For 130 dollars (australian) per night the room was excellent with the comfiest bed and quiet surroundings. But we spent 440 dollars on the gourmet dinner with wine to accompany each course. After 8 tiny morsels we had to order cheese we were so hungry, and that portion was tiny too! Our fellow diners had come all the way from Switzerland and took photos of everything (it was exquisitely presented). Breakfast was disappointing .

We too were greeted by a receptionist who was both charmless and bordering on rude. Our room (number 4) overlooked the garden and lake and was spacious and comfortable.

The restaurant was what was disappointing. The "current" 7 course menu on the website was much better than the 5 course menu we were offered. There was an extra course of oysters that our waitress did not bother to offer us and the substitute I was offered as I do not eat beef (and told them this in advance) was inadequate (baked squash) and different than what I was told it would be (tuna). the service was slow and sloppy- the waitresses were more concerned with talking amongst themselves. The meal was adequate but not special or extrodinary.

Breakfast was a continental breakfast with good jam and breads- again service let the place down.

We stayed at Franklin Manor for four nights in March 2005 (over Easter). The hotel is quite small - fourteen rooms - and the focus is on the food in the restaurant which is run by a two Michelin star chef.

Franklin Manor is a house that was built at the turn of the century by a local business man. It was derelict for a number of years but is now a beautifully decorated boutique hotel. The public rooms are very attractive with both contemporary colours and furniture (it works).

They have standard, superior and deluxe rooms. We had two nights in a standard room and two in a superior room. The standard room was nicely decorated in heritage style, without being too fussy. The bed was comfortable (king size, but our friend's room had queen size). However the room was a bit pokey, largely because a reasonable sized bathroom had been built into it. The standard rooms varied and our friend's standard room felt more spacious than ours (they were in room 5A, we were in room 10).

The superior room was a substantial improvement on the standard room. The room was larger, with a beautiful window seat, the towels and cosmetics were better quality etc. If your budget covers it I'd strongly suggest upgrading. However I wouldn't make the move to a deluxe room as they were only marginally better than the superior - unless you really want a fireplace and a small spa bath.

What made the visit for us was the food. We ate in the restaurant twice - the 7 course degustation one night & a smaller 3 course meal another night. Both were excellent. The degustation menu shone - each course was a perfect balance of flavours and textures. A beautiful meal. The other meal, along with the breakfasts we had in the dining room, was very good.
They also have an outstanding wine list and you can visit the cellar to choose your wine from a great variety of Tasmanian and other Australian wines.

We were met on our arrival at Franklin Manor by a charmless receptionist who led us to a cramped room with woefully inadequate storage facilities.However we were there for the 2* Michelin food and were sure this would compensate for these inadequacies.How wrong we were. The menu was lacking in any flair or imagination and the standard of cooking was mediocre.The rolls were like bricks,the soup thin and one-dimentional,the main course was tasteless and a strawberry sorbet had not been sieved and was a mass of pips. Franklin Manor is over-hyped,unfriendly,pretentious and absurdly overpriced.We would never go there again