The Ollerod

We came to their restaurant in July 2021 and booked to stay as well, based on the restaurant, which was once very good but sadly it was a whole different experience. The room we had (No 9) was hot - problem was if you opened the windows there was a racket from the kitchen extractor and an overwhelming smell of chips cooking. The room itself was basic (£270 for one night) with very tired furnishings, scaldingly hot towel rail in the bathroom, chipped ceramic light pull and scratchy old bed linen. Not worth the money by a long chalk. The building is very badly maintained and our room had rotten window sills outside. The restaurant was very busy, service was very slow and food had an over ambitious and long menu which immediately rings alarm bells. The burger and the pizza we chose were fine, but weren't quite the restaurant experience we were expecting! Felt sorry for the young and willing staff who were rushed off their feet and no manager in sight. Breakfast was a debacle and of course nobody to complain about it to but the Housekeeper who was manning the desk. All deeply unprofessional. I eventually spoke to the owner a few days after our stay who didn't want to know about the terrible breakfast, let alone anything else! I have emailed her twice in the hope of getting some sort of recompense but she has ignored my emails. If all businesses refused to engage with complaints the way Silvana Bandini has, then heaven help us.

Lovely meal here. A great value set lunch is available but we had some of the mainly Asian themed small plates. Standouts were the Thai vegetable fritters, the lightest tempura of prawn and the Guinness/toffee sponge with stout ice cream. Service was excellent by a couple of very efficient young ladies. Only visiting the area for a few days unfortunately. Would love to have a gem like this in our town!

Very, very nice indeed. Relaxed but friendly service, great aperitifs, lunch menu which was excellent value (£25 for three courses of just-right-sized portions of beautifully presented and tasty food) and lovely interior/decor. Warm and cosy, with great loos (towelling individual hand towels and nice smellies). It made for a memorable Christmas Eve meal for our daughter’s 21st. We will be back!