Willington Hall Hotel

Breakfast: help you self to juice/cereal/yoghurt. We then had a cooked breakfast. Which was lovely. Evening meal: Was excellent with lovely wine.

One thing room was to hot and we were unable to turn heating off.

Today, 26th September, we took a house guest with us to Willington Hall Hotel for Afternoon Tea. It was absolutely superb. We have had a number of Afternoon Teas in various places but I can honestly say this was one of the best. Ambiance wonderful, staff extremely friendly, food delicious. The sandwiches were very testy and fresh, the scones were warm and very light with lashing of clotted cream and strawberry jam. The cakes were, lovely, moist lemon drizzle, a delicious mango Panna Cotta and equally delicious chocolate and fresh cream Choux pastry bun. Top up of tea, no problem at all! The waiter was delightful. Thank you Willington Hall, we will be back.

How i regret my failure to check online reviews before booking Afternoon Tea. Hapless guests will be duped by their website featuring a historic house in a delightful rural setting. It is only as one gets up close, and the heart sinks at the decrepid nature of the place. Here’s a summary of our experience as a party of 3 including my husband’s visiting work colleague: - Chef was smoking in clear view of the entrance as we approached; - Unpleasant stale odour upon entry, reminiscent of a badly run retirement home; - Crumbling exterior was perfectly matched by its shabby interior decor; - No one at front desk so we had to search for staff. On departure a sullen girl was at reception, but totally indifferent to our presence; - Cafeteria-style plain heavy crockery; - One PG Tips teabag per person….i kid you not! Shocking for this price bracket where quality tea leaves should be bare minimum! - Basic, unembellished sandwich selection. I was informed those who use the Groupon discount don’t even get the smoked salmon! - Stone cold scones (supposedly freshly baked!) I asked for plain ones but none available despite it being on the menu; - One thimble of cheap fruitless jam & identical portion of clotted cream for 3! - Supermarket style cake selection including a sickly, watery pane cotta in a shot glass; - Lack of service. No one followed up after the tea was served. (However, i must mention a French waiter who was friendly, and accommodated my request to have the window table. He must have been acutely aware how appalling it all was given his cultural background of culinary excellence.) We didn’t complain at the time to save our guest any awkwardness. And anyway, nothing could be done to rectify such an appalling offering. However, I called the following day to provide feedback and give them a chance to redeem themselves. I was met with defensiveness and a clear attitude problem from Mel, the Manager. From the outset, her reluctance to give me her name was highly unprofessional. She was unapologetic and dismissive of my comments but agreed to look into it with a promise to call back…obviously a ruse as that was 5 days ago and not a peep. From the other comments i’ve read, the most regular guests are the Hunt members & followers - a perfect fit given their delusions of grandeur and entitlement to run roughshod over everyone else!….i have long experience of this bloodthirsty fraternity! The positive comments posted on Tripadvisor obviously come from this rabble. Together with the horse livery on site, this is clearly the main revenue stream for this shambolic business. I shudder to think how those who stay here must feel when they are trapped in this house of horrors.

Top quality Sunday roast surrounded by beautiful countryside and the historic hotel. Service was friendly and great. Highly recommended

We went for coffee and decided to have some scones as well. It was beautifully served in a comfortable sitting room. Lovely helpful friendly and efficient staff. Altogether a very relaxing experience.

Lovely old building in great grounds and well worth a visit - staff were welcoming and food very good. The location works for many local attractions and they take gdogs too.

the whole manor-house feel was marvellous. Room was nice. Dinner was lovely. Barman/waiter (Michel?) was exceptionally friendly and helpful.

Breakfast was ok - service was a little slow and off-hand. But nothing terrible (just not as good as the evening experience!). Incredibly detailed and somewhat incomprehensibly itemised bill was bizarre to say the least. Needs some attention!

No hair dryers in the room . Poor cooked breakfast

Empty of customers

Room was lovely , very comfortable, clean and tea and coffee very welcome, bathroom very clean and fresh towels, shower and bath were excellent and view of the grounds and Cheshire hills were lovely. Breakfast was excellent with very good choice and the option to have our breakfast in the bar with our dog was a lovely addtion. We had dinner on one evening which was good and we enjoyed drinks on the terrace at sunset. The grounds were lovely and there was ample space to explore with our dog. Large amount of free parking space was great.

The hotel was locked at 10pm on a couple of occasions when we wanted to enjoy the pub ; we did note the comment of the "curfew"in the booking but it was cited as being later and this would have been welcome. The bar also seems to shut at random times in the evening as we would have enjoyed a drink on a couple of occasions up to local closing time at least.