Masons Arms, Strawberry Bank — Restaurant in Great Britain

So, I’m not going to lie, the views from this pub are amazing and there is a fantastic 9 mile walk from the doorstep 😍. However, that is where the praise ends sadly… We stayed in the Cartmel Fell Suite, which has the best outside space, but it isn’t a private outside space and is shared with the two cottages, which we weren’t made aware of.

The suite wasn’t clean and even though we pointed the cobwebs/dust out etc., the room still wasn’t cleaned properly as promised the next day. My partner is 6 foot and had to duck in the shower and the finish on all of the surfaces was poor and it looked dated and the paint was really chipped despite the fact they said it was redone in Jan.

We had booked food for the Friday and Saturday night and for Sunday lunch but after the poor experience on the Friday night, which was acknowledged by the manager and we were refunded my main course etc., we wisely booked into a different and wonderful pub down the road for our meals, which thankfully rescued my partners birthday!

Breakfast was a farce, firstly, it is only served between 9-10am! You are asked to select your choice and time the night before and we selected 9am yet it didn’t arrive until after 9.30am! We had a big walked planned that meant we couldn’t reach our planned lunch destination in time because most places stop serving food at 2pm in the area. Also, they ask for your requirements (the night before and these weren’t met [crispy bacon, egg yolk type etc.], and please don’t try the coffee unless you have no respect for a decent brew! In addition, whilst I don’t smoke and don’t mind people smoking, it was so disappointing to see the chef smoking outside on the wall consistently, when actually our food prep and delivery was so poor! It felt very unhygienic but maybe that is because I am a microbiologist by background.

When my partner asked for an iron and ironing board, only an iron was readily available. Basic amenities like that are not present in the room.

We paid a lot of money for two nights, which admittedly they kindly agreed to discount by £150 due to our concerns and thankfully we were blessed by beautiful weather and views, combined with an amazing pub down the hill, which did compensate for the stay.

I have spent various nights/meals over the last 17 years at The Queen’s Head in Troutbeck, one of their sister inns and never had a problem, but the Mason’s Arms has a significant way to go to achieve it’s website statements and to match other partners...

Never Again……

Table booked weeks ago for 2:15pm. It’s a 17 minute drive from Windermere. Amy called us at 2:20 to say “you’ve a table booked for 2:15?” Reply “yes we’re 2 minutes away” Amy “the kitchen closes in 5 minutes”.

Arrive, shown to table, bench seating. Not comfortable with elderly parents. Amy then tells us loudly “the kitchen closes in 5 minutes, so there’s no time to take a drinks order. Choose your meals, as we need to get the order into the kitchen!” Replies, yes we know this because you phoned us to tell us this, so if you stop talking to us we’ll be able to look at the menu and tell you what we’d like to order” Amy disappears.

12 minutes later, no Amy, no order taken. Walks through to bar area to place order. Waiter says he’ll come through and take out order. Comes through, “would you like any drinks?” Replies, “yes we would, but we’re told we couldn’t order drinks until the kitchen had our food order….. orders food, can’t order wine as no wine list offered. Waits….. wine list brought.

Food arrived. Over seasoned junk…..

Pan fried Cumbrian chicken breast with buttered leeks, crispy pancetta, garden peas & wild mushrooms, black garlic puree, spiced carrot jam & red wine jus. Served with a kebab of new potatoes roasted with thyme £18.25.

** FAR to salty to eat - extra seasoning a dish with a fair chunk of pancetta made it inedible - doggy bag please.

Traditional Fish & Chips £14.50 Robinsons ale battered Haddock, hand cut chips, mushy peas & tartare sauce.

** Served over a napkin…. Which couldn’t be seen until part of it was consumed. The napkin stuck to the fat and glued itself to the fish. Meaning my parents only realised there was a grey napkin on the plate when they tasted it. 🥴

Doggie bag is self service. It’s a used takeaway container they brought to the table, for me to put in what I thought my dogs would eat!! (Another story).

“Would you like to see the dessert menu?” Reply if the kitchen is still open we would yes please. We ordered lemon posset and sticky toffee puddings.

Waitress returns with salt and pepper pots, setting up the table for evening service - WHILST we were sat there.

£130 bill paid - in full. Feedback given when I’d got my parents in the car. I pointed out how rushed and rubbish it all was. That if the kitchen does close at 2:20pm why take 2:15pm bookings? They just blamed it on head office.

Home now - dogs won’t eat the doggy bag!...

Utterly dismayed and disgusted. Our children missed out on their last day of the holiday because of the atrocious service and standards of this property and it’s management. We booked this last minute and on arrival at around 8:30pm, we all agreed it was lovely for the first five minutes.

We discovered a door in our apartment that was unlocked and led into next door’s bedroom containing bunk beds and their personal belongings. We tried to close and secure it but couldn’t.

I spoke with the manager who came to look, whilst assuring me that it could be closed , that it should have been fixed and that there was no handle on the other side for the other guests to access our room. Upon inspection he confirmed that there was definitely a handle the other side and that he couldn’t get the door to lock. There was also a hole in the door which would have meant everything could have been heard from either side even if it was secured.

We decided that we weren’t comfortable to keep out children in an unsafe environment, so did some looking around and the only availability we could find was nearly £400 for the night which we simply couldn’t afford. We had not choice to set off back home, driving for over two hours, arriving home by nearly midnight with 5 and ten year old in tow.

The manager could not have seem less bothered, appeared to have been drinking, and just told us there’s nothing he could do.

For the price of this property I think it’s fair to expect that the rooms are secure and checked between bookings to ensure this. It appeared they’d not been cleaned either which was hugely disappointing.

The fact that the manager thought there was a even a remote possibility that we would be happy to stay in an insecure room is shocking. Even worse is that if he had been correct that there was no handle on the other side and if he had managed to secure the door, he would have allowed us to stay whilst still having access to the other apartment, with the other guests having no idea that they were being potentially left in a vulnerable position.

In summary the surroundings are lovely, the location is great, the building is stunning but the management, attitude, sense, safety and customer service levels are...