Advocate Arms Hotel — Restaurant in West Lindsey

Disappointed We arrived early on in the evening, and were the first ones there for evening service Shown to a nice table in the window, given dinner menus, but no wine list or proper drink menu. There’s cocktails listed on the back of the food menu but that’s not what I’d personally consider a ‘drinks menu’ We had to ask for a wine menu, and this alluded to only being bottles with a small number having ‘available by the glass’ in fine print with the description. We had waited a while for someone to come over and then waited even longer for them to come back after giving us a wine list. The cocktails were nice enough. Starters came quick. The bread and butter board was okay, the server didn’t know what the butter was either when ordering or when handing it to us which was fine, just a note on what could be improved. We did hear her loudly yell to the kitchen to ask what it was. The bread was very hard but otherwise nice. Butter was rock solid and could do with being slightly softened but was tasty. The prawn and avo salad was colourful and nice. Mains. Also quite quick, but weren’t great. The Italian chicken could have been a strong dish but was a let down. Whilst the components were fab, there’s was alot of potato, but only three small pieces of chicken. The onion bhaji burger was awful. A very small Bhaji that was blackened, on a roll. Tasteless and tiny. I cut the bottom half of the bun in half and made a burger like that with just the lower part of the bun, for a size idea. The fries were the only nice part of the dish. However, they were meant to be spiced, my expectations would have been Indian inspired or any form of spices, the only thing they had was salt and lots of it. We opted for dessert as were fairly hungry due to portion size but waited 30 minutes for them which was okay but much longer than we had expected. The crumble was more porridge with not much filling and lots of oats? There was a huge jug of custard that was good. The creme brûlée was interesting, three blobs of meringue on top which was unique and I enjoyed. However, the brûlée was thing with little custard , but what was there was very tasteless and less that average. The service wasn’t great, quite slow, considering there wasn’t many people there and the people near us had empty plates for 20 minutes. The ladies stood around chatting with most the guests looking around for service. Overall, wouldn’t return nor recommend which is disappointing as we had been recommended the place. The reviews were good so hopefully we just went on a bad day. Not worth it and ruined a...

We paid £170 bed & breakfast for 2 nights. The breakfast bit was good. The bed bit wasn’t…||After being led up two flights of smelly, carpeted stairs, we entered room 9 and my heart sank. Not only was it a dark and gloomy room, but when I did my usual first-time-in-a-hotel-room checks (pillow-smelling and toilet-cleanliness), I was disappointed and disgusted to find somebody else’s urine on the toilet rim.||My husband went down to tell reception, who suggested the yellow liquid was toilet cleaner. It wasn’t, and I know this because I could see little dried crystals in it and I also smelt it. It was definitely urine. ||Anyway, we were offered room 7 (also on the second floor) but we could not sleep in there as it smelt like it had had wet dogs drying in there. The overpowering musky, damp smell was unbearable.||This time, I went down to reception and the lady informed me there were not any other rooms available. I explained that I didn’t want a room that had someone else’s urine on the toilet rim - and that it was definitely urine as I had smelt it- and as if by magic, room 3 was available.||Room 3 was bigger, less smelly and less drab that rooms 9 and 7. The cleanliness of the toilet still left a lot to be desired – splashes of faeces at the back and ingrained dirt around the toilet lid fixings. Still, it was getting late and we'd travelled 2 hours, so with little other choice, we took the room and I cleaned the toilet with my make-up wipes. ||According to their website, the Advocate Arms’ “luxurious hotel rooms have been awarded 5 stars by the AA, offering the ultimate in comfort and relaxation”. This is incorrect as the rooms are not luxurious, and after conducting some online checks, I could not find 5 stars awarded to them by the AA or anyone else, for that matter.||I think the Advocate Arms would benefit from learning how to deal with disgruntled customers. |Customers who have to check out two rooms before they find a third one that is suitable for sleeping in are not happy customers – nobody wants to start their weekend away by feeling the need to examine the cleanliness of the bedroom and bathroom. ||We were not offered any compensation for the inconvenience - even a drink in the bar would have sufficed – to make up for the palaver we’d faced, and upon check-out, we were not asked about our stay.|I would not return to the...

This hotel is sold as a "5 STAR Restaurant with rooms" It is a restaurant and it does have quite nice rooms of a good size and with reasonable facilities (very nice bathroom but bedroom furniture a bit basic - steel furniture in a Hotel?). The hotel is clean and all the staff are absolutely first class. The restaurant must have been awarded 5 Stars on some basis but, in my opinion, the quality and choice presented is more "Pub Grub" than "Fine Dining" - definitely not what one expects. We stayed there 4 nights in early November 2018. We ate in the restaurant the first night but, apart from "une amuse-bouche", there was no other indication that it was anything special - I really don't understand how they were awarded 5 Stars. There is a good Indian restaurant down the road and a pub nearly opposite with a better offering although I believe it has the same ownership as the Advocate Arms. Breakfast is fine with generous portions but does require patience or some forward planning! We found 45 minutes was about the right amount of time to allow.

The heating system was, in November, either: Programmed to be on morning and evening or until someone complained about the cold OR Unreliable and in need of attention My view is the former!

There are ten rooms and five marked parking spaces (with space for another car at a push) - the chef parks in one of the marked spaces for a significant amount of the time and, although the parking is clearly marked "Residents Only" spaces are often occupied by lunch guests, tradesmen etc. There is paid parking across the road but not always available due to Market Days etc. I think with such a paucity of parking it could be "policed" better to give absolute preference to residents. Busier times of year must be a big problem for parking. Overall, we had an OK stay but it was not what we expected. I think that we'll probably try elsewhere next time that we're staying...