Howard's House Country - Wiltshire

Excellent restaurant with a lovely atmosphere. This was the second time we had visited and is was as good as the first visit. Really excellent original menu and great service.

Can I make it clear that our supper at Howard's House was perfectly pleasant. The quality of the food was good and the cooking more than acceptable. Yet the experience as a whole was underwhelming largely because it is so difficult to generate any atmosphere in a hotel dining room. To be honest, it all felt a little too bland and the appearance of two amuse bouches did nothing to persuade me that this was anything other than a decent hotel restaurant with, perhaps, pretensions to better things. The best element was the location such a wonderful village with to beautiful churches.

Visited on a lovely sunny afternoon. little information offered by staff of the variety of tea availble and no list provided. informed of a few common types of everyday teas most people would have in their household store cupboards. Decided to have a cup of coffee, and my partner agreed to have the mint tea. Food was nice and the setting excellent, but it all felt flat and not a great experience.

This was the second time we experienced service issues during our dinner at the Hotel 's restaurant. Overall, the setting of the hotel is beautiful but the restaurant can do with some updating, especially in the area of coziness and decoration. Yes, we had a single yellow rose in a vase on the table but the decor of the room lacks warmth and creates a more formal cold ambiance. Service is the main issue here. After a quick start (menus offered even before an aperitif has been served), the lack of attention of the waiting staff is quite noticeable and becomes an irritant. Water, bread nor wine was replenished by staff and our table had to clear the empty dinner plates ourselves after sitting behind these for over 15 minutes with no waiter waitress in sight. Food portions were 'style over substance ' but tasted nice. If the restaurant staff focused more on delivering attentive service, the place could should do very well indeed.

Three of us visited for lunch on a wet and breezy day Saturday in November. We were given a warm and friendly welcome and taken to a lounge to have pre-lunch drinks by the open fireplace and to view the menu. We each had three courses and all chose different dishes and we were all very happy with our selections. The food was delicious and very well presented. I personally had the game terrine, the venison and the crumble. You can tell that the kitchen team have had excellent training because the flavours worked so well and each individual dish was so thoughtfully presented. It seemed to us that much of the produce was regional. The service continued to be warm and friendly for the duration of the lunch.