Having lived in Worcester but now in Devon, my wife and I occasionally meet friends for lunch half way between the two – on this occasion handily just off the M5 in Bristol.
We chose the Avon Gorge Hotel because of its location almost beneath the Clifton Suspension Bridge, where the views from the restaurant, terrace and outside bar are spectacular. It also makes for a nice post-lunch walk across the bridge with wonderful panoramas for the Avon gorge.
Lunch in the hotel was, however, disappointing. The meal itself was reasonably good without being special, rather expensive for what it was, but the service was unacceptably slow. We had arrived early and were seated by 12.30pm, and, after a starter, had not been served our main course by 2.00pm. Further, one of the six meals was missing and my wife had to wait and additional 10 minutes for hers. Finally, and most regrettably, we had the embarrassing situation of finding that a 10% service charge had already been added to the bill, and then having to speak to the manager to ask for it to be removed and explaining why we were unhappy with the service.
To summarise, it is a delightful spot but the hotel will need to improve its service and to think about the prices it charges (£2.35 for a diet coke!) before we go again.
