"We went here to get afternoon tea, which was 55£ through an offer online but with added service charge over 60£ for two. I explicitly wrote down that we’d like to have one vegan option and one non-vegan option. We were asked if we wanted to sit inside or in the garden and chose the garden because of the pleasant weather. However, this turned out to be a terrible decision. At no point in time after bringing the plate of sandwiches and the tea and taking our order did the waiters come out again. So in order to get more tea or water I had to go down the stairs and walk down the hallway just to get the attention of a waiter from the inside restaurant. Moreover, there were only black, green, peppermint and camomile tea available. It also took quite some time till the sandwiches arrived. Asking which were vegan and which weren’t the waitress didn’t know at first and then just proceeded to say that all where vegan despite us specifying that only one guest was vegan. They tasted a bit stale and honestly just not a lot better than a Tesco meal deal sandwich would. They also differed from the menu that you can find online, tasting generally pretty plane. Additionally, you could not get refills for the maybe 5 bite sized sandwiches which was only explained to me after specifically asking. Generally speaking, nothing was explained, no menu handed out, no options for tea stated. We had to drag everything out of the service staff. The scones were okay but missing flavor and served with only one kind of jam. Walking inside specifically asking for salt I was handed a completely empty salt grinder. Furthermore, each time I wanted just some water, I had to walk in again because there were no waiters around whatsoever even after I voiced my discontent about this. The final desserts were tasty but also served when we still had some sandwiches on the table. Judging by the photos of some other customers who don’t specifically declare that they are vegan I am now also kind of scared they weren’t even vegan. In conclusion, while the service wasn’t rude, it was still a terrible service experience overall. Specifically from a 5 star hotel and a regular price point of 35£/pp I would have not expected worse service than if I would have been able to take everything myself. Lastly, not providing more than 4 tea variations, the substandard non-refillable sandwiches and the inability to cater for both vegan and non vegan at the same time really did not convince me to ever go there again. Not worth it."
