The Alb — Restaurant in England

If you like hotels, don't stay here. The extra star is purely for the pleasant staff who saw to us. Unclean rooms.

I was told to email the hotel with the following information. I had no response.

Initially, we were shown to Room 2, downstairs, the window looks out over the outdoor seating area of The Albert (we were not told about this). Becky showed us to the room and was very friendly and welcoming. Unfortunately, on entering the room, I looked around the room and noticed the following:

· Dirty marks/splashes across the back of the main door and walls – I imagine from worker’s boots, or possibly a hot drink had been split and splashed

· Light brown fingerprints and marks across all the walls and along the edge of the desk

· Old water in the kettle and dirty brown marks all over the kettle

· A broken radiator cover

· One working lamp (out of the two attached to the bed head)

· Dust, grime and marks across the sink and back of the toilet

· Skid marks in and down the toilet, also small hairs on the toilet

· Only half a loo roll, no new or spares

· Loose bits of carpet across the floor

· Dust and hair on the bedside tables

· TV needing a pin to use smart facilities and remote almost out battery

The most basic necessity of any hotel room is that it should be clean. This room clearly hadn’t been cleaned, or if it had, it had been done by someone who doesn't know how to clean.

I found Becky and I told her in private area away from anyone that I was not happy with the cleanliness of the room. She offered us another room and went ahead of us to double check the room was better. She also told me that they are in between cleaners, whilst I appreciate that, it’s not a good enough excuse – I know she wasn’t giving me that as an excuse but still, the cleanliness of a hotel room is the most important thing. Especially after the past 2 years dealing with COVID 19.

We were shown upstairs and the initial feel of the room was that it was cleaner than the other. This whole experience so far was very upsetting and the opposite of a relaxing and indulgent weekend away. The following is a rundown about the second room, Room 5 (Katherine):

· Marks on the walls, again most likely workers/builders

· Streaks and Polyfilla marks down the walls in the bathroom

· Hair on the wall in the shower and a hair bobble hooked on top of the shower screen

· Mud or mascara, (brown mark) on yellow scatter cushion

· Dust and bits on mini shelf under toilet roll holder

· Motion sensor light in hall by the only mirror in the room constantly goes off as you’re stood getting ready

· Shower constantly hot and cold when top dial pointing to left to the 2 red lines

· Streaks and water marks on shower glass

· Blind pulley too high to reach (& I’m tall!)

· Window doesn't stay open on it's own

· Marks and scrapes across all walls and doors

· Handmarks on walls

· Loose bits of carpet across the floor

Whilst this second room was cleaner, the finish of both rooms are poor, as if they have been rushed to be finished. Considering the fact I could have paid the same or possibly less and stayed at the Premier Inn across the road makes me really sad, I like to support independent businesses where I can but this whole experience has left me incredibly disappointed.

Harry who served us at breakfast was very nice, he told me to email this, which I did. The impression your hotel gives is that the bar and restaurant is more important. If the business is ‘between cleaners’, you make it a PRIORITY and train your staff up to create an excellent standard for your hotel guests! Running a bar and restaurant requires excellent cleanliness, the hotel should be no different.

I hope this is a wake up call for this excuse...

Convenient location, good atmosphere, but terribly slow service which just ruins the rest of the experience. I don't come often as whenever I do the service is painfully slow but it'd been a couple of years and myself and 3 friends decided to come for a pre-booked lunch on Saturday. We were offered to order via the waitress or the QR code and I chose the QR code thinking this would improve the service. We each separately ordered our food being 2 burgers and 2 pizzas around 2pm and also separately ordered drinks.

Timeline as follows: 2:01pm ordered burger 2:20-2:30pm 3 x meals arrived excluding the 2.01 ordered burger 2:31pm ordered cocktail 3pm raised missing burger and cocktail with staff. Very apologetic and said they'd had an issue with the printer so lost the burger order. Offered free drinks as way of apology. 3:21pm missing burger finally arrived after seeing at least 5-10 other burgers come out since raising this with staff. 3 x apology drinks arrived. Asked where my now 2 x cocktails were (being one ordered at 2:31pm and one apology drink ordered at 3pm). 3:32pm received 2 cocktails 3:35pm asked to vacate the table for a private reservation, just 14 minutes after the last meal was served. Profuse apologies were given and they ended up allowing us to stay.

In summary one of our group of 4 had to wait 1 hour 20 minutes for a burger and one of our group of 4 had to wait 1 hour for a cocktail and 30 minutes for another "apology" cocktail.

We were going to a day party at The Buttermarket at 4pm and honestly after not managing to get drinks and eating so close to leaving, and generally feeling like we were either waiting or complaining, we weren't really in the mood for dancing at 4pm, and this is down to the poor service at The Alb.

It was so nice to receive apology drinks and I wasn't going to write a review at all but then to wait another 20 minutes for most of those to arrive and half an hour for one, the apology just seemed a bit half hearted.

If you want a relaxed drink here and happy to wait at least half an hour for them this is a nice place to go. If you expect drinks within 10 minutes of ordering and food within half an hour then this just isn't the place to go. I have had a similar experience every...

Food ok. Service so so.

I have been here on a handful of occasions and I normally like the atmosphere. The food is normally good and the cocktails are fun with the addition of little hats and ducks etc!

I booked a table at The Alb at the end of April, for a June date, for my hen do. So you can imagine my surprise when we arrived, that we were told that our reserved table had people sat at it, eating, and it wasn't available. Strike 1.

We were offered another table by the entrance which we took. In hindsight this was the wrong decision because we were sat opposite a speaker which played too-loud music. We had trouble hearing each other and the servers also had trouble taking our orders. I swear that places want to deafen you these days. Maybe they're in collaboration with hearing aid companies. I digress.

So, when we were looking at our sticky, cocktail covered menus, we were told that 4 items weren't available on the menu. No halloumi? Strike 2.

Although the edges of my pizza were burnt, the middle tasted ok. The skin on fries were underdone. But there weren't any other food complaints that I was aware of.

We stayed there for drinks after the meal, and last orders came at 10:30pm, for an 11pm close. So we did order one last round. Again, in hindsight, not the best decision. It's not the most relaxing atmosphere when for ten minutes or so you're being reminded that it's closing time and you'd better drink up, blah, blah. Here's a hint - have last orders at 10pm and then people will probably have finished their drinks in an hour! On top of this harassment we were unnecessarily collared by the door security just before 11pm (maybe because we were by the entrance) - apparently we needed to leave, 'we'd had our warning'(?!)...Strike 3.

All in all, The Alb has left a very bitter taste in my mouth and I will not be recommending it, nor visiting it again if I...