Homemade Fishcakes
Royal Oak

Royal Oak

Bongate, Appleby-in-Westmorland United Kingdom, United Kingdom

Pub • Vegan • British • Vegetarian


"We had a disappointing experience during our stay. The bedroom was quite cold, and despite asking for the heating to be turned on, we had to sit in our coats. The bathroom was freezing each morning, and the dining room didn't offer much relief either. The heating was activated for just one hour, which meant the radiator was cold again when we returned to our room. Their cost-cutting measures significantly impacted our enjoyment. We raised our concerns multiple times, but there was no one available when we settled the bill. At £100 per night for bed and breakfast (totaling over £200 including dinner), it was frustrating to be so uncomfortable. Another guest mentioned they had complained about the heating during their previous visit, only to be told there was an ongoing issue. It seems they simply won’t turn on the heating. We won’t be returning, especially since it’s quite a drive to get into town. Regarding the room, we were assigned an attic room (Room 8). It had many steep stairs and low headroom in places. While the bathroom was nice, it was also freezing. The towel rail was pointless since it was stone cold, and my husband had to skip his morning shower due to the chill. We ended up moving to Room 7, which was smaller but slightly warmer despite having a cold bathroom. The bathroom door didn’t shut properly, and the lights were all or nothing. The next morning, we moved our belongings back to Room 8 since they finally decided to turn on the electric wall heater—which they could have done from the outset. It only took the chill off for a little while. On our last night, we experienced a brief boost of heat, but it only lasted an hour. When we returned after dinner, the room was already cool again. As for nearby activities, there’s a park across a busy road, but everything else requires driving to reach shops and restaurants. Safety-wise, the hotel faces a main road, and there are very few parking spaces available (around four); otherwise, you need to park on the main road. Walking to town is possible, but it takes about 15 to 20 minutes downhill. In terms of food and drinks, the breakfast was decent. When asked if we wanted toast, we received just one slice on the same plate as the cooked breakfast. After asking for more, we had to wait a while before we were given another slice. Dinner was acceptable but nothing to write home about; it felt overpriced compared to the excellent authentic Indian restaurant we found in town, which served great food at better prices and opened at 5 PM. Overall, I'd recommend bringing warm clothes for both the bedroom and dining area; we even saw another guest sitting in her coat the entire time."

The Bull Inn

The Bull Inn

United Kingdom, TN33 0EA, Rother

Pub • Steak • Vegan • British


"So on arriving at your bar restaurant we were greeted by a lovely young lady that asked us to wait just a second while we waited for another person to greet us and ask our names, the first impression was that everyone was very pleasant and we felt quite comfortable. The person booking us in looked us up on the iPad and then said I'm really sorry I'm not sure what what room your in let me check on the group what's app. There were some alarm bells ringing however we are we are reasonable people so we accepted this and waited. After a couple of minutes the person dealing with us found out which room we were in and took us up a flight of stairs and showed us in. On first impressions the room looked like it had been recently done up but to be honest a poor standard. The most notcible thing was that the room was at an angle, it slanted at every angle, you could tell because the skirting boards were at different heights, the dressing table was physical wonky and the bed I almost rolled off off during the night. And just to mention the bed a again it was really noisy, creaking every time you moved and upon looking we discovered that there were loose screws. Also there is a step into the bathroom which caught me out twice and should be addressed. Upon looking up and down the street for local restaurants were decided the food was quite limited in battle high street, so we decided to eat where we were staying and I have to say this was our biggest mistake. I ordered the prawn cocktail and BBQ wings and my partner ordered the nachos. My prawn cocktail arrived with no source and I had to ask for lemon, the chicken wings were bland and pink in the middle(I have photos) the only saving grace was that the nachos were ok. But for the prices you charge and food that we received we were not satisfied. Although I will say that the did take off the price off the food we were not satisfied with there was no offer of an alternative so we both went to be bed hungry, in fact coming down for crisps because we were so hungry. The fact you charge £14 a burger and expect another £4 for fries is ridiculous. And the same for breakfast(which should have been included) you get breakfast for £10 but doesn't include drinks but if you pay £12.50 you get coffee and tea, this is obviously a rip off. The saga continues!! Although you are a busy bar especially as I can appreciate on a Saturday I was kept up until 12.40am by what appears to be staff members that you employ, shouting and swearing while we were both trying to sleep Surly as an owner you would respect the people that were paying £110 a night to get good night sleep or not as it feels. And just to rub insult to injury when we left there was no one to say goodbye, did you have a nice stay all we got was a couple of guys outside smoking and when we did leave he went back inside to see if we had left a key. I emailed the manager and the response did not once mention an apology which made our experience more disappointing, a sorry goes a long way sometimes, Overall do not stay here if you want any type of customer service."