Fancy Dinner in the Cotswolds (The Dial House Hotel (Bourton on the Water))

Member Name: AndrewPo

Product:	The Dial House Hotel (Bourton on the Water)
Date:	21/07/08 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good friendly staff and some very pleasant rooms and a great restaurant

Disadvantages: some rooms are quite small and lacking in character

I stayed at The Dial House Hotel in Bourton-on-the-Water a few weeks ago, with my partner, after reading a rave review in Alastair Sawday's "Special Places to stay" travel book. I was expecting a wonderfully decorated room with antique furniture and a four-poster bed. Not that I had requested that, but I had jumped to the conclusion that this is what I would be getting, so I was quite disappointed when I was shown to a rather small newly decorated room by the manager of this small hotel. He proudly showed us the "jacuzzi" (i.e. a small modern bath with some water-squirters) in the brand-new modern-styled bathroom. The room was on the ground-floor with french doors onto the patio where other guests were enjoying afternoon tea and immediately behind the bar, which we were assured would close by about midnight, so it shouldn't be too noisy. There was a strong smell of paint and we suspected that we may have been the first occupants of the room since renovation. We had only paid £140 for the room, including breakfast, so we were perhaps expecting rather too much for our money at the peak of the season in the Cotswolds.

The manager was very pleasant and friendly, but we did feel a bit disappointed. We decided to go out and explore and the beautiful town of Bourton, and come back for our pre-booked dinner and hope that it would be better than the room. We came back and decided we had to move rooms because of the smell. The manager apologised and immediately put us into a much bigger room in the Coach House next door, with antique furniture at no extra charge. There was still no four-poster, nor the jacuzzi, but we were much happier. We went to the very pleasant little bar for canapes and an aperitif and to peruse the menu before going through to the small dining room for dinner. The food was excellent modern English cuisine and the service friendly rather than excessively formal. Starters cost about £8 and main courses about £20, so, with the aperitifs and bottle of wine from the less expensive end of the menu we spent about £100. Breakfast the following morning was possibly even better and included in the room-price.

I would certainly recommend this hotel for a night and for dinner. There is a two night minimum at the weekend. There are more expensive rooms with four-posters (one of the staff told us to ask for room 3 next time) but the larger room we occupied was room 10 in the Coach House and the smaller modern one was room 5 in the main building.

The hotel is situated on the main road running through the village, and very centrally located, but set back from the road, with a small car-park entrance which is quite easy to miss:

The Dial House, The Chestnuts, Bourton-on-the-water, Gloucestershire, GL54 2AN

Summary: A great place to stay and to dine