The Blue Grill - New Ollerton

Very pleasant dining experience in elegant surroundings. Staff very friendly and helpful. Food was nice, well presented and reasonably priced for a la carte. Nice to sit with a drink in the main hall or the library, very reminiscent of Downton Abbey. Visiting for the food on this occasion, may have to return as I hear they have four poster beds.

This is the fourth year on the 12th of january we have had a meal at the blue grill and up to this year it's been exceptional . This year was slightly disappointing , what used to be a lovely dining experience has been down graded . The menu which used to be nicely presented in a two page folded file is now just a half page one sided card which does not give a good impression of fine dining. The staff were very pleasant but we're not as attentive as previous years and didn't give you the impression you were special. There had always been some sort of canapes presented after being seated this is gone. While the food is still excellent taste wise all five of our table complained about it not being hot enough, it was evident the plates had not been warmed before assembling the dish and that they had not been served straight away. Despite complaining about this twice we had no feed back or apologies.We decided to have cheese and biscuits to finish and there was plenty cheese on each serving but the biscuits were a joke , they appeared to be some type of puff pastry and there was only four of these very small biscuits to use against three good sized wedges of cheese.We did enjoy our evening despite the problems and we will be using the grill and hope there will be a return to its former excellent service.Colin Lambert