The Ashford Arms

We stayed here for one night at the end of June. It feels like it's been recently renovated to a very high standard. Our room was very well appointed including a coffee machine and digital radio. It was a little small and very warm but perfectly adequate for one night. The meal in the restaurant was lovely and of a high standard. Service throughout was impeccable, from the moment we arrived, through all the bar staff and those in the restaurant. Thornbridge Brewery is about a mile walk along the river and was a great place to visit. A brilliant stay and we will be back.

Great location for nice food - slight shame about the less than ideal service. Waiting quite a while (especially at the end of the meal when it turned out our waitress had left before us and not made her colleagues aware that we were waiting for our desert order to be corrected). But otherwise good. Very accommodating of our last minute booking and let us turn up an hour earlier to be seated in the non-reserved section of the restaurant.

We visited this restaurant over Father’s Day weekend during a very busy time. The setting was lovely, and the food itself was really good, no issues there at all. We brought our one year old daughter who has severe allergies to both eggs and dairy. We made this very clear to the waitress when ordering, and repeated it to ensure it was understood. However, when the food arrived, my wife noticed something on our daughter’s plate that appeared to have been prepared with egg. She raised the concern with the person who brought the food, who was unaware of our child’s allergies. When they checked with the kitchen, it turned out the allergy had not been communicated properly. If my wife hadn’t questioned it, the result could have been a trip to the hospital. What concerned me most wasn’t just the mistake, but the response. The person delivering the food seemed more focused on quickly replacing the dish than actually listening to our concerns about the lack of allergy procedures. For a child with a severe allergy, that kind of oversight and response is unacceptable. The restaurant did apologize and removed our daughter’s meal from the bill, which we appreciated. But given how serious this could have been, I don’t know if we’d feel comfortable returning.