Kevin F.
Yelp
This is a review for The Rise, the restaurant within the Grand Hotel & Spa.
Food and drink were good, and the atmosphere can't be beat. Service, however, not on par with the location. There for tea, we ordered the Hendrick's Tea up charge and the staff member was obviously new, so she had to grab the menu book to see what we were speaking of. This carried on for every tea the 6 of us ordered. Obviously new, she was very unprepared for service.
At the mid-point of our tea, we asked for another round of Hendrick's pots. The same staff member asked if we were reordering the entire tea service again! A few moments later, another staff member came by and told me that the pots would cost the up-charge difference between the regular tea and the Hendricks tea. This was acceptable and I ordered. When the bill arrived, the extra pots of tea £25 each, totaling £50! Neither of the staff members could be found as we were towards the end of our service window, so another staff member came over when I motioned for her. She told me that the price was right and that this is a very confusing up charge for the staff and guests. Everyone at the table assured her that the we were told this was sold as a repeat of the original up charge, not £25 a pot. She finally offered to take one of the pots off the bill.
Another very odd thing is that we asked for our remaining sweets to be boxed up, but in order to get them from staff, we had to sign waivers to release the hotel and restaurant from any liability. Weird! When we arrived back to our vacation flat, they had not packed any of the savory items, only the sweet items we had left.
Total bill was over £230. We have eaten at many nice places while on holiday, but this was the largest regret we had of our two week trip through the UK. I'd never do it again at this location.