Forest Side Hotel

Absolutely gorgeous property and gorgeous rooms.

There was nothing I didn’t love about this hotel.

The hotel and gardens were beautiful as was the location. Breakfast and dinner were superb as were the drinks, great barman and restaurant staff, barman always attentive and friendly. Room was stylishly decorated. Choice for breakfast superb including traditional Cumbrian English breakfast, the best smoked salmon ever with scrambled egg and muffin, roasted Shiitake with poached eggs and prosciutto crudo. Dinner was also incredible with choice of 8 or 4 course set menu, we had the 8 course menu and it was wonderful (but it was £150/person ... to be expected for a Michelin restaurant).

The bathroom was particularly small, no dedicated shower or bidè, had to climb into bath for a shower or to clean after using the toilet, my partner has knee problems and climbing into the bath is not easy. We were not informed by the hotel or Booking.com that there was only 1 restaurant in the hotel and this had to be booked for evening meals in advance of arrival, when we arrived early afternoon the restaurant was fully booked so we had no choice but to eat out after a long drive. We also didn't know that the restaurant only offered two set menu options 4 and 8 courses and no a la carte menu, prices not easy to find and £150/person for the 8 course menu, a wonderful meal but not something you want every night, I think this should be looked at to accomodate hotel residents so that a smaller but equally high quality option could be available. Reception staff could be a little bit more friendly in their demeanor, they were very professional but were not welcoming like the bar and restaurant staff. No safe in the room was a negative, this is a high end hotel with a fine dining restaurant worth dressing up for and like in other similar hotels a safe should be provided for valuable items.

Location, food, staff, room

Nothing

Very nice spacious bathroom with lots of light and nice design

We travelled with a small child and right during the check in we were made to feel unwelcome. We were told about not being able to have dinner at the restaurant because of the small child and left with no options of dining in the room or anything else. While I haven't seen anything about child restrictions on their website or booking and was not aware about it, I could have understood that this was the policy at the hotel, it's just that the communication was almost hostile towards us. We tried to ask for any options, but everything was just a no answer. We haven't even been provided with any help or information on any dining options within the town of Grasmere. At this level of price I would have expected some hospitality during from the reception staff. We have felt unwelcome during our stay at the hotel. Considering the high prices I have expected better service.