Review by Mr A Thompson on 12th October, 2008

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My wife and I have never been to Norwich before so I booked the Blue Boar Inn from the Internet. I read the reviews and was impressed with what I read and the photos of the room. Although there were only the two of us. We booked the best room they had as both my wife and I have back problems so we were delighted to be able to get a double bed each. This Inn is shown as a four star accommodation. I am sorry to say that we were misled in every way. I would rate this Inn as no more than a basic one star accommodation. I would also like to inform people that have any form of disability that this inn is definitely not for them. The accommodation is on the first floor and up a narrow staircase and you have to negotiate two fire doors and your own room door with luggage and no help regardless of your age. On our arrival in the afternoon the bar was open and they were reasonable busy. The reviews and the sign in comment book that is in the hall, all said what a pleasant helpful staff they had. Unfortunately we did not find this to be the case. After a long wait we were shown up to our room and that was it. No offer of any help with the luggage and the information about the room was none existent, when we inquired about something we were told “I don’t know I don’t come up here much”. With that we were left to it. So we explored the room our selves. First impression we had the room had not been used for some time, as it smelled damp, to cover this smell they had used air freshener plug in. This had the affect of making the matter worse so we had to un plug them as we couldn’t breath with the smell. The decorations in the room were very tired and paint on the windows was rotting off. The bathroom was dirty and disused. The shower was okay as long as no one else in the Inn was using it at the same time if they did then the water just trickled out. We were lucky it was out of season so the Inn was quiet. The hand basin was very small and hardly any water came out of the tap I checked the supply and found that there was only one-quarter inch pipe supplying both the hot and cold to it, This water was the only supply for making tea or coffee. It was foul and undrinkable. We had to go out and buy fresh water. The beds were rock hard the floor was softer with the carpet on it. There was dust everywhere. When we went down for breakfast the first morning we were the only guests there. So we sat in the conservatory. This did not suit the waitress as she had now to walk an extra five yards, when the full English breakfast came up the mushrooms were so old they had more wrinkles than a 90 year old. My wife had yoghurt and this was out of date. My egg was the size of a woodpigeon egg never new hens could lay such small eggs. The next morning another guest had arrived so we were made to sit in the corner squashed up with all the rest of the tables empty. When I enquired as to why we were all squashed in the corner and the rest of the place was empty I was told it wasn’t a very nice day so we had to sit inside. Pure laziness. We were left to ourselves to get what we wanted. Except for the last day she was a bit more attentive then. I wonder why? Lucky for us we were only there for three nights as we were visiting friends in Norwich other wise I would have booked out after the first night. We were both very disappointed with the Blue Boar. As I generally find reviews to be very helpful we were misled on this occasion.

Date visited: 5th October to 8th October 08