At Woodlands Manor - Bedford

A party of nine of us ate here for my husbands birthday celebration. Young waiter very attentive and we were treated very well all evening. Lovely atmosphere and attractive setting. Nice choice of dishes on menu and I thought prices reasonable for this sort of hotel. My choice was haddock fish cakes for a starter followed by lamb,both of which were delicious. The lamb was particularly tender. My dessert choice was chocolate brownie which went down very well. The wines we chose were really good a Sauvignon Blanc and a couple of bottles of Rioja. My only criticism is that two of our party including the birthday boy chose the sea bass and it was a bit light on accompaniments.Why is it that fish dishes are always so much smaller than meat. Just because you eat fish doesn’t mean that you want a little meal. Apart from that an excellent meal which we all enjoyed,good service and somewhere we will certainly go again.

The restaurant is based in a nice setting of a large country house. That's where the glamour ends. The restaurant is rather sterile and there is no ambient lighting so very bright in there. It charges premium pricing but the food is OK and not worth the extra cost. We were charged for drinks we didn't have, Asked for small glass of wine and was given a large one so the server didn't listen. Asked for medium well steak and got rare. However, other than that the service was pretty good. Wasn't offered tap water and charged £4.99 for a bottle of still water and then noticed other people had jugs of water without cost again another way of bumping up the bill!

Small venue which promotes exclusive ambience. Nice menu choice and lovely flavours. Nibbles of warm bread with olives and balsamic dip was a nice start. Flash fried Calamari followed then Pork loin wrapped in ham with veg in a mustard sauce, all very tasty. There was a varied choice of vegetarian dishes. Exemplary service from the waiter/maitre d seemed to do everything with aplomb. However I feel plates need presentation to be refined if they are to advertise as 'fine dining '. Dessert was presented well (see photo).

I booked this one night stay at Woodland Manor three months ago, back in February. I booked 3 standard double rooms and I disabled double room via phone with a receptionist. I was explicitly specific about the disabled room to be on a ground floor because my dad cannot walk very far or up the stairs. I had the confirmation of the request, price and dinner reservation for a total of 8 people, with all the guest’s name. I had not pay anything at this point, and I was going to pay for al 4 rooms at check in. Then, I thought nothing more of the booking until checking in day, in May. The booking experience: It did not go as well as it should be. We turned up with my parents to check in around mid afternoon. I gave the receptionist the names which two of the rooms were booked under to check in first, as the rest of the party was en route. I was then told that the disabled room requested was unavailable and that the price stated on the reservation was incorrect and that another £150 was charged. I questioned the additions to the price and why it was different. The receptionist offered us drinks and to sit down while she investigated and see what can be done. I was distressed about my dad climbing the stairs, with no lift facilities. The waiter brought tea and coffee over right away, along with the bill, which I challenged. I got praise the friendly and courteous receptionist for rearranging the room so that an alternative ground floor room became available, and the price at booking was honoured. It was clearly an administration error on the inexperienced ex receptionist at the time of my booking. It was no fault of ours that the mistake happened, but it was corrected and dealt with professionally. The room experience: The disabled/family room was suitable. It was an alternative room because there was some stairs (5steps) to negotiate before getting to the room. Our standard bijou room was basic and quaint with bare walls. The space was tight and sitting by the dresser is difficult with the T.V. sitting in front. If you are a light sleeper and were given room 10, when sleeping on the headboard less bed, you will be disturbed by the pipes beneath your pillow as you lay down to sleep. I didn’t know how it would disrupt my sleep all night long as water flow to fill up latrine. It gurgled all night long so I was rather tired in the morning. Our other rooms were better and larger with vastly improved decor. The restaurant experience: We booked for 8people at 8pm for dinner. The table service was highly impressive on the setting. Menu options changes weekly so you can't view menu choices online. During this night, there were only two table in the restaurant, so I was hopeful that service would be very good. Our bottles of wine and drinks came very promptly. It was a.good start. It was mediocre for a fanciful setting restaurant for the remainder of our experience. We did not get our entrees after an about into seating. But, eventually it was pointed out that we were still waiting for our bread

We have already submitted a review of this excellent and well-run hotel, and can very happily confirm that the food that was served was wonderful. Our group of people chose from a wide variety of offerings from the menu and everyone thoroughly enjoyed their choice. In addition, the attention to detail was excellent, as was the customer service.