National Trust Restaurant — Restaurant in Stourton with Gasper

We visited on Tuesday for lunch. A fairly cold, damp day. A lovely selection of food although service was quite slow. They only had part of the restaurant open with limited seats with no spare tables but this was only seen once we had purchased our meals. Knowing that there was a much larger area with tables etc that was closed off I asked if we could use that area as there was no where to sit... I was told we were have to take our meals outside or share a table. It was raining a light drizzle.. There was no where under cover outside so it would have meant sitting in the cold with both ourselves and our meals getting wet and when I pointed out that there were no spare seats at any of the tables inside but plenty of empty tables in the second part of the restaurant I was told yes but we are not using that area we have a meeting booked in there later on leaving us standing there holding trays of hot food feeling useless. I saw elderly visitors huddled up outside trying to enjoy a cream tea and faling miserably. No where near good enough management in the restaurant on that day. My first negative review of anywhere and I wish I hadn't...

Ok, on the good side: the cakes are wonderful and the coffee not bad. Atmosphere - OK but a bit too canteen like. Staff trying their best but were very short-handed. And the not so good? Well on a previous visit I very much enjoyed their Cornish pasty (without salad) for a brunch/elevenses. But this time they refused putting a pasty in the microwave for me on the grounds that it was now deemed to be a lunch item and it wasn't yet lunch hour. Only filled baps available before midday. So I had to settle for a breakfast bap; which was terrible. Bap tasteless and dry (not buttered). The bacon had obviously been cooked and kept hot so was hard and dry - not succulent like freshly-cooked bacon. The fried egg yolk was hard. So a very disappointing visit. It used to be that the National Trust served very good quality local food. No evidence of that...

The gardens this autumn day were spectacular. In fact every visit we find with the changing seasons these gardens have an incredibly diverse a d rare beauty...10/10 for the gardens. We stopped for lunch at 11.30 yesterday 24th October'18. Dissapointed at the selection of healthy meals available. A few salads in cardboard containers in the fridge...size of a cup!! Wouldnt be enough to feed an average appetite. The salads were seriously expensive for the quantity given. The fish pie and the cauliflower gratin were loaded with potato!! Way to many carbs to promote healthy eating and lifestyle. I find it disappointing because after an invigorating walk outdoors all the good is undone by a visit to...