Fanshawe's At The Sandpiper

Very good breakfast and exceptionally friendly staff. Our stay was shortened by the effects of the floods. We had planned our dinners here on the strength of the breakfast.

What a disappointment. Ordered mushroom soup with baguette and the sea bass. Mushroom soup was bland and the baguette rock hard. I pointed this out to the waiter who came back after speaking to the chef. The feedback was: it's soft inside. This bread was cooked clear days ago and put in the microwave to reheat. The baguette is the one you find in the frozen section of the supermarket and was so hard on the outside it was hard to break. Having experienced this I asked if the sea bass would be freshly cooked to which I was told the potatoes were also frozen and microwaved. This reminds me of 3663 (the food company) 25 years ago Bland, over cooked, microwave food from the freezer. Not what you would expect at these prices! All in a horrible experience I never want to try again. And it's not holondaise

Preferred all restaurants in Chesterfield. The Saturday night restaurant was so terrible that it took over an hour to have our orders taken and then some long while after the orders it was reported by the kitchen staff that there was no liver and bacon finally. My mother was served with a meal of gammon and egg. The gammon was so hard she couldn't cut into it and the egg was so over cooked it was rubbery.

I have stayed here several times now to hold our HMS Danae reunion when it was independently owned. Everyone was really nice and pleasant and looked after us, it was as if we were part of the family. The food was fantastic and they even...provided a separate menu for Friday’s just for our group, and the Saturday official reunion dinner was always something special. I regret to say, not any more. It is now owned by a hotel chain/group, the food is awful, and that’s from several reunion members, not just myself. Some of the waitressstaff would be better working in a garage, one in particular had no sense at all on how to serve meals. The beer which had previously been supplied just for us (real ale drinkers) was not supplied this year, it was what the “hotel chain managers” said we had to have, at quite inflated prices too. I for one will not be attending our annual reunion there next year, unless someone convinces me that this was just a blip and things will return to as they were for next year, I doubt it though. For some reason I am unable to select the ratings, so. Service 2 out of 5, Food 1 out of 5, Value 1 out of 5.

I stayed with my family at the Sandpiper hotel for 4 nights and ate breakfast for 3 mornings. I’m used to a larger selection of food at hotels so I was disappointed not to see fried bread on offer but I wouldn’t know if it...would have been made as I didn’t ask. The sausages tasted like beef rather than pork and my son wouldn’t eat it. I would have also liked to have fried tomatoes but there was the usual plum tomatoes which is too gooey for me. The eggs were lovely though. For the price, it’s ok if you have a good appetite in the morning but if you can only manage cereal then £7.50 is way too much.