The George Wright Boutique Hotel, Bar & Restaurant

We bought a groupon for an afternoon tea here as the pictures on groupon looked amazing! Unfortunately it was quite the opposite when we arrived. The hotel was in darkness, it looked closed. A member of staff unlocked the door for us to let us in and started switching on the lights. We were led to a table that wasn’t set, another member of staff started to bring over a couple of plates for us and a cup and saucer, no cutlery or napkins. The afternoon tea arrived very quickly but was very disappointing as looked nothing like the picture on groupon? Sandwiches were made fresh but the sweet treats were all shop bought, Mr Kipling and other shop bought food, had to ask for a napkin and cutlery to eat our treats with like a knife to cut the shop bought scone and spread the cream and jam! Very disappointed, no atmosphere, we were the only ones in the place, zero ambiance, they clearly weren’t prepared for our booking, pleasant staff but unprofessional establishment, would not go again unfortunately.

This was the second visit to George Wright restaurant, the first was a few years back and wasn’t the best but I gave the benefit of the doubt as they’d not long been open, this time was inexcusable. We booked for my father’s 84th birthday for Sunday lunch, we were seated downstairs on a long table which was the best part of the afternoon. The chairs were unstable and you got the feeling they could collapse at any moment and the whole building was freezing cold, I even asked for the heating to be turned up and was told it was on full! On to the food, I found it over priced and pre prepared bought in / frozen catering food. I had goats cheese and red onion which tasted as if they were frozen packet bought, my main was roast beef - the meat was tough the Yorkshire pudding was greasy and not well made (although at least made in house), the best part was the veg which again I think was bought in ready prepared. My daughter had pork which she left most of as it was not nice, same veg. My parents had a bottle of Pinot which was un-drinkable and over 3/4 of the bottle was left. I complained to the waiter about the temperature and was told there’s nothing he could do as it was a grade 2 listed building, not a great answer really- maybe turn the heating on earlier! I complained about the food and wine and was met with well what do you want me to do about it! Total bill for 11 people was about £350 and I can honestly say it wasn’t worth £35, in my mothers words it was disgusting and we will not be returning.

We are a badminton club and one of our members suggested this venue for our rather early Xmas do. Unfortunately one of the chefs had let them down and they had us and a black tie party to contend with. That being said the staff here are extremely motivated, professional, and attentive. Much to their dismay three things went wrong on the evening, two of the main dishes had been missed due to a computer glitch (?) and the sweets were a long time coming due to the sheer volume of dinners they were trying to distribute between the two parties. Our rather brilliant young lady waitress could not be more apologetic and reassuring and delt with the situation brilliantly. The meal was great. When it came to paying the bill we found that they had deducted the two meals that arrived late and one of the sweets to apologise for the delays. Magnificent. Go here if you want to have a good meal at a reasonable price served to you by some fantastic staff. 4 stars for the problems but I would have gave them 5 otherwise. Ian