Hotel Rural A Velha Fábrica

Not amazing, however good if you are stopping over on your way to Portugal. Valverde de fresno is beautiful with lovely people. My biggest critique with this hotel was the food. It was awful and the staff were impatient when I tried to inform about my allergies. However, the rooms were very big with lots of facilities. I would recommend a stay however id be self catering :)

This review is based on the hotel restaurant, which is open to the public. The meals were good to mediocre to disappointing. Only 1 out of 4 was good, the Iberian Pork (albeit minus it's stated red berry coulis). The goat was chewy and a plate of bones, the cod was nice as was the octopus tentacle, but the plates were sparce with a poor amount of side vegetables. You will need a starter or dessert or prepare leave hungry. The desserts at €6 each saved the meal from a disaster. We didn't like the feeling of being discriminated against for not being/speaking Spanish. The experience in a whole was uncomfortable and expensive for what we had. . The place has had an obscene amount of European funding to restore it, including €91,000 on the kitchen alone, so thought we would try it out after visiting the village to take our olives to the local Lagar. It was lunch time, yet the place was in total darkness with no one around. It is a vast building with a high vaulted roof which can seem a bit dark, soul less and cold, when empty. Eventually a waitress arrived asking if we had a reservation, which we didn't. Our Spanish is poor, so enquired in broken Spanish then Portuguese (the place is 15 mins from Portugal) English and French if we could get some lunch. She was unable to understand us. We are hungry, so, I rang my daughter who's fluent as she lives in Spain to speak to her. We get mimed to sit at a table. So we wait, and wait, now we are feeling uncomfortable in the empty restaurant and unsure we've been understood as no one is around so about to leave and a party of 6 turn up. Spanish, get greeted, orders taken and drinks and starters appear, then main meals. We wait. No drinks, no bread, olives, usual starters. I find the waitress and ask in Spanish for the menu, so she brings a plate with a code on it to use with our phones. Eventually our orders are taken and bread is brought to have with their local oil, sadly not very palatable, tasting of grass. The kitchen was obviously ready to make lunch regardless that we did not have a reservation. As we leave we see the other party in the adjoining area having coffee with a new more convivial waitress and...... What they call a Robotic Valet.....!!!! Utter madness and so out of place in such a beautiful historic building. What a shame if European funding was spent on this lurid piece of technology!! An old wooden tea trolley would do the same job and have been more in keeping with the age and ambiance of the building. Crazy! Of interest... There is a window beside the toilets where you can see the old milling wheel and machinery.

We ate in the restaurant. Food was ok... Polvo was cold, bacalhau was lovely but the polvo sauce was 'could have been mushrooms', the goat was tough but the Iberico surprise was excellent - albeit served without the red berry salsa as per the menu! The cheesecake was probably the best we have eaten in the world. BUT the waitress did not want to serve English or Portuguese speaking customers. She was unfriendly to the point if rudeness. A table of Spanish guests arrived about 25 minutes after us and were served first. A rediculous robotic valet (no doubt purchased from the €91800 EU assisted kitchen budget) was serving coffee in the lounge with a waitress supervisor. Lovely ambience, but not sure we will be back. So glad we didn't drive 300km for mediocrity

We were recommended this restaurant by a friend who lives locally in Portugal as a nice place to eat with a good modern menu. The restaurant was very quiet, we were the only guests however they catered for us and the 4 children without question. I had a lovely goats cheese and walnut salad and everyone enjoyed the meal. Prices are not expensive being British however compared to other local eateries its on the more expensive side. Looked like a lovely hotel, grounds well kept and staff friendly. If i was in the area I would revisit.

I have spent my holidays in Hotel rural a velha fabrica in Valverde del Fresno for 15 nightts from 28/04/2023 - 13/05/2023 with halfboard service. Everything in the hotel i have enjoyed. The food and the staff was excellent especially Miss Ester who speaks english very well was very helpful, so that i have already made my decision to return to this hotel and have already made a new booking for next year 2024. ||MR. RAYMOND JENN FROM LUXEMBOURG

We booked a suite and the room description included garden furniture, outdoor eating area, dining table. None of this was actually included it was just the room. The hotel blamed Booking.com but it is the hotel who are responsible for their advertised content. They did nothing to rectify the situation, offered no compensation. The only place could sit outside was in a public area where there was a large children’s party in full swing. Our stay was pretty much ruined by all this. We were extremely disappointed with the management’s lack of interest in addressing their failures.

Have used this Hotel on our way to Portugal, a good stop over on a long journey. Very helpful staff and quite delightful food. Room was spotless, warm with a log fire, very comfortable common areas and a restaurant and bar area a million miles from the "mass motorway " motel theme. Thank you

Fantastic rural hotel in a repurposed olive oil factory. Superb restaurant where you can enjoy the finest iberico pork. Rooms are spacious and VFM its outstanding. Pretty much a destination hotel although there is lots to see around too