Carden Park Hotel – Cheshire

As we arrived at the Carden Park Hotel, we were stunned by the beautiful scenery it was located in. Once we checked in, it was around 2 o’clock, and so we were wanting some food before doing our afternoon activity.

I asked a staff member who was sat behind the customer service desk, as to where the ‘Grill on the hill’ restaurant/bar was as I had seen it on the website, this staff member responded with ‘behind the tennis court’, in a rude and unfriendly manner, as if should know where that was. Anyway, after 30 minutes of walking around the hotel grounds, we finally found it.

As it was a special occasion, mine and my partners anniversary, we had booked to go into the dining room for a fine dining meal. We were so excited to have some good food in a very nice restaurant. After being sat at our table for 30 minutes the waiter had not approached us once, not even to see what we were having to drink, so we had to call him over to tell him we were ready to order.

When the food came, it was delicious, however, the waiter did not ask if everything was ok, or didn;t even top our drinks up, we had to do it al night by ourselves which I do not think is acceptable in a restaurant like that when you are paying all that money. Even though the food was good, the service was so poor so we left disappointed and did complain at the front desk in the restaurant which she even said ‘so many people have complained about the service tonight, I am sorry.’

In the morning we went to the breakfast, where the service was exactly the same, we were not offered coffee or tea and our plates were not cleared.

Overall, the staff at the hotel were not friendly and did not provide good customer service, especially in the restaurant. I am very disappointed in this hotel and will not be returning.

After staying at Carden once before we thought we would return, as the first time was excellent.

Shame I can’t say the same for the second visit, safe to say I will not return to this hotel. £150 for dinner, bed and breakfast. Started with lunch in the Vines restaurant, food was satisfactory, service wasn’t great, waited over 20 minutes for the card machine (seemed to be experiencing problems with every card machine) and even then we were given the wrong bill.

We then had dinner at The Redmond’s restaurant, we had £25 each towards our evening meal. Very disappointed with the food; pâté to start, the ‘toast’ was like it had been toasted in the morning and then reheated.. not nice to eat. Braised beef joint for main, this was quite frankly awful. The bottom of the joint was black and so dry, I couldn’t even eat it. Other people were also complaining about the beef, not something you expect from a so-called ‘Hotelier of the year 2017’.

Dessert was Bakewell tart, not hard to get wrong really so this was ok. Check out staff simply said ‘Bye, that’s all sorted’.. didn’t ask how our stay was or if we could stay and use the spa. My partner and I have emailed the hotel before making our review public, but after waiting 6 days for a very poor response back from the hotel, I would like to let other people know about my stay at Carden Park. Safe to say I will not be returning and will definitely be spending my money elsewhere.

We have stayed at the hotel on numerous occasions before the new owners took over and always enjoyed our stays.

We informed the hotel of my wife’s gluten-free dietary requirements because she is coeliac on booking, when booking in and when we entered Dining Room for breakfast.

She had not eaten beforehand and later that day was very ill with an upset stomach which could only have been down to something she ate at breakfast as that was all she had consumed before becoming ill.

She was given gluten free bread, which was fine, but we had to ask which items were not gluten-free. There was no separate menu and it just seemed that the staff were too busy to help her. We were told that the sausages were not gluten-free so obviously, she abstained. The day before at the golf clubhouse she was also given croutons in her soup. This was dealt with sufficiently at the time and replaced.

It was the reaction of the Deputy General Manager when I complained later that day that I find astounding. She basically blamed my wife for eating something she shouldn’t despite the fact that my wife is very well aware of items that may affect her.

My response to her has not even been acknowledged.

It seems that they are more concerned about being sued than dealing responsibly with the situation. We are not after compensation, just acknowledgement that there may have been a mishap and current practices at the hotel are not good. It is highly likely that her food has had some form of cross contamination due to the hotels cooking practices. Other hotels we have stayed at have cooked her food separately and this would appear to be too much trouble for guests at Carden Park.

I booked Dinner, Bed & Breakfast as a surprise for my husbands 40th, I emailed after booking to say it was husbands 40th.

We were booked into Redmond’s restaurant and after being sat waiting for 15mins they came to take our food order, we had to ask at this point if we could order a drink having sat with empty glasses for 15mins.

My prosecco came and was completely flat so sent it back. Having been presented with our starters by a waiter barking the word soup at my husband we then waited nearly an hour for our main courses, during which time nobody came near the table so did not notice our empty glasses they were too busy setting tables for breakfast.

The mains finally came out, my husbands medium rare steak was like leather and completely overcooked and my meal had sauce covered in a thick skin – our assumption being that our meals had probably sat waiting under heat lights for quite some time. We asked for the manager who didn’t know what to do and we ended up walking out of the restaurant.

So my plans for a special meal ended in eating a shepherds pie in the Brasserie as by this point it was 10:00 at night and we hadn’t eaten anything but a starter. The service is awful, they lean across u to put your drinks and bread down, the waiters have a tick box for your meal choice on a sheet and don’t appear to have had any training – this is an expensive restaurant! I didn’t expect the red carpet treatment but nobody even mentioned my husbands birthday. We used to stay regularly when it was part of De Vere and never had a bad stay but I would never stay here again and would recommend if you want a lovely weekend away to avoid this place like the plague.

It ruined what should have been an amazing 40th Birthday for my husband.

We have stayed in this hotel for many years when it was managed by De Vere we have always enjoyed our stay and we were looking forward to returning.

First night we chose to eat in The Vines where we have ate on previous stays, we paid cash for our meal, it was not as good as we have previously experienced, food not hot and service slow.

However, that is our minor complaint, after returning to our room we settled our 2 children to sleep and we retired to bed. After a long day we were awoken at 11pm with a phone call to our room, at first we panicked thinking it was a family member trying to get hold of us (we did not have mobile phone service in our room) when we answered it was the restaurant saying we had not paid for an item on our bill, we then had to explain what we ordered and how much we paid, by this time the children we awake and I was feeling very insulted.

The next day I went to reception who were fully aware of what had happened and simply said sorry they had rang the wrong room! I did ask if this was normal policy to ring anyone at that time especially with small children?

The lady just said sorry, I explained how insulted I was but I got the impression that they were not interested. I will not be staying again, it is an expensive stay and to be treated with such a lack of respect to previous loyal customers is just bad customer service!

I booked a one night stay on a junior suite last weekend, as a special treat for my partner and her 2 children to visit Chester zoo

On arrival at 14.50, after a 2 hour drive we were told our room was not yet available, no problem, a wait in the bat was a welcome relief from the M6!
After another request we finally got to our room at 15:20, with no apology.
The room was in the courtyard, large, clean and spacious. The views are fantastic overlooking the golf course and mountains.
We went for a swim, good staff, clean and nearly empty on a Saturday afternoon.
We came back and decided to eat at the Vines.
What an utter disgraceful experience we had.
Children’s fish and chips came out a mahogany colon owing to being cooked in dirty oil
My partners butternut squash was swimming in insipid juice
My duly of lamb arrived as a portion of fish and chips
To be replaced 20 minutes later by the correct order, but totally inedible
I mean totally inedible
It was complete disgusting undercooked fatty and in a cliche, wouldn’t have fed it to the lions at the zoo
When I complained to Natalia
She said it was not cps fault but that of their supplier
If only customer service was that easy!
Complained thoroughly and eventually, the meal was gratis
What the problem is there was no APOLOGY given

Other Gripes:

• £10 for a g and t had to ask for lime
• No teaspoons for breakfast
• That didn’t matter too much as had to wait 25 min for coffee and tea despite three requests
• No bottled water in room, only in deluxe suites!

I’ve been here on 6 previous occasions, but I’m the customer who will complain and will not be returning!

Julia the GM

Take note

You are a disgrace to your organisation

I bet De Vere are glad you are now privately owned, good luck, you’re going to need it!

Former fantastic hotel sadly slipping badly

I have stayed her on many occasions, but not for the past 3 years. On arrival, all appeared as it should be. We had a courtyard room for 2 nights. The room was clean if a tad tired, however, I did not expect to find blinds that were moth-eaten and when I came to iron a shirt an ironing board with rips in it.

On arrival in the restaurant all again appeared normal, that was until the waitresses came over. It took us ages to get served the first night and then on two separate occasions 2 different waitresses came to take drinks orders and halfway through the order both said “I had best go and get a pen as I won’t remember this” and trotted of returning once they had sourced something to write with! When the food arrived it came at different times and some of our party had finished theirs before the other guests meals had arrived and that was only after we had asked where the meals were. The food, however, was of good quality at least they can still manage that.

The staff in the activity centre were probably the most obnoxious staff I have ever come across, with a rude attitude and complete disregard for the guests. When I mentioned this at check out, I was informed that as I had assumed this was not run by the hotel itself but by an outside company, I was also asked if it was a specific member of the staff, which sure enough it was. It was obvious that this lady had been complained about before so why was she still there?

The leisure facilities were excellent as ever, the pool was crowded but that is to be expected and the leisure staff were very warming and helpful. The bar staff in the evening were excellent and very friendly as was the lady on check out.

This has been an amazing hotel in the past but at this present time appears to be living on its former name and glory. I was informed whilst I was there that De’Vere no longer owns it and believe me it shows.

Get your act together Carden and you have the most wonderful place for people to stay and have a fantastic time. Keep running it the way you are and I am sure you will survive but I doubt it will be on repeat business.