Sculthorpe Mill — Restaurant in North Norfolk

Pros|Beautiful place in idyllic location, close to the river and set in lovely grounds, with hidden seating nooks.|Boutique quirky decor, with lots of original features.|Spacious room with lovely view of the river, large bathroom with huge shower and quality local toiletries. Large, very comfortable bed with gorgeous pillows. Efficient WiFi. |Good quality, delicious food which was well cooked and presented.|Cons|Not an ideal place for anyone with poor eyesight or mobility issues. Appreciate this is an old building but single steps here and there were not marked and were hard to see in the very dim lighting.|No wardrobe in the room, just a row of hooks with hangers on the wall. Could be a problem if staying for more than a couple of nights. No TV though a radio is provided, we ended up using our phones.|The shower was extremely powerful, which for the ladies could prove quite painful, some operating instructions would have been really useful.|Whilst all the food we ate was great, it was quite a limited restaurant menu which didn’t change. We got round this by having a larger starter as a main. The bar/restaurant service was rather hit and miss, with a few obviously inexperienced staff members, although it was definitely better the second evening. The restaurant was quite hot and on the first night the music was loud and ill-suited, another guest must have asked for it to be turned down before we got a chance.|The one piece of advice - get a room away from the front of the building. As it was hot we had to have the window open the whole of our stay. Unfortunately overflowing bins were awaiting collection not far away, and we got a fair few flies in our room, luckily they were emptied Tuesday afternoon and moved away. We were also woken by a delivery on the first morning at 6.50am. Unfortunately the second morning the delivery was at 6.00am, followed by the thudding of music coming from the staff room nearby at 6.30. Gave up trying to get back to sleep when loud voices outside started at 6.45!||Would we return? Yes, if we could get a room away from the front of the building and maybe eat elsewhere after the first night.|We feel this place could be really great with...

Good food and service in a stunning eighteenth century water mill.

I have visited a couple of times, once with an old friend here for dinner and again with my fiancée. On the first occasion we were initially a little slow to be seated and served our food, but they were busy. The service from that point was excellent and there was no such problem the second time.

I had a rump steak, chips, watercress salad and bernaise sauce and my chum had there burger and chips. My steak and bernaise were memorably delicious and the burger was by all accounts very good. We agreed that the chips were okay in the main, the smaller ones were crispy, the middle sized ones were tasty, but the few larger ones were a little anaemic and boardering on undercooked, albeit we ate them all.

When I visited with my fiancée she had shrimps followed by roast partridge - these were delicious, especially the partridge which had a rich, sticky gravy. The accompanying sprouts and romanesco were also great. I had a duck parfait, which was rich and smooth. I opted for a whole plaice in beurre noisette, capers and a side of skinny fries (these were much better than the chunky chips I had before). The plaice was okay, a smidge over cooked and the beurre appeared entirely clairied, lacking any noisette and the capers were a bit tasteless. It was a bit disappointing for the price.

My friend loved the sundae he had for his pudding and my cheese and biscuits was very good, although it was a little biscuit & bread heavy and slightly light on cheese. When I visited with my fiancée we opted not to go for a pudding.

I think my companion liked the lager he had, my large glass or merlot-syrah was very good, if pricey at £10.40. My fiancee washed it all down with a espresso martini, which was excellent. I initially went for a blended Italian wine containing montepulciano (I cannot remember what it was called) that was sold as being full bodied and inviting, but what arrived was thin and tart. I said that I didn't like it and it was quickly swapped for a very agreeable rioja.

I would visit again, but I'd stick to the excellent meat cookery and not opt for trying a...

Beautiful area. Lovely food. Unfortunately service was very up and down. We sat in an area they don't usually do food due to my mother being on crutches (our choice) so we were very grateful we could be sat at the front. The bar area was a bit confusing where I had to go to or who I had to speak to to check we could have food outside and then if I had to go in to order drinks and food or not. There didn't seem to be a uniform so I actually said to a lady she was at the bar first so please go first, turns out she was staff in front of the bar. Little embarrassing for me but had a giggle about it. Then asked to set up a tab when ordering drinks as we were going to have food as well and took a long time to set up as they thought I was ready to order food. Lemonade was out of 2l plastic bottles rather than small glass ones or a tap. We ordered the lobster, rump steak and pork chop. Unfortunately my steak was very over cooked. I asked for medium rare and there was hardly any pink to it at all. We weren't checked on so I had no opportunity to raise it with the staff and as the bar was so hectic I didn't want to leave my table for what might have been a long time. The meat itself was very good so I ate half of it then took the other half for the dog. The lobster was apparently very nice and the pork chop was good too. I would definitely try it again when my mother has better mobility and can't really fault them that much as we were the difficult customers sitting in front of the restaurant instead of two meters inside it where I assume the service was much better. But I had to knock off a star as it was quite pricey so I expected...