The Royal Hotel

The food itself was fine, but the overall experience and the way our complaint was handled left a lot to be desired. We won't return. We booked the Christmas Day meal at The Royal Hotel and were very disappointed. Each course took an extremely long time to arrive, and there was little communication. It made the day stressful, especially for the children, who had to wait much longer than expected. No manager checked on us or explained what was going on, and our attempts to speak with someone went nowhere. By the end, our plans for the rest of Christmas Day had been badly affected. We raised our concerns afterward, hoping for a fair resolution, but the replies felt dismissive. The goodwill gesture was a tiny fraction of what we'd paid and didn't reflect the disruption or its effect on our day. After talking to others locally, it seems we're not the only ones to have this sort of experience here. That's disappointing given how much families budget and save for special occasions.

We took a chance on going out for Christmas Day dinner, something I'd never done before, and it unfortunately wasn't worth the £95 per head. We'd had a nice Sunday dinner there in the past, so we went in with high hopes. No one in our party really enjoyed the experience. Free parking was a good start, and the table looked nice with sunlight pouring in. But there were no blinds for people facing the sun, which made it difficult and uncomfortable. The appetiser and starters were pretty good, though there was no drinks menu. The waits were very long. We wondered what was happening between starter and main, and the waiting staff came to take our order again, which was surprising since we'd chosen our meals well before the day and had confirmation of our booking and choices. The dinner felt meanly portioned, and honestly wasn't enough. I had two thin slices of turkey, while most others had three. We each got about half a potato, though possibly a couple of people got one and a half, around five Brussels sprouts, one tiny pig in a blanket, a few carrots, a small ball of stuffing and some sliced parsnips. Then there was another wait for pudding, and we were still hungry. Dessert was okay. The mince pies were the tiniest I've seen, about the size of a 10p coin. Tea and coffee were nice, but then the music was switched off as if to tell us to leave, and we moved out quickly.

The location was perfect, the staff were lovely and helpful, and breakfast was good with several options. The bathroom was clean and nice. The rest of the room was as clean as they could get it, but stains all over the bedroom carpet made it feel gross, especially since we didn't know what they were. It really needs professional deep cleaning or new carpets throughout. The bed was too soft for me and not very comfortable, though that could just be personal preference.

The Christmas dinner was utterly disappointing, from the food and presentation to the way the event was managed. I blame upper management or the owner more than the staff. The servers looked to be around 16 to 20 on average, and seemed inadequately trained or led. The homemade mince pies listed on the menu were not homemade at all. We got tiny, cheap-looking mini pies in foil, served cold on a little plate with no cream, custard or other sauce. We arrived at about 2.30pm, but the first course didn't arrive until 3.30. The main course came after 4, an hour and a half after we arrived, and was warm at best, with small amounts of meat and vegetables. Dessert and the mince pies followed after 5. At 5.30 the background music was simply switched off, with a clear message to get out. If I'd known how it would go, I'd have wanted to leave five minutes after arriving. This was my first and last time risking a Christmas meal out, though I know countless places where I could feel fairly confident about Christmas Day. Very, very poor.