Buckingham Villiers Hotel

The room was comfortable enough, but the bathroom needs updating. The sink had several deep cracks, and the toilet cistern took ages to refill. We’d been looking forward to our New Year getaway, and it was good to find free parking right next door. The dinner we had was well prepared and the service was good, but the menu was uninspiring and left us very disappointed. The sample menu online had plenty of variety. We knew not everything shown would necessarily be available, but in January there were just two starters, chicken or squid; burger, steak or Caesar salad for mains; and sorbet, affogato or sticky toffee pudding for dessert. The fixed-price menu offered more choice, but had no individual prices or indication that dishes could be mixed and matched. Olives were the only vegan starter or main. We aren’t vegan, but food is a big part of a trip away for us. Let’s hope breakfast is better than dinner was.

The hosts are lovely and always try to make sure we feel special, happy and comfortable. The food is high quality, and well-behaved dogs are welcome. Right in the centre of Buckingham, it’s easy to get to the shops, university and various landmarks.

The location is excellent, and the service was good. The rooms were decent and the bar was nice. I was less impressed by the food: the prices suggest top-quality dishes, but what I had was mediocre at best. Maybe it was just an off night.

The food was good, though there were several details that felt overlooked. Mains and desserts were limited beyond steaks and burgers, which I understand, but the fish wasn’t available one night. The next night one dessert was unavailable, along with two of the four cheeses on the board. We ordered olives as nibbles, but they arrived with the starter. We chose a starter instead of dessert because the desserts had taken so long to arrive the previous night. Breakfast also seemed understaffed. My avocado breakfast was missing watercress, and the next day my full English was missing fried bread, had a stone-cold sausage and only a very small portion of baked beans. On departure day, they took my money before we’d even had breakfast. I was told that’s now standard to avoid checkout queues. We stayed for two nights, initially as part of a break that included a visit to Bletchley Park, then added an extra night. The staff were very friendly and our room was comfortable enough, though rather tired. The bathroom badly let it down. As another review mentioned, there was no light over the basin, and the shower over the bath needed some sort of handle. Without an extractor fan, water ran down the walls. There were no hooks for bathrobes, no toilet brush, and both toilet roll holders were coming away from the wall. The toilet was difficult to flush, and each time the loose handle felt as though it might come off completely. I told reception about these things before we left, but after reading other reviews, I assume they’re noted without being actioned. We enjoyed the stay well enough, but some details need refining.