Stanwell House Hotel - Lymington, United Kingdom     

Bottom line is that we had a wonderful dinner in the fish restaurant.... eventually! It was clear that the waiting staff were getting things mixed up. Our dinner was initially taken to another table. After a while it was rejected back to the kitchen then brought out to us... cold. Another wait, and dinner arrived, and as I said to start with - it was wonderful and worth the wait. Looking around it was obvious we weren't the only ones with this problem. I'm all for diversity in the workplace, but I got the impression that the root cause of the problem was that the waiting staff, whilst doing their best to be friendly, had extremely low levels of skills in the English language. I'm a restaurateur myself, and was even more stunned to find out that the entire dinner service for the fish restaurant was being done by only one junior chef - a mere 19 year old at that! He must have managed dinner for around 60 people (plus the obvious fact that some dinners had to be redone because of service issues). This young chef deserves a medal and in my view is one to watch out for in the future (I'd give him a job any day). On discretely quizzing some of the staff (they knew I'm in the trade) it turns out that it is the "norm" in this hotel for the kitchen to be understaffed - all the chefs doing massively over the 48hrs European weekly limit. It also sounds like most of the kitchen staff will move on quite soon unless something radical happens to improve their working conditions. I wouldn't normally comment on something like staffing, but it is extremely relevant - food might be great now, but if the team move on, any favourable review now will have little relevance in the weeks to come. A great shame.

We wanted a short trip away from the hustle and bustle.. Only a short drive to the New Forest and much better than all the preparations for a 2 day trip abroad. We booked on an internet site for 1 night with a meal incl. in the hotel's fantastic seafood restaurant or bistro if you prefer otherwise. We were welcomed with a bottle of wine and a fabulous cosy room overlooking the garden with views to the Solent and IOW. The room was tastefully decorated and the bed was probably the most comfortable we'd slept in at a hotel. The overall feel of the hotel is relaxing but yet with a very high standard. We had the most fantastic meal in the seafood restaurant which I'd thoroughly recommend. Time passed slowly and we certainly relaxed in the beautifully kept garden. We will definitely return to Stanwell as it exceeded our expectations.