Vavasour Restaurant — Restaurant in England

While staying at Hazelwood Castle (see separate review), we visited this restaurant for breakfast each morning and for dinner one evening.

The first impression of the restaurant was not great. It doesn't match the expectations that should be associated with a supposedly 4-star hotel. The appearance is of a cafe with bare tables and no tablecloths. The tables were too small, especially for breakfast. We found that there wasn't enough room for all of the plates, cups, tea and coffee pots, etc. This wasn't helped by the staff not clearing away used plates.

Breakfast. The breakfast was a mix of self-service and table service. In my opinion, this does not really work and is not in keeping with this type of establishment. Even the most basic café will make toast and provide it with your breakfast. Here, you have to make your own. The cooked breakfast was good and was freshly cooked and, therefore, hot.

Dinner. The evening dinner experience was better than the breakfast experience, although they still used the same small tables with no tablecloths. It was a set menu with various add-on charges for some options. The food was pretty good, as was...

Unfortunately our afternoon tea missed the mark. We were escorted through to a beautiful but cold room (there was a fire on but it had fizzled out as we arrived) which, for the first 15 mins, was empty except for a couple having a wedding consultation. We received our tea but it took 45 minutes for our afternoon tea to arrive (we asked about it after 20 minutes and were told it was on its way, then another 15 minutes later were told unfortunately it had actually been ordered downstairs incorrectly so they were still making it). We asked for one to be nut free for allergy reasons but there were flaked almonds on top of one of the cakes. There were a couple behind us who were also forgotten about in similar fashion. The staff were friendly and apologetic and refreshed our drinks but it just seemed poorly organised and for the quality of the food and lack of ambience it was not worth the...

I’m afraid I wouldn’t recommend. It’s just not worth the money. (Eg £30 for a small tuna steak with nothing special accompanying it) None of us particularly enjoyed our main courses. Starters were nothing particularly special. Christmas cheesy classic hits playing on a loop of just 5 songs over and over and over too which was irritating - not what you expect from a restaurant at these prices. I won’t be going out of my way to go back I’m afraid. It’s not a convenient place to get to so you have to drive. As evidenced really by the fact there was only us and one other table in there on...