment to visit, alas as a place to stay for the night I'm afraid this wasn't a great night for me. On the back of almost 6 days straight travelling to different cities and hotels I was weary and just looking for a decent night's stay. I arrived to a pretty packed pub (after all it is Christmas), and I have to say I am never a fan of having to drag my luggage in to the bar to check-in. However, a warm greeting and table booked for dinner easy enough. ||||The room was a decent size, although it feels like someone went overboard on the extras (why 2 bulbs in a cage lights and a Robert's retro radio was necessary is beyond me) and design. It was chilly in the room, so I headed straight to put the radiator on and could feel quite a breeze coming from the window assuming it was open. Well technically it was, it doesn't fully close so that didn't fill me with confidence. I turned the valve on to hear quite a noise coming from the radiator which lasted all through the night and morning. I did inform reception about the radiator and window issue (you can see it open from the car park), and was informed that as the building is old it can take a while to heat up. The window was not acknowledged. Taking them at their word, I went for dinner. It's a decent menu, typical pub fair, I opted for a salad so hard to get wrong and good wine list. By this time there was a private function in which took over the entrance passage to the rooms which was not fun to get through. I opted for 1 of the entrances on the car park of which I found the only warm part of the building with a radiator on (none on the rest of the hallway which flagged an issue to me) and I was alarmed to see that neither doors from the car park have any security and are just on the latch. ||||The radiator never got hot, only the bottom portion of the radiator had any heat and I could audibly hear traffic and car park noise through the window. I slept somewhat, but woke at 4am and headed to the local gym in the hope of getting warm. ||||The bathroom was nicely done but very compact and not overly practical. I'm an athletic build, but there is no way you can stand at the sink and bend towards it as you are stopped by the shower screen and a shelf hanging from the mirror. There was nice victorian radiator which again didn't work (this was electric and despite turning it on at the socket nothing happened).||||Breakfast for me personally was a lacklustre affair, staff seemed totally uninterested and I had to ask for a menu in order to be able to order. What came, well it wasn't pleasant and I left it untouched all bar 1 mouthful. I left it at the edge of the table and tried to get the attention of a member of staff but no one came over. They did knock this off the bill as I told them when paying, but it wasn't a pleasant exchange. ||||I was going to work in my room for the first part of the morning but it felt so miserable and cold that I decided to leave and go and work in somewhere more welcoming. Upon check out I did mention the heating again and the window - and was then told a different story that the valves weren't working and they couldn't get them fixed the day before... so effectively telling me they were happy to sell rooms with no functioning heating in winter. Whatever the story, get it straight.||||I love staying a range of different accommodation when travelling, and sadly this was a massive fail for me. Not being able to offer a warm room, with a window that hasn't been shut for some time, is not acceptable. I appreciate it's an old building, but it's also supposed to be offering a service. ||||Had I not been travelling on business, I probably would've enjoyed the pub experience more, but on this occasion my basic need for sleep...

The setting is lovely and we were welcomed by staff. There were 8 people in our party and we were sat in a lovely bay window area. We ordered drinks. My friend asked if you had flavoured tonics and the member of staff said "yeah I think so." My friend asked what flavours and he didnt know but did not offer to check so she had to give him a few options to pick from! 7 drinks came but mine did not and I had to go and find a member of staff to chase it down. My friend had ordered wine and Lemonade spritzer and it had come with soda and an elderflower presse was brought instead of an appletiser so again we had to find a member of staff. We felt a bit left in the corner with noone nearby to ask! I had ordered a vanilla vodka and diet coke. When it arrived they called it a vodka and coke. I had to check it was vanilla vodka and diet coke and the member of staff said "erm yeah I think so". This happened twice. It's frustrating to order a drink and not actually know whether it is what you have ordered as it then makes you hesitant when drinking, especially with my friends drink already getting mixed up. Food arrived after around 30 minutes. We were advised of the wait because we had ordered pork. No issues with order. We did not get checked on to see if we wanted anymore drinks despite the long wait between us arriving and getting our food. Food was cleared away and we ordered more drinks. Only at the this point did a member of staff offer water for the table. We ordered dessert. I ordered the rhubarb and custard pavlova. They returned to the table to say there was no rhubarb compote and offered it with mango or strawberry instead so I chose mango. My friend asked for ice cream and asked what flavours they had. The member of staff said "i don't think we do any different flavours" despite there being different flavours of ice cream with other dessert options so she just picked one from another dessert. When the Desserts arrived, the member of staff described my dessert as "whatever the other dessert is, I don't know what this is". Not very professional! We asked for the bill and were told if we were paying separately we needed to go to the bar. The bill was printed at 9.33pm. We went to the bar within 10 minutes of getting the bill as we all needed to get home. We were still stood at the bar at 10pm. The reason for this being that the member of staff who had set up our bill had gone home and noone on site could retrieve the bill so we could not pay. They had text the member of staff to ask for her password we were told and were just asked to wait! Eventually my friend asked could they not just open the order as a new table so that we could actually go home and the lady who looked like the manager agreed to do that. We told her what we had had individually and she put each order through. My take away from the meal was that staff do not know the menu and did not seem bothered by this. It came across as unprofessional. The issue with the bill should never have happened and no customers should ever have to stand at a bar for 10 minutes or more waiting to pay because of a password. The level of service does not match the setting and quality of food. Very...