SquareMeal Review of The Royal Hotel

This is the Isle of Wight’s venerable grande dame, a wonderfully atmospheric pile with echoes of a glittering bygone era – you can almost hear the voluminous Victorian crêpe dresses swishing along the polished wood floors while you sip your tea. But there’s plenty of life in the old girl yet, as demonstrated by the bright and breezy food served in the more formal Appuldurcombe restaurant. The kitchen makes admirable use of island ingredients for dishes such as Gallybagger cheese soufflé, sea bass with fennel risotto, tasting plates of locally reared pork, and dark chocolate tart with caramel oranges. However, it’s the famous Royal afternoon tea that currently packing ‘em in (book well ahead) – thanks to a top pastry chef who crafts sweet treats ranging from generous pistachio and cinnamon macaroons to dainty milk chocolate and orange madeleines, all crammed impressively onto a three-tiered cake stand.

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British
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Location

Belgrave Road, Ventnor, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, PO38 1JJ

01983 852186 01983 852186

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1 Review 
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Service
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Anon

05 November 2022  
Food & Drink 4
Service 0.5
Atmosphere 0.5
Value 1.5
Great Food, Poor Service

What a shame, had high expectations, food was not at fault, compliments to the chef but service was non existent, in fact we were treated as if we didn’t even exist. Originally booked Afternoon tea for 3 to celebrate a family members birthday, however as they were poorly and could not attend my partner and I still decided to attend on this rainy afternoon.When we arrived at 3.45pm it was quite busy, there was a table set up for 2 but it was right next to the entrance to the hotel bar and an empty table next to the windows at the front of the hotel.I called a waiter over and asked if we could move to the other table and they were obliging helping me and my partner move the plates and cutlery, that’s where the service ended. The afternoon tea arrived for 3 not 2, despite the fact we phoned them earlier this day to advise it would be for 2 and our table was only set up for 2, when they realised they quickly scurried the third tea away. We were enjoying the food and thought we may include some champagne and upgrade tea, but not one waiter for the rest of our time there came over. No one came over to ask if we were enjoying it nor if everything was alright. Several of the other tables and parties ended and within 45mins of us being there a manager appeared and with other staff members started moving furniture around us, they continued to ignore us and kept moving furniture and talking loudly over the banging of the furniture which overall was really distracting to the point I was struggling to hear my partner talk and was actually in disbelief that they could all see us there including the manager and they totally ignored us or the fact we had not finished our tea, I was so shocked I actually took a video and photos and they didn’t look at us once. I had to eventually stop a waiter in his tracks to ask for a box and again fr the bill. The bill arrived and the charged us for 3 teas??? So we then had to again flag another person down to redo the bill, I am gutted because we were really looking forward to spoiling ourselves and the food was good, but the service ruined the whole thing, I am thankful that the birthday girl didn’t have to experience that as that would have been mortifying.

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