Pretentious, rude and offensive owner/manager, was once a decent place, now it's a total waste of time.
I have previously visited this venue on numerous occassions without fault and had even stayed at the hotel. However my recent experience was enough to prevent me ever returning. I contacted Cartford requesting a lunch reservation, yet I got no reply, I then messaged again and still no reply, the following day I then tried to phone, but was left continually ringing for over 2 hours. There was clearly no one answering these calls, as it would simply go to voicemail. I then commented on their facebook page complaining which was removed, and suddenly I received a message saying to phone which I did and there was no reply!!?? Having had little success I thought I would try my luck as a walk in, that proved the biggest waste of time ever. We parked up and walked to a sectioned off welcome area stating you could not go any further without a pre-make booking, there were two ladies in front of us waiting, so I asked if they were in a queue, they replied that they had been stood there for 10 minutes and had been totally ignored by all the staff despite asking if they could be seated!! This was a serious red flag as there were plenty of their 'teenage staff' wandering around serving, looking lost, and serving the few people already seated. At this point there were 5 tables with no one sitting at them. I took the initiative and called on of the staff members over, who informed me he would have to see if there were any tables free, minutes later he returned with the manager. I explained to this rather pompous man that I had messaged and received no reply , then told to call which I did for 2 hours and no reply. He asked did I leave a message and I said no as I wanted to make a confirmed booking and had no idea whether anyone would bother replying as no one would answer. He then said that someone had been manning the phones, implying I was lying about this!! I was furious as it was obvious from the continual engaged and non engaged tone that they actually were not answering but instead where only listening to messages left regarding reservations. This place has no idea how to operate at the moment, it's a complete mess. The two ladies who were incidentally separate parties were also unceremoniously told they would have no chance getting a table despite there being almost half the spaces free. Apparantly, according to the smug manager these were for guests of the hotel and even the possibility of us having one drink each would involve someone having to re-wipe the table which would be too much hard work and slow their turn around ...yes that is actually what this guy said. So, if you want just a drink of water, don't stop here, as you can't even get that !!!!! Disgraceful
To add insult to injury because I told them I would leave a bad review on their facebook page they actually blocked me to prevent this, following some smart alec remarks they sent me, this is simply a tactic to prevent bad reviews, so think how many others they have silenced, don't be fooled by the reviews, they simply stop you if they can from providing a real insight into how the owners of this place operates, from the Trip Advisor reviews he seems to be mentioned time and time again, but I am sure his head is too big to care.