Nice hotel but...

Both mornings we had to wait 45 minutes for a standard English Breakfast to be served, both times they had to be reminded to bring toast. The self service juice bottles used were too small and therefore continuously empty when you went to get some. The breakfast used good quality produce but when you have to wait 3 times longer for service than it takes to eat it, you do feel some of your free time is being wasted. Dinner was a little more organised and an acceptable wait for lovely meals on both nights.

Lovely Hotel

We recently stayed here to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary, the hotel, staff and restaurant are really nice, we had a lovely room and the food in the restaurant was very well presented and of excellent quality.

Lovely place to stay

We spent three nights at the Old Bell. We had a large comfortable room which included tea/coffee facilities. This is a very old hotel which has kept most of it s original characteristics. Staff very friendly and helpful, rooms are immaculate. The only slight downside for us was the evening gourmet menu which was excellent had a limited choice, and as we were staying for three nights we found it slightly difficult to choose something different each night to suit our tastes. Malmsley is a very nice little town with individual shops and there is plenty of sightseeing to do within a few miles.

The hotel was lovely, staff were trying very hard but were short staffed, breakfast was very good but my evening meal was over cooked and burnt

Good hotel but pity about restaurant

The hotel itself was every bit as good as we expected. The room was quiet, spacious and with a lovely view across to the abbey and church. The bed was king sized and comfortable and the bathroom adequate for our needs. Breakfast was fine with plenty of options to suit our tastes. However we were disappointed in the offerings of the restaurant for dinner. We had booked dinner for both nights of our stay as part of our package. The food was of a high quality but to our taste was over elaborate. Several items on the menu (it was the same both nights) had constituents we did not relish but when we requested those items be left out it was not always possible. On the first night we decided to grin and bear it but for the second we asked at reception if the all-day menu would be available to us at 6.30 (the description said till 6pm). We were assured that that would be ok. When we asked at the restaurant we were told that this menu was not available and despite our protesting the maitre D would not budge. However a lunch time menu was available to us (which we thought odd as a menu that had only just finished was not available). In effect we both settled for steak as being the least bad option. I must say that this difficulty with the menu rather marred our otherwise pleasant stay. It would seem that a more flexible attitude or a wider set of menu choices would have made a better impression.

Perfect for short break

We had a lovely time at this hotel. The location was great. We walked and used public transport so we didn t use our car during our stay. The staff were very welcoming, friendly and helpful.
The room we had was huge and we were able to totally relax during our stay. Numerous public lounges with complimentary newspapers and magazines. Good food choices for breakfast and unusual combinations for the evening menu. We tried different dishes and the service in the restaurant was excellent.
Our only very minor criticism is that the wine list was being updated so the options were reduced and whilst there were two different bottles of rose wine I was unable to have rose by the glass.