The Bell — Restaurant in Tewkesbury

So where do I start with a review on what has to be the worst place I have ever eaten a meal in my life.We are greeted by a new member of staff, she takes a drink order, which comes out fine, other than a warm Peroni, but I’m willing to look over that. She takes the order for starters, 4 lots of nachos, easy enough, not a lot can go wrong yet. So mains, oh where to begin with the mains, even thinking about them now repulses me. My Nan orders steak cooked rare, comes out well done. Me and my mother order lamb shank roast dinners, after being questioned how we want our slow cooked lamb shank cooked, followed by a sarcastic comment by the waitress about how some people like things different. They arrive, the lamb was stuck to the bone like glue, it arrived with chips, no roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, pigs in blankets, stuffing and the only Yorkshire pudding being the extra one I ordered, which arrived cold with some gravy on the bottom where it had clearly been pulled off of someone else’s plate. The veg was flavorless boil in the bag rubbish. My sister and step dad ordered there meals with the rosemary fries and they arrived with clumps of salt about the size of broad beans all over them. Whilst waiting for deserts we witnessed one of the waitresses drop some cutlery on the floor and put it back on the table for some poor guest at the sorry excuse of a place to use tomorrow. Deserts were ok, but they didn’t have the only thing that seemed tolerable off of their menu, so I didn’t have one. Overall service was terrible, the girl who I am assuming was the senior member of staff in the building was the most sarcastic person I have met and really should be in any customer service based role. Thanks for ruining what should’ve been a nice birthday meal for my Mother. At least we got a good giggle out of your poor excuse of a restaurant. Oh and the £145 we paid for the bill was about £100 more than...

This review is for the hotel and the breakfast.

I stayed at The Bell with a friend in a twin room (two singles) with breakfast added on via Booking.com. We checked in with a very friendly staff member who told us what to expect and reassured us about entry times and breakfast.

When we got to the room, it was very small and looked quite dated. The beds were comfortable and the duvets were warm, but there were no plugs next to the beds (in 2024?) the carpet looked as though it had never been cleaned and the room did not smell great upon entry.

What was worse was the bathroom, which smelled mouldy and stagnant. The extractor fan didn't turn on at all so we kept the bathroom closed during our sleep.

That is if we could get any. Music in the opposite courtyard/building was loud, even at midnight. Patrons were loud up until even later. At 4am, some kind of alarm kept repeatedly going off. You could hear anyone talking incredibly loudly in the hallway.

The bathroom tap was loose. There was no sink catch. There were two plastic cups to use/drink water from. The toilet was at least clean and functional and the mirror seemed clean.

We paid extra for the full english breakfast which was abysmal. Other than the egg, the rest of the meal wasn't good. The bacon was baked and lacked any kind of flavour. The mushrooms were borderline burnt and wrinkly, not crispy and/or juicy. The bread had A LOT of butter popped onto it but it wouldnt melt enough to spread even after I'd finished the bacon, sausage and egg. The beans were cheap. I didn't try the tomatoes.

Service was quick and there was a little buffet for drinks, a pastry and and cereal.

I did not enjoy my stay at The Bell, nor my meal and will not consider...

So the stay was okay at best especially during the quieter periods considering Covid. There are some good and bad points. We booked 2 rooms (Room 10 and 27). One room in terms of quality was really good, clean, cool well presented and the other one was a bit messy, bits of mold and a poorly grouted bathroom.

Room 10 overlooked a back alley to what I assume was leading from the back of the kitchen. One problem I had was when I had the window open I could smell cigarettes being smoked from what I assume was staff so I did have to keep shutting the window when I could hear them being lit.

The room with the mold was quiet though. Although the nicer room was susceptible to noise. As we were trying to sleep we could hear the patrons drinking outside being very loud shouting and swearing (I guess it's not the Bell's fault) but then at about 2/3 am there were guests shouting in the hallways waking me up. Doesn't help the walls were thin.

That was the bad points however, the staff were extremely lovely - I can't stress that enough, all Covid procedures and guidelines were followed, sanitizer and masks were provided, the showers in the room were actually at a really nice pressure and easy to operate. The bed was relatively comfy, the sheets and towels were most definitely cleaned. The breakfast we had paid for was tasty and brought to the table rather quickly after ordering. Although we ate it at 8.30-45 ish I did overhear the waiter/staff member tell another table they had ran out of sausages for the English breakfast already and that the morning pastries would take an hour. Was most likely a mistake and not...