The Orangery — Restaurant in England

We used to love to come here. We visit every year for my Mum's birthday. It still has nice room and garden to sit in. But the menu, coffee, and quality of service has diminished which is a shame. I would still say its a nice place to visit but it used to be lovely - on the pricey side- but a nice treat. Now, it's expensive and OK but if I were going again, I would probably have lunch in Stamford instead, or bring a picnic.

In the Orangery, you used to get a lovely cafetiere of coffee, now it's depressingly out of a machine - prices on par with a motorway services Starbucks.

The staff were struggling with how busy the place was. It was the day of Battle of the Proms so they may have had more visitors than normal.

We waited for a table which was fine. However once sat we found the menu has been cut down. We were too late for brunch, to early for afternoon tea. Lunch was pork belly hot sandwich, or lamb meatballs or cod loin. All over twelve pounds in price. I think the quality of food is still good but not the choice.

We went for chips....as didn't fancy pork belly, lamb or cod. They were ok but delivered in silver buckets which held about 10 chips. No bowl or plate with them either. The lad brought the 3 bucket miniatures out with them clutched to his chest...I guess the kitchen had no trays.

The girl on the till went to replace scones, which were out of a packet (I thought they may have been homemade....alas not). She dropped lid covering cakes and replaced it after it had been on the floor. I'm not fussy but....yeah....not what I would expect really.

The staff looked sad and stressed.

So ....go to Orangery if you are gasping for a drink on your visit to Burghley. You may have to book table beforehand, expect it to cost you, be busy, staff grumpy and it will be like most places just ok....not as special as...

Lovely food and drink in a beautiful location - sadly let down by extremely disorganized service.

We arrived on time for our afternoon tea reservation but after asking to be shown to our table we then had to wait before we were even offered a tea or coffee. I went and asked if we needed to order at the till after 30 minutes - the tea didn't come for a further 15 minutes after that. In total we waited for 55-60 minutes after our arrival before the food arrived. We'd been forgotten about.

The manager was lovely and apologetic - this wasn't her fault - she seemed to be the only one checking on tables and keeping an eye on which orders were actually being completed - the rest of the waiting staff seemed to not know which tables were which, forgot who had and hadn't been served, did not check the tables (we had no sugar) and spent a lot of time talking between each other at the tills, but didn't have a single word to say to customers.

We had to remind the staff we were there twice - once when I went to go and see if we needed to order at the till, then again 10 minutes after this when we had still not even been served drinks.

The food was delicious when it arrived and nicely presented - the menu wasn't entirely accurate (the jam is not "homemade" but is tiptrees in mini jars) and there were no options to choose what you would prefer on your tea service.

Although the location and food were lovely, this was not at all the level of service you would expect for the price, thoroughly disappointing and ended my girlfriend's birthday outing on a...

We have eaten at the Orangery before and thoroughly enjoyed it so did not hesitate to book again for a celebratory meal. We arrived at about 12:45 having booked a table (lunch served 12-14:30). when we went to order our main course we were told that neither of our choices were available - these were the only meat dishes on the main menu. I said I thought this was not acceptable given that we were not at the end of the lunch period. Eventually we were told that the kitchen could provide our choice but there would be a 30 minute wait - not too serious given that we had a lovely situation looking out onto the garden. When the food finally arrived, it was good! Went to order desserts and again told that one of our choices was no longer available! So made an alternative order. waited 25mins and nothing was forthcoming so went to the counter again to be told that our food would be plated up soon! So conclusion for my review is that if they have the food you order, it is very good - BUT the service left much...