Carriages - South Lakeland

As part of our stay package we had two dinners in Carriages restaurant. The food was excellent and we enjoyed the relaxed manner. Some guests may not like the wait between courses but we found it encouraged conversation. If staying for a week or more the menu would have to make some changes for variety. The hotel does have a bistro restaurant with families in mind.

Absolutely rubbish. We had afternoon tea at this hotel restaurant where we stayed as guests for 5 nights, and it is probably the worst afternoon tea we’ve ever had. The afternoon tea experience made us cancel, our to dinner reservations, and the following two afternoon tea bookings we had made prior to arriving. We were not expecting fine dining, but with their own advertisement of, and I quote from their own website “ famous afternoon tea” and “ one of the finest dining experiences in Cambria”, we were at the very least expecting homemade food and freshly brewed tea served in the garden (as they also advertise for . We were presented with microwaved warmed, shop bought scones, old (store bought small cakes and wraps with chicken and corn that tasted as store bought as the scones. The metal bulky, sorry excuse for a tea pot, they brought out, seem to contain bill brewed tea, we were not offered any selection of teas, other than coffee or tea . It should also be said we spent about 20 minutes trying to locate a waiter in the restaurant and bar area, until we had to go to the reception for him to locate the restaurant staff. After our waiter had brought the afternoon tea out, we never saw him again. Not to ask if we wanted any more tea or present us with the bill. The bill was also forgotten entirely, so when we checked out five days later, I had to remind the hotel that we should probably pay for this horrible experience and we did. There is a lovely little selection of coffee and tea shops in Grange, I would highly recommend going for afternoon tea there (or literally anywhere else…

Friendly and efficient staff. Menu was very good, but limited as they did not change the menu at all during our 4 night stay.

In the current environment is was good to see that all the best practices for keeping visitors safe were being followed .The food was well resented, well cooked and very tasty.

If Carriages refers to British rail food then its not far off? 5 courses mis-describes the menu fayre and what we received was all very average. Decor, service quality of food. We expected better it was ok but only ok.