Howards House - Wiltshire

Family gathering at Howard's House at the weekend. Warm welcome and dedicated service. Gorgeous rooms bedrooms, lounge, dining room, coach house. Fabulous meal of delicious, wonderfully presented food. Gardens were beautifully kept and signs of potential full bloom everywhere, even in early March. Thank you to Simon, Noelle and all the team for a fantastic stay.

We stopped for lunch at this restaurant during a layover, but unfortunately it was a Sunday, so the menu catered more to traditional locals. The dining room is small and located in a hotel with a beautiful garden. The menu mainly focused on roasts, making it difficult for us to find non-meat options. If you enjoy roasts, they did look excellent. The overall experience was above average, with a lovely room. The staff was modest and sometimes struggled to keep up, but they did their best.

Stayed three nights. Room 2 is spacious two armchairs plenty of storage space .lovely view. Two tasting menus and one a la carte all good . Breakfast usual items .Good kipper with bone removed but overcooked scrambled eggs one day. Staff as friendly as Covid allows .coping well with Covid

Well... Where do I start. I was recommended Howard 's House by a colleague. However we will not be returning or recommending this restaurant to anyone. I was a little concerned that we had to pre order our food for a table for 2, especially as the menus aren 't exactly packed. However with the COVID 19 situation I was more than happy to go along with this. I also informed the restaurant that my wife required has a food intolerance/allergy. This will come apparent later. The price of the fixed menus and from my colleague 's recommendation, we were looking forward to a Fine Dining Experience . How very wrong we were. We arrived 5 minutes before our booking and was shown straight to our table. On sitting, we were asked if we wanted a drink... I had to request a wine list! Not a good start. Bread was brought to the table and wine was ordered; however before we had a chance to even butter our bread the starters were put in front of us. This all happened within the first 10 minutes of arrival. We hadn 't even had chance to relax after our arrival! We ate our starters (Scallops and Carpaccio of beef) which were nice . However within 5 minutes of our starter plates being removed our Main meals were in front of us. My wife had a glass of Prosecco to drink with her Scallop starter, which she had barely had a chance to drink before the Main was placed in front of her. To say that we felt rushed was an understatement! We ate our Mains which again were nice but no way near to what I would regard as Fine Dining . When you order Beef Tournados (plural) and I end up with ONE piece of beef on my plate, I began to realise this was not going to be a good night. We finished our Mains and our plates were taken away at 7.25pm (Half an hour since arriving). So within 30 MINUTES, we had been seated, chosen our wine, had both our starter and main course! We both felt so rushed it was terrible. We were then asked if we would like a break before our cheese board. Obviously we said yes! When the cheese board did arrive (we wanted to share a cheese board), the first thing we asked was if the crackers on the plate were Gluten Free. Surprise, surprise they were not! The waiter then returned with 2 cheese boards with an apology for not remembering my wife 's allergy. I have to say that I am glad that they did bring a 2nd cheese board as the portions on the cheese board were pathetic! There were a few positives The staff were very polite. The wine was nice. However overall our dining experience was extremely disappointing. We have eaten at many other Fine Dining establishments that charge similar (if not slightly cheaper) rates, and I have NEVER left any of those other restaurants still hungry but I did here! My recommendation... If you want a fine dining experience, in the local area, at these rates, then book yourself a table at Fleur de Lys in Shaftesbury!

We arrived at the restaurant on time and were impressed with the measures taken to ensure a safe environment during Covid. The waiter seemed busy serving several tables, but unfortunately our starter of scallops was bland. Our main course arrived without our wine and the additional vegetables we had ordered. As we began eating, we realized the food was cold. It was not a pleasant experience. However, our spirits lifted when the dessert and cheese board were brought out, and the coffee was also enjoyable.