Bovey Castle

Booked this for my mum who absolutely adored the trip to Bovey Castle. The breakfast and restaurant food was delicious and exceptionally made. The grounds are spectacular.

A common theme of recent reviews that i hope the management will address as this property has the ability to be incredible. The main building is complemented by some incredible lodges that are well appointed and incredibly tranquil. We were lucky to have a lodge during a blue sky summer day and it really was fantastic. They are expensive, very for what they are, but we certainly enjoyed the space. The failures unfortunately began as soon as we stepped foot into the Great Western Grill. To go into the detail will take an hour to type, but in summary, 30 mins to order wine, lack of staff training (which we could well accept), incorrect dishes served, 2 of 8 dishes inedible, drinks not replenished and in general a 1* experience with a 5*fine dining price tag. This happens, however with over 50 years luxury hospitality experience in our party of 4, the greatest disappointment was the blasé, ignorant and in the end, utterly condescending attitude of the Restaurant Manager and then the Duty Manager when we offered the feedback. What could have been addressed swiftly with humility, to a very calm brief feedback, turned into a pro-longed ego trip that left a bitter taste, far worse then the over cooked John Dorey. Having been left in the Library like school children, the DM was delighted to return to tell us she had been shouting with the Restaurant Manager in order to get our pot of tea knocked off the bill as a gesture of good will, only for us to inform her we hadn't even had any tea to the table - a fine example of the dire service challenges within the management. We eventually walked out and got a drink in the bar, where eventually we were told the situation would be dealt with in the morning by the hotel GM, however to nobody's surprise, there was no response from the GM, he was unavailable to discuss, and as a team of industry professionals, we left, having had another totally average meal at the Brasserie, with a vow to never to return to a property that we had all travelled literally thousand of miles to experience. Credit to the Spanish waiter in the Brasserie, the bar staff and the archery instructor, who were stand out amongst this incredibly poor team, simply by delivering an engaging service. A huge miss here, in a situation that could have been resolved in minutes.

Having the opportunity to play in the ladies open today which we enjoyed the course. Would just like to say very disappointed in the attitude of serving staff in the brasserie After checking in at the Pro shop we were advised to go upstairs for complimentary coffee to be met with a very condescending attitude and saying that we would have to pay for our coffee. It was the attitude that upset us the most we were attending the golf and also.looking at the hotel for another visit. This has completely put us off.