The Bell Inn, Stilton, Cambridgeshire

We loved everything about our stay. Food was excellent and staff recommendations were great.

We stopped by at the Bell Inn for one night and were pleased with our room and our food, both in the evening and at breakfast. We look out for somewhere that is quiet at night - which it was despite being close to the A1(M) - but has a bit of life and this was ideal for that. The hotel was refurbished in late 2024, and that showed. The room was small but very well laid out, and bed was comfortable. Water was provided. Parking was easy (available on street if car park is full). The pub wasn't too dead in the evening, unlike some others we have stayed at, and the village has a few others places to go if you want (we popped into another local pub). We were very impressed given the price we paid, though not everything was perfect. In particular, though the forecast was for a hot day, and we knew were were booking a room without air conditioning, we hadn't expected a 13.5 tog duvet. There was a fan and the room was reasonably well insulated, and let us open the windows (over the quiet courtyard) but we still did not sleep very well as the temperature had reached 30 degrees that day. At home we have a 3 tog duvet for most of the summer! We queried this the next morning when checking out but were told the duvet was "All year round" and the opposite might be a problem in winter. I don't think 13.5 is a neutral tog for all year round, and would suggest that for the whole summer 7.5 or 10.5 be used as more suitable for most people. A second issue was the shower - which was fine most of the time but the pressure went very low for a while, probably as neighbouring rooms were using theirs. Final room for improvement was how the phone is answered. We wanted to pre book our evening meal and tried ringing several times, but just got a very long message about weddings etc, before ringing without answer, so we gave up. Luckily there was good availability that evening for eating. Overall an impressive hotel, which would be particularly good to stay at outside hot periods (or if you like 13.5 tog duvets in the heat!).

Fantastic hotel and restaurant, spotless and comfortable Deluxe Classic Room with all that is needed for a relaxing stay. Tasty cheese board with a mixture of Stilton and top class meals in the restaurant. Friendly and accommodating staff who couldn't do enough for you.

Was in a room overlooking the courtyard, woken numerous times during the night by guests sitting out chatting loudly whilst vaping. The only way to have ventilation in the room was to have the patio door open, but this only allowed the noise to come into the room. Awful nights sleep - not what was needed before a day of meetings. The shower had more water coming out the back of it than actually from the front of the shower head, hence the water ran onto the edge of the bath and only the floor, making the floor very wet and slippery. Also, it was difficult to get a consistent temp of water, it was either too cold or too hot ! The actual space created by the shower curtain was tiny ! Two hours after leaving the hotel I got a call from a rather aggressive sounding member of staff accusing me of taking two espresso cups from my room ! I explained that I didn’t use the facilities in the room, and that I didn’t even know there was espresso cups. I was then told that they only had enough for each room and couldn’t replace them so if I had them they needed to be returned. I was shocked at the tone of the staff member. There is surely a better way to approach a customer than this - absolutely shocking. I was so annoyed by my bad experience I emailed the Inn and expressed my upset and anger about my experiences but 3 days later still no response. Whilst this Inn looks lovely I certainly wouldn’t recommend it on the basis of the poor customer service and standards.

We had our wedding at The Bell Inn Stilton yesterday and we couldn’t have asked for a better venue. It was everything we wanted and more for a perfect wedding day. The recently refurbished room was beautiful , staff were nothing short of amazing all day. Alisha and Katie worked tirelessly all day and Katie was still working hard at 12am to ensure everything continued to run smoothly to the very end. A massive thank you to these 2 ladies who ensured everything from the planning to the actual day was perfect and they really did attend to every detail and included some lovely suprise extras. Guests kept commenting on how lovely the quality of the food was. Would I recommend this venue? Absolutely do not hesitate to book your wedding here you really will not be disappointed.

Although it’s our local we haven’t eaten at The Bell for a long while because we had a disappointing Sunday lunch. We ordered a full English and Eggs Benedict, a pot of tea and something like an orange and passion fruit J2O. I couldn’t remember the brand at the time. (Frobishers). I can’t prove I didn’t get a bottle of Frobishers, but it tasted just like carton orange juice and I wasn’t served it in the bottle which is how it is normally served. I’m confident it wasn’t Frobishers, but thats what I was charged for. When we were served breakfast it was obvious that they had been sat under the hot plate for a significant time. The butter portion on the full English had no integrity, it was just liquid. The Eggs Benedict was particularly unpleasant. I wouldn’t have served that mess to a guest, I’d have had it recooked. It was so visually unappealing - see the photos. The Hollandaise on the eggs was curdled, the Hollandaise in the pan had a thick skin, like school custard. The overpowering taste was lemon, that’s all I could taste. The bacon was fine. The muffin had the chewy texture of rubber, and so did the eggs. I’m not pregnant, I’m not a salmonella risk, I like a runny yolk. If I’d have thrown the yolk it would have bounced around the bar and had someone’s eye out! No one came to ask how our breakfast was. I’m guessing they didn’t want to deal with the answer. I could have cooked much better at home and had fresh orange juice. Based on our experience I couldn’t recommend The Bell.