Fisrtly I must point out that I did not stay overnight at the hotel but my visit to the resaurant has left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wouldn't even consider doing so.

My husband reserved a table for Sunday lunch five days in advance of the event as we were taking friends and wanted to ensure we had a good table as we were dining with children.

On arrival at our booking time of 1.30pm we discovered that the staff had failed to reserve ourt table despite us being in the diary. The excuse was that other tables had over run but we had also turned up with more guests than expected. We were a party of four adults, three children and two infants in high chairs yet they were saying we had only requested a table for four adults and two children. Slightly unbelievable considering three of the children are ours so there is no way we would be making a reservation for just two of them.

Even though this error had occured they seemed to show no sympathy to the fact that we had been inconvenienced and they left us waiting in the reception of the hotel with no offer of showing us to the bar to wait or getting us any drinks while we waited.

After waiting 25 minutes with no further updates from the staff as to how much longer we may be waiting or apologies for us having to wait the duty manager finally came in to usher us to our tables. She made it blatantly obvious she was annoyed to have been put in this position because she wouldnt engage in conversation with us and would just say in a rude manner "well you table is ready now so why dont you go through"

After getting ourselves settled at the table we went to the carvery to get the childrens meals sorted. We were greeted at the carvery by a choice of lamb, pork, gammon or a dried up end piece of beef.

On returning to the table my husband looked as if he was going to have a panic attack and was thrusting the menu at me saying "look, it's £8.50 for a childs carvery". I told him he must be mistaken as on our last visit it had been £4.50 which included a clown ice cream. But when I looked at the menu he was correct, it clearly stated,

£7.95 for a main course or £11.50 for a main & dessert
add a scoop of ice cream to your dessert for £1.00

child's carvery £8.50 for main and a small ice cream

I questioned this with the waiter who basically didnt have a clue. He insisted that this was correct even after we pointed out the fact that this must be the biggest price increase on a childrens meal ever as it was almost double what we paid previously.

He then said that you dont actually have to have the ice cream with the childrens meal and you could infact just have the carvery for £4.50. Which basically means they were charging £4.50 for the carvery then £4.00 for the ice cream.

Understandably we gave the ice cream a miss!!!

While I was at the carvery the waiter did come over to me to explain that it was a typing error on the menu and it should say childs carvery £8.50 for main & dessert, which would be a full size dessert as they dont do childrens portions and no more clown ice creams.

By this point I was starting to get the distinct impression that children arent welcome here.

The real highlight of the event was on my return from the carvery when walking back to my seat I slipped on a piece of meat on the floor. This resulted in me landing on my knee and in trying to stop myself from falling the nearest thing I could grab hold of was the highchair but I actually got hold of my sons arm almost tipping the highchair over.

My husband immediately came over asking what had happened. I said I had slipped on something which is when we discovered the meat on the floor. A waitress then came over and my husband pointed the meat out to her and explained I had slipped on it. She just quickly said sorry, took the piece of meat and scuttled away.

Nobody came to see if I was ok and there was no mention of actually reporting this in the accident book. I was already embarrassed by the fact thay I had fallen down and made enough of a show to have the whole restaurant stop and stare that I didnt want to make a fuss about how sore my knee actually was and how they hadnt followed the correct procedures or shown any care.

It became apparent just minutes later why the staff didnt want to get bogged down dealing with the issue because they all rushed over to the carvery to get their own meals (with the duty manager ensuring her place at the front of the queue).

It was a relief to everybody when we finally left as the distinct impression we got from the place was that they didnt really want us there and couldnt wait to see the back of us.

The following day my husband called the manager to speak with him about the events who seemed very apologetic and keen to compensate us for the distress so suggested we briefly put in writing the points we had raised with him which we did.

A couple of days later we received a reply from the owner of the hotel who had taken her staffs opinion that they had done their utmost to accomodate us as gospel and didnt think that her childrens menu was at all unreasonable and spent much of her letter going on about how she "personally oversees staff training and endeavours to maintain the highest level of service to customers". Basically a text book quote but she could not explain as to why the standards were so low on this occasion and why her staff failed to make a reservation for the correct number of people, why the pricing on the menu was incorrect or why the accident wasnt entered in the accident book as it should have been.

My husband today called to say how disappointed he was with her negative response to our situation but found the owner isnt available. She is in Biarritz. Which leads me to ask, exactly how does she manage to personally oversee her staff to ensure the highest level of service when she is in Biarritz? Simple answer, she doesnt, she doesnt care about customers only the money they bring in to ensure she can swan off to Biarritz.