My husband and I had a one night stay at The Castle. The welcome was
faultless, the meal fantastic but the room too hot and too noisy. Make sure you check where your room is when you book (not facing onto Fore Street).

Otherwise I would recommend this hotel and restaurant to anyone.

The Castle has a reputation in the South West as being extremely posh with a very expensive award winning restaurant - however, whilst it was infinitely nicer than the Holiday Inn located just off the M5, I have stayed in other hotels more deserving of the Castle's reputation.

The hotel does have lots of character, the staff were attentive and very professional - dinner and breakfast were very good (deserts were superb and the cheese trolley is something else!), the room was clean and well furnished/presented.

The restuarant offered 2 set dinner menu options which were extremely reasonably priced and included some excellent dishes - we were able to pick and choose between the main menu and the set menus without any issues.

It's an ideal position to explore Taunton town centre from - right in the heart of the town - and unlike one of the previous reviewers, I did not find that opening my window made the room too noisy to sleep in.

The bathroom was fantastic, with a great bath and shower - only down side to the lovely tiled floor is that with socks/tights on, it can be a bit of a slippery death trap - but a towel on the floor sorts that out quite easily!! ;o)

The bar area of the hotel is also rather good - it is very modern compared to the rest of the hotel and seemed very popular whilst we were having our pre-dinner drinks there.

The hotel also has a brasserie and jazz bar, which also seemed to be very popular (the locals we were visiting advised that they often go there to eat/drink, as the service and the food quality is reflective of the main restaurant in the hotel but at a much lower cost).

I live in Taunton, and recommended that a relation and his wife stay at the hotel, which they found very nice and relaxing. I had dinner with them in the restaurant, which has a very nice atmosphere, and the food is well cooked. The presentation of the meal was very well done except there were no potatoes or vegetables offered at any time. The Cheese trolley had no covering on it, and most of the hard cheeses were dried up on the outside.
The Hotel advertises an al a carte menu, but it was not offered.
I would have expected that a hotel of this reputation would have had silver service in its restaurant.

My first business trip to Taunton and stayed at the Castle. The ladies on reception were very welcoming and friendly and the room, on the top floor, was as expected, with a bottle of water provided - why don't all hotels do this?

Only one real negative was the thinness of the walls .. I was woken at 6:30 when the person in the next room plugged something in to a socket, just above my head! And then I had to listen through their errrrrrrrrr bathroom activity before I managed to doze off again.

I didnt eat in the hotel as this was the day of the Argentina v Holland game so spent the evening in the pleasant town, for which the hotel is ideally situated, drinking beer followed by an excellent chinese meal.

Would I stay at the Castle again? .. definately, as it was a good hotel, excellent location and friendly staff. Just hope that all the walls arent that thin!