The At Houghton Hall - Huntingdonshire

My Gran would have described this establishment as fur coat, no knickers . It looks truly lovely. It 's in a great location and should be fabulous. But looks are deceptive. If you are not put off by the very rude staff, then the tables may well do it. Our table was so sticky that the serviettes were glued to it and great chunks of wool came off the sleeves of my jumper. I asked the waitress to clean the table, very grudgingly she applied some spray to the place setting in front of me, sniffed the air and said ooh smells nice dunnit? I pointed out that cleaning the table tended to imply the whole table rather than a bit. She giggled and ran off. Shame as food was good, but with tables this dirty makes you wonder about the hygiene standards in the kitchen.

We had a lovely meal provided by the owner of the Flying Kiwi inns. The stable block provides a lovely place to eat and was very popular, especially so during the Houghton Revisited Exhibition.

The quality of catering available in what appears to be a tea room in a stable is mind blowing. When you have completed your visit to this wonderful house, just relax in this venue.

I attempted to make a reservation at the Old Kitchen Restaurant located at Houghton Hall, but did not get a response from either the restaurant or the Hall. Upon arriving for a weekend in August, we were informed that the restaurant had shut down a month prior. It was disappointing that there was no mention of this closure on the Houghton Hall website.

Lovely setting in the original kitchen of the Hall (there is also a courtyard but not warm enough to eat outside when we visited). We had an excellent meal with charming service. Well worth combining with a visit to the Hall. It's within the grounds so you have to pay to get into the estate anyway but it's very interesting to visit the house and estate. There is also a Tea Room, but the Old Kitchen restaurant is a different place.