The Hope & Anchor Hotel — Restaurant in England

On the plus side Hope & Anchor has a great location, central to the Main Street though parking can be a challenge. The hotel accommodation was clearly refurbished a few years ago, to a good standard though today, is tired and poorly maintained. The whole venue smells greasy, and the carpet on the stairs & landing is dirty. Our room - Sandpiper has good furniture and a good standard of decor. The mattress is past worn, and the pillows unbelievably thin. I used the cushions in addition though these were very smelly and in need of a wash. Windows were dirty on the inside and we wrote ‘clean me’ in the dust on the toilet brush, on the bathroom bin lid and a window. The heated towel rail was also very dusty. And hot, unable to be turned down. Lots of black mould in the shower, and the large amount of silicone used to seal the floor/wall appeared to have been applied blindfolded. Marcus who was super busy all the time was excellent and helpful, the remaining staff less so. That behind the bar is a sign saying ‘if you are on your phone you have time to clean’ perhaps says something of the culture. I tried to engage a bar staff member in conversation on a quiet afternoon, to no avail. Food - evening in the restaurant was good, though service stretched with multiple takeaway orders, no matter as we were in no rush. Our steak, mussels & apple tart were enjoyable. Breakfast was a different experience- a choice of cereals and juice were missing any yoghurt or fruit. We asked if an omelette was available but alas, no as there was no prep for one (we were the only guests in the room) so we ordered full cooked. Bacon was good, as were the black pudding and mushroom. Hash brown was greasy, beans lukewarm, scrambled eggs full of pepper, and a garlic covered tomatoes were an unwelcome surprise. The sausages were pink, looked like they had been warmed on a radiator. Day 2 we ate...

Visited this venue for lunch on 9th June and had one of the worst experiences in a long, long time.

We ordered a simple tuna mayo sandwich, described on the menu as a "Fresh, artisan, sour dough baguette..." with a price tag of £13. To say the description broke every rule of the trades description act would be a gross understatement of the product presented. Not artisan, not sour dough, and very definitely not fresh. I raised my disappointment with the waiter who promised to "tell the chef". I asked to speak with the chef who refused, but offered his apologies. On our way out I bumped into the, supposed, chef who confirmed that he had made the sandwich, but, as he wasn't the 'head-chef' he didn't believe it was his job to talk to me about the appaling quality of the product. Whilst agreeing the baguette was stale rather than fresh, and confirming he had disposed of the rest of the batch, he then went on to blame the heat in the kitchen, and dismissed the whole issue as "one of those things"

I don't like writing negative reviews, and I paid in full for the meal, including (as I later discovered) a 10% service charge, because I know how tough things are in the hospitality industry. However, I will never visit the venue ever again and I would encourage the owners to review their policies and procedures if they are to stay in business.

Lots of competition in Alnmouth!

UPDATE TO ABOVE - I spoke with the owner and, having heard my side of the experience, I agreed to accept both his apology and a refund both of which were...

Visited the hope and anchor the first night of our holiday in Alnmouth for an evening meal out and unfortunately we were left feeling disappointed - especially at the price being charged.

The pasta looked amazing and the same with the pizza, however, two of us had the fish and chips. The batter on the fish was incredibly heavy and dark in colour. Not enough that I would send it back but it took a steak knife to cut through it and it tasted on the overfried side. When the server asked at the end of the meal how we found it, we did say mention this as there was a lot of batter left on our plates (this is never normally something you'd see from either of us eating fish and chips) but this was ignored and were not going to raise a fuss over it.

Unfortunately we left both feeling a bit sick from it. The chips however were very nice but some were unnecessarily large. Additionally the service was very slow and when we first entered the bar we not welcomed and were just left waiting for quite some time before someone explained they'd be with us shortly - we had booked online. The staff seemed rushed off their feet at all times and the temperature in the room (with the pizza oven) was incredibly hot making us just want to settle the bill and go for a drink else where. I wouldn't go back purely based on this experience especially for the price and don't really think the service charge was justified for the service delivered. Nevertheless we paid...