Gemma's Reviews

We ate here last Friday having booked last minute into the hotel. First impressions are excellent. We decided to go to the bar first for a drink and the staff took excellent care of us, even transferring our aperitif to the table. The Orangery is like a century old conservatory with an elegant feel which overlooks the hotel grounds and river. The service was excellent throughout, topping up wine and water glasses without intruding too much on your meal. So after setting such a lovely scene, the food was quite disappointing. My boyfriend had the celeriac soup which was lovely and the highlight of the whole meal. My fois gras and quail terrine however, was decidedly lacking in flavour. For mains my braised beef and my boyfriend's chicken and mushroom pie really weren't anything special. It seems a great deal of time and care is taken over the presentation – every piece of meat or veg is placed just so – but this appears to be at the detriment to good old fashioned taste. We bypassed dessert and coffee and our 2 course meal with a bottle of wine came in at over £120! This seems quite extortionate for such average food.

We recently enjoyed an interesting meal at Maze. The food all comes in a bijou form which does tend to leave you wanting but that's not to say it wasn't tasty – which it was. You are encouraged to in effect order 2 starters and 2 mains each which we decided to share and we certainly enjoyed an eclectic mix of flavours. The service is as it should be and the decor and atmosphere all seem to work, but I still don't think the overall experience merited the £200 bill for 2 people.