Miranda S.
Yelp
We stayed in a loft suite for one night after a day of wine tasting in the area, followed by a 3- course dinner and breakfast the next morning. We also had spa treatments before checking out.
The inn seemed understaffed as there was only one person working the front desk/reception. She was checking in guests and then escorting them to their rooms after, as other guests were waiting to check in as well. Not sure why on a Saturday there wouldn't be an extra person to help out during check-in times. Mind you, the reception woman was very nice and friendly and polite, similar to my impression when I was booking our getaway a few days prior - very helpful staff.
The loft suite was charming, but it was confusing to figure out how to make the heat/air circulate evenly throughout the suite since the upstairs loft area gets really warm and stuffy. The TV and stereo were dated and I laughed that it was the exact same stereo I bought for myself in 1995, and I thought it was the coolest back then (double tape deck AND CD player!! woohoo). The bathroom was nice, clean, and big, but nothing really fancy. The shower was really dark, but okay.
We opened a bottle of sparkling wine before we set off for our 8pm dinner reservation, we drank about 2/3 of it, and when we returned to the room after dinner (3 hours), our bed had been turned down, the room slightly tidied up, but no new wine glasses...just the sticky ones we'd left behind. Thought that was odd. Anyway, we showed up for our dinner reservation about 8 minutes late and apologetic, but even though the restaurant was half empty, they didn't have a table ready for us and asked us to wait at the bar, which we did and ordered a drink. About 10 minutes later, we were taken to our table which was right next to the window, so that was really nice. My hubby ordered the beef tenderloin off the regular menu and I ordered the 'feature', which was the ribeye - my favourite cut of beef! My hub's tenderloin was melt-in-your-mouth good and cooked perfectly as he had requested. My ribeye...wow. It was TERRIBLE. Never in my life had I ever been served such a thin, tasteless, tough piece of leather at a high-end restaurant. A ribeye is supposed to be marbley and yummy...I had to saw through this thin piece with a lot of effort and it was chewy and tasteless. I maybe ate 1/3 of it and the server never even asked me why there was so much left on my plate. I had trouble even believing it was a ribeye cut - it seemed more like skirt or flatiron steak you would get served with steak & eggs at a pub. Brutal. My potatoes and veggies were great though. Very disappointing dinner.
Breakfast the next morning was great - eggs bene and fresh fruit and fast friendly service.
Spa - I had a deep tissue massage booked and my hubby had a "gentleman's pedicure". Again, they were short staffed and my husband's pedicurist person kept leaving him alone for long periods of time and coming back apologizing saying that she was also acting as the receptionist. He had never had a pedicure before, so he thought this was normal. He told me he thought there would be a lot more to it and thought there would be more attention paid to him at a spa. He said she didn't even trim or clean his nails! My massage was great, but I also did NOT feel like I was at a spa. More like a salon-type spa, definitely not a luxury experience. The space had so much potential, but the staff needs to create an experience for their customers. I definitely would not want to spend half a day there getting treatments as my therapist kept leaving me to answer the phone and receive other guests that come in. Such a strange set up!
Anyway, after having been to Langdon Hall and Ste. Anne's...maybe my expectations were too high? I guess overall the inn itself was good value for the money, but the restaurant and spa were way overrated.