Review by G. Whitfield on 29th August, 2007

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Dining at Endsleigh Hotel, I dined with my wife, brother and sister-in-law at Endsleigh Hotel on the evening of August 27th, 2007. This letter is in no way intended to elicit any compensation and is written purely in the interests of better hospitality standards in the South West and at Endsleigh Hotel in particular. My work involves international hospitality standards so I am familiar with what might be expected of a hotel with the pretensions to quality claimed by Endsleigh. All four of us were extremely disappointed in our dining experience. Curiously, the food itself was not the primary culprit, although the temperature of the plates by the time they were eventually served was barely warm. Our specific complaints are directed at the catastrophically slow service, the ignorance of the service and a number of other intrusions and omissions that marred our enjoyment and that just should not be present in a hotel aspiring to the quality for which Endsleigh would like to be known. A great deal of the enjoyment of any good food attaches to the pace of the meal and the quality of the service. On August 27th, Endsleigh’s dining room was clearly overwhelmed. We observed other diners complaining about the time it took for orders to be taken, courses to be served and the lack of prompt response to simple requests. In our own case, while we were in no hurry and expected a leisurely meal, the time between our giving our orders and receiving our starter course was forty-eight minutes. There appeared to be only two dining area staff capable of taking orders. The likely cause of this was that other members of the dining room staff did not have sufficient command of the English language, certainly could not have answered any questions about the menu and were clearly not trained in anything beyond the rudimentary motions of table service. Even these were poorly executed, dishes were served and cleared from the wrong side, the arrival of dishes at the table was spread over as much as five minutes, contributing to the cold temperature of the food while the first to be served waited for the rest to receive their plates, and glasses and crockery were left on the table well beyond the course for which they had been served. The waiter serving the wine should not have to ask whether the person who ordered the wine would like to taste it. At the prices of the bottles we selected, it is automatic in a good restaurant to pour for tasting. The waiter then poured a dribble instead of an adequate tasting amount and had to be asked to pour more. In three out of four glasses of the white wine poured, the wine was dribbled on the tablecloth because the waiter did not have an adequate grasp of how to pour wine from a bottle. Other intrusions on our enjoyment were things like the French doors beside our table being left open to the chill evening air and used as a serving route to the patio tables until we insisted the doors be closed, to reduce the wait staff traffic, to eliminate the chill and to block out the stench of a chain smoker immediately outside on the patio. The two dining room staff, one clearly in charge and the other one capable of taking orders, both wore hard soled shoes that made an unpleasantly loud noise on the bare wooden floors of the restaurant area. At least the rest of the wait staff wore soft-soled shoes. But none of them smiled or invited us to “enjoy your meal” or anything approaching a pleasantry of this sort. It was a little like being served by poorly programmed robots. The wine list does no credit to a dining room with the prices at the level of those charged by Endsleigh. The list is very short, poorly constructed, lacks variety and depth, does not separate wines adequately by region, country or price and displays some ignorance. (South Africa is generally not classified as ‘New World’). In an establishment purporting to be a serious hospitality player, one would expect something a little more interesting as a canapé than a few desultory olives. Dining experiences in similarly priced hotels and restaurants within a five mile radius of Endsleigh serve far better accompaniments to pre-dinner drinks. Almost without exception, they also serve a chef’s ‘amuse-bouche’ to start the meal with a delicate titillation of the palate. No such course was forthcoming at Endsleigh so perhaps the chef had nothing he felt was worth highlighting. At a set price of £39.00 per person (which translates to over £50 after tax and a reasonable tip), without any drinks, Endsleigh Hotel’s dining experience based on our visit singularly fails to meet an acceptable standard. Anyone with any degree of discrimination and experience of good dining will be severely disappointed. With excellent alternatives in the district such as The Horn of Plenty, the Dartmoor Inn, Percy House and Lewtrenchard Hotel, not to mention the proximity of the likes of Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver, Endsleigh will have to seriously overhaul its operation to remain viable.

Date visited: August 27th