Queens Head, Hawkshead — Restaurant in England

Would have given 2.5 stars overall if possible.

I booked a Deluxe King room which, according to the website, is ‘more spacious.’ We were given room 8 in the Brown Cow building which was tiny, with the desk and wardrobe area taking up most of the space. When we checked out, the invoice stated the room was a ‘cosy king’ so I’m not sure if we were given the wrong room, but either way it was disappointing and a bit cramped for a 4 night stay.

As soon as we entered the room, I noticed clumps of dirt all over the carpet. It was quite dark in the room so difficult to see what it was. We thought it was carpet fluff so I picked up one of the clumps to find it was dust and human hair. There was lots of it so there’s no way it accumulated in one night. It’s almost as if the hoover was in reverse and deposited its contents all over the floor with no one noticing. There was also a pill on the floor at the side of the bed.

We reported it to the pub and it was dealt with while we were out at dinner but there was no real apology offered and it was off-putting as it made us question the cleanliness of the place in general. The extractor fan in the bathroom was also covered in dust and there were cobwebs/dust in quite a few areas around the room (Nespresso machine, tissue box, mirror, etc) and one part of the Brown Cow corridor smelled strongly of dog.

By day 2, we realised that the bathroom was cold and the towels were not drying. We discovered that there was no heat coming from the heated towel rail. We reported it and were told later that day that it was on the maintenance list and there was nothing more that could be done, though we were given fresh towels.

Breakfast was fine, but inconsistent. No croissants or granola on the first day. No English muffins on the fourth day. Full English on the first day was generous with 2 of everything. On subsequent days, there was only one of each thing and the black pudding was sliced very thinly. The toast for my eggs Benedict (no English muffins) was burnt on one side (presented burnt side down, presumably in the hope I wouldn’t notice). Eggs were over/under cooked on various days. These are small niggles and probably wouldn’t have been as apparent had we not been given the very good breakfast on the first day.

We booked the stay based on a couple of very nice stays at the Queens Head in Troutbeck, which is owned by the same group. Unfortunately, although the rooms and pub are nicely decorated and the staff were nice, not receiving the room that we expected and the other issues left us...

Oh dear, Fawlty Towers springs to mind, at first I was ignored at the bar in favour of a group of females that walked in while I was standing waiting to be served. They asked if there were any tables free to book for food which was actually what I was going to ask. They were told nothing available, fully booked. I checked and asked even for as early as 5:30 sitting - but was advised not. So we sat at a table with a reserved sign for 7:30 the manager(?) came rushing up to us at 5:30 telling us we had to move because the 7:30 party had a change of plans and landed 2 hours early - so we had to move! Fortunately a couple on another table had finished their drinks and offered up their table. Remember it was said there were no tables free at 5:30 yet this group were accommodated almost at our expense without any problem.

After eating at the very friendly and accommodation Red Lion, we popped back to the Queens for a last drink around 8:30, spotted a free table with a 7:45 reservation (clearly they'd failed to show) and asked the waitress if we could sit there. She told us to go back to the bar until she had finished cleaning some other table!!? The one we were looking to sit at was clear and hadn't been occupied. After standing at the bar for an awkward 5 minutes we were then told we could go back and sit at the table (which had remained unoccupied throughout).

Bizarre behaviour if not downright rude - just like Basil Fawlty in fact. Having read similar complaints in other recent reviews we have to agree with them that this place is disorganised, not welcoming at all and looks to be flying by the seat of its pants. Such a pity as it's in a lovely situation & recently refurbished to a...

We had a good meal once at the Queens head. We decided to book again. but this time there was a different apmostphere. To start, they allocated us to the no dog area, when we specifically told them when booking we had 3 dogs. Upon arrival, we ordered drinks and they arrived swiftly. It took them a while to take our orders (starters and mains) and took over 20 minutes to get bread!! The only reason we got our starters in the first place was by going up to the bar and prompting the waiter. They never took our finished starters off the table, whilst the people next to us were finishing their mains, and they had starters and arrived after us!! The mains finally arrived after once again prompting the waiter. We were expecting high quality food, but what we got was below amateur. The pizza was burnt hard, the duck was cooked through and the fish and chips had way too much salt on it. We requested to speak to the manager, and all she did was bring out time sheet and call us liars. She then took our food and said 'don't pay for it then!' We paid for our drinks and went to the bar to complain about her attitude. She told us that her and the cooks were eating the pizza in the kitchen and said it was fine. She then blamed her foriegn staff because they didn't speak fluent English!i told her that the staff were excellent but it was her attitude in dealing with our complaint was...