The Painswick

This is a delightful small hotel situated in quiet location close to the town centre with lovely country views. There is plenty of parking, the hotel is very comfortable with attractive public rooms and bedrooms. We stayed in a cosy room which was on the small size but more than big enough for two nights. The restaurant was pretty good offering an interesting sharing menu concept, which worked well. Less good and below our expectations was their taster menu, which in part repeated items from the main menu which we enjoyed on the first night. The dining room was attractive, though rather gloomy in the evening and could benefit from using table cloths to brighten it up. The chairs were not particularly comfortable. Breakfast was very good. Above all, the team who we met were friendly and helpful throughout our short stay.

Our arrival went unnoticed, thankfully we knew from a past visit where the bar was, on the first floor, so made our way there. We informed the barman of our 7.45pm dinner reservation, then sat down for drinks. Service was friendly however, during our wait to be served drinks another member of staff did come into the room, on two separate occasions, to light the fire however, made no attempt to say good evening, enquire if we were being looked after, it was like we were not there! At 8pm, as no one had come to collect us for our dinner, we went down to the restaurant to ask for our table. We were sat at a large round, wooden carved topped table, the only one in the restaurant. The initial seating for the three of us was such that we were spread about, with one chair right next to the large centre table, used by all the waiting staff to access the cutlery draw! After a few mentions of this, which sadly fell on deaf ears, we moved ourselves around the table to make it a more cosy setting arrangement, away from the 'cutlery draws' One of us had a coat, as it was a cold evening. No offer was made by any member of staff to hang the coat so we it left on a chair. We were then handed menus. When I booked (which was only a couple of weeks prior) the examples on the restaurant website were for an A La Carte menu, along with a Tasting menu. When we sat down we were informed the menus had changed and it was now a 'Sharing Plate' style menu. The menu is quite extensive, with recommendations from the staff as to how many of each we would need. The food was tasteful, but in some areas lacked thought. For example the Crab on Toast looked exquisite with the decorations, then the Fish (I believe was cod) was just plonked on the centre of the plate, with the curried sauce on either side, with nothing else. It looked uninviting, but did taste delicious. The server did ask us for comments on the menu, but never followed this up! One comment I would make is to save diners having to ask "how many dishes would they recommend per person" as well as "how many pieces were included in each portion" they might like to put this on the menu! We ordered a bottle of wine, the first glass was poured, we then topped up our own glasses for most of the evening. When the bill came and after it had paid, we were informed the wine had not been charged, but an extra cocktail had! Admittedly the waiter did remove the service charge as an apology, but this only went to reinforce our feelings about the dining experience. This was, the food was delicious however, the overall service from start to finish let the who experience down. Therefore instead of 4 stars it only deserved 3.

We stayed at the Painswick for two nights, in a wonderful room but the real treat was the food. The first night we had the sharing plates which were delicious especially the artichokes and also the croquets!! Based on that initial experience we tried the tasting menu the following night. The chef is an absolute star, all his dishes were superb . I would definitely recommend the restaurant and hotel. We will be back!!

Firstly, this is a very good hotel with good service despite my average score. We had a comfortable room, plenty of space etc. We arrived at slightly earlier check-in time, which was not a problem, had arrived slightly dishevelled as we had been for quite a long walk and got caught by the rain. We were so glad to make use of our room & keen to make ourselves a hot drink. Therein, the problem started. The coffee machine did not work at all (we have exactly the same one at home & therefore understood how to operate etc). We reported it and a nice young lady came to take a look. Still no joy. The same lady kindly fetched another identical machine to try and that one also did not work. We asked if we could have some instant coffee but was told no. We were forced to go downstairs & pay for 2 coffees. I find it completely unacceptable that no one could sort this problem for us or indeed, bother with us at all after I had reported it. It left rather a sour taste for me.

I wanted a luxury hotel to treat my husband in the Cotswolds and this hotel didn't disappoint. We visited end of January and we were kindly upgraded, when we decided to stay for another evening they accomodated us again. The staff were friendly and professional and made us feel very welcome. I would like to say a big thank you to Vesna and Daniel for their hospitality. The hotel is a beautiful building and very tastefully decorated, the food was equally fantastic and a good selection of wines. The place has a quiet abimance and we wanted to come away and swtich off, no kids or barking dogs, just peace luxury and a beautiful hotel in a stunning part of the Cotswold area. I would definetley return and recommend to others.

We went for afternoon tea it was a Christmas present so was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately it was very disappointing and not the best value for money we weren’t even offered any hot drinks, we were sat around a log fire in a very small room and they didn’t get the fire going until we were leaving which spoilt the country hotel experience We did pay the service charge but only because it was a very small room And we didn’t want to make a fuss but it certainly wasn’t what we thought it would be very sadly