Beaconsfield, Crystal Room

We had the festive menu in the English restaurant on a Friday night in December. Probably the worst festive 3 course experience I’ve had compared to Browns, Royal Standard of England, Beach House, Blackwood Arms etc. Not recommended to come in the evening. Top line - The food is nice but this is not the place to come if you are hungry because the servings are small. I suppose it’s great if you’re in a diet. I suspect that part of why I thought it was very nice food was because I was so hungry. - Some of the other guests made the atmosphere challenging. - The service is mixed. The first course was trout and I couldn’t see anything in the plate at first. Probably because it was so dark. The taste was nice but the helping could have fit on one loaded fork. Second course was ox cheek which we all had. The meat serving size varied greatly in across the table, which would have been fine except there was nothing else to eat except the very nice but barely-there serving of puree beneath the piece of meat. No veg. The sticky toffee pudding was served with the a scoop of ice cream smaller than a golf ball. 1/3rd size of normal dessert but nice to eat. The staff ranged between indifferent, sleepy to slightly hard faced. We waited an age for service towards the end. Waiting to pay and leave was frustrating (30 mins + from plate clearing). I had witnessed staff needing to deal with difficult groups who were just there for insta pics, but when our waiter finally showed up he suggested that we should head to the bar if we wanted to stay because they needed the table. I was too shocked to say anything other than we were very happy to leave if we could only pay the bill. No offer of coffee. I don’t think we were smiled at once. They were all very young. Just a grim experience.

We had a good time at the Crazy Bear Beaconsfield. The room was lovely, the decor is amazing. We loved it! Unfortunately we were disappointed with a few things. The air conditioning didn't work in our room (room 21). The bathroom floor was slippery and very dangerous, especially after using the shower. We found our room absolutely reeking of cannabis when we returned after our evening out - we did have the window open as air con didn't work. The pool and jacuzzi was approx 5/6 degrees, so we didn't end up getting in. We weren't the only ones who found it unusable. Also we were surprised the toast isn't included with the breakfast considering the cost. The meal was overpriced especially as it was very minimal. Most of us left and bought food elsewhere. The drinks were double the prices of other local restaurants/pubs. I don't think we will return. But was definitely an experience.

I had afternoon tea with champagne. The service was pretty poor: the food was just plonked down on the table with no explanation of what was in the sandwich fillings (I have a shellfish allergy, and had explained that, so it would have been reassuring). We had to ask for our tea and champagne as it was never bought to the table. The scones were inedible as so dry. Location and decor nice but obviously that's not going to makeup for dry scones and poor service.