Healds Hall Hotel

The food was tasty and well prepared, but the service let the evening down. Despite plenty of staff being around, we had to catch someone’s attention to order drinks, and getting help remained difficult. The music stopped during dinner and only came back after I asked a staff member to restart it, which interrupted the atmosphere. There was confusion at the start because our reservation time was wrong. I’d book online to reduce the chance of that happening. Good dishes, but below average service made for a disappointing experience.

The whole day went smoothly, and our guests have since told me it was one of the best weddings they’ve attended, if not the best. The venue looked amazing decorated, and the food was outstanding. Matt was there with advice throughout the planning and was just as brilliant on the day. Every member of staff was amazing and did everything they could for us. We’re so grateful, and I can’t recommend Healds Hall enough.

We’d enjoyed several family meals at Healds Hall before, all 5 out of 5, but this meal for 20 was really poor and I doubt we’ll return. The room and table looked lovely, though it was a little chilly without being uncomfortable. Staff were polite but seemed disorganised with the food and drinks. The food was very disappointing: bland soup, beef meant to be medium that was extremely rare, and fatty pork that also seemed undercooked. We got just two small roasties each and little of the other vegetables. By the time everyone had been served, the meal was cold. The sweets were fine, though hard to get wrong.

The beds were the main problem. Over my three-day stay I slept no more than 2/3 hours on two nights because the mattresses were so bad. I started in a twin room, moved to another room with equally horrible mattresses, then tried a more “premium” double room. That mattress was still bad, though better than the twin room ones. Some rooms can also be really small. The food was pretty good, 4/5, and most staff were kind and helpful. The hotel looks good from outside and has a well-kept garden. Overall, 1.5 / 5.