Lympstone Manor Hotel Restaurant & Vineyard - Relais & Chateaux

First time we have had afternoon tea here and it was wonderful. The sunshine helped but the food, tea and service were wonderful. The cakes were incredibly fine and delicious and the scones were light and crumbly - just the way they should be.

My wife and I enjoyed a short break at Lympstone Manor last summer and were impressed to the extent to recommend it as a venue for a family get together last week. Again my wife and I were impressed with all aspects of the Hotel from the impressive grounds with superb vineyard, to the bedroom suite, lounge bar, breakfasts and above all the evening dining where both a la carte x 2 and signature tasting menu were enjoyed by all. The staff present a friendly, knowledgeable and professional approach across all departments. We found staff approachable and responsive. The breakfast options are of excellent quality and we found service to be well paced and relaxed. The lounge bar menu is extensive as is the wine list. The bar and terrace a great place to relax and to enjoy the wonderful view.

First the really good bits. The hotel is in a beautiful location. We arrived on a sunny afternoon and spent some time wandering through the vinyard and down to the estuary, back via the sculptures and the pool, all very impressive and the hotel looks very beautiful from the grounds. The service when we arrived was excellent, valet parking, a tour of the hotel and our Grand Estuary Suite was extremely luxurious and very beautifully decorated, we really appreciated the roll top bath and the outside seating area. The staff here seemed to be quite young and friendly, I thought a less formal approach might suit the team better. The interior of the hotel itself is very pleasant, we had no problem in ordering cocktails in the bar/lounge. I was surprised that the food was not quite up to the standard I was expecting, based on experience in other Michelin starred establishments. We had the tasting menus and my Vegetarian menus had one less course listed and cost the same as my husbands meat based one. We had to ask for a cheese course to be included so that we both had 8 courses. The meat and fish based menu had lots of top grade ingredients such as caviar but the vegetarian offering was rather dull and the portions were far too small, much smaller than the normal menu. There were no really stand out courses or any great innovation in either of the meals. There was no provenance given for the butter, as it was the same at breakfast |I assume it was not from anywhere they wanted to declare. The waitress was friendly but struggled to explain the courses too us. This was a special occasion for us and the meal was somewhat spoiled by an exceedingly long wait between some of the courses in the middle of the meal. At this price point, £255 for the 8 course menu, everything needs to be spot on. The wine list had a good selection at all price points. Lastly, the terrible. This was the worst breakfast I have eaten in hotel that I can remember. There was a lot of evidence of scrimping with the fresh fruit dished up in small dishes rather than put out for guests to help themselves to. There was only orange juice - which was issued by the glass by the waitress, not out to help yourself to. Our cooked breakfast took an hour to arrive, how can this even happen? The waitress was embarrassed and didn't know what to say, in fact she said it was on its way when it wasn't. When it did arrive it had tinned tomato, which is unacceptable. The waitress assured us she had told the general manager about the long delay but no apology was issued when we checked out. I am sure that it is very expensive and challenging to run a hotel to the standard this one sets for itself, but scrimping on breakfast and having insufficient kitchen staff to get the food out in time is a false economy. An extra charge for breakfast would be better than this situation. If the manager wants to see what the best hotel breakfast looks like a trip down the road to the Pig at Combe might be a good idea.