Somewhere between walking in and being pointed (not shown to) a tiny table along the wall, and walking out through a haze between the smokers, Lisa and I tried the food in a nearby new eatery last night, and decided that it wouldn't be high up our list to recommend to our guests.

Is it just because we're in the business that we notice things like spare glasses being removed, gripped with a thumb across the rim yet returned to the clean spares? That we notice the cleaning products left on a table, for quite some period, and that table being used as a tray holder for drinks and food being delivered to other customers around at the same time? That we notice the curled up carpert corner that customers and staff were tripping over, as the bluetac holding it down had given up the unequal struggle?

Sometime in the 2.5 hours between us setting out and getting home, driving to a place that's about a mile away, we ate. It's always a poor portent when walking into a restaurant to look around and to see food being eaten only at a tiny sprinking of tables, because that indicates long waits. Lisa and I call it "Valentine's mode" because the most extreme service we ever had like this was on Valentine's night when - perhaps - a resturant has something of an excuse. But here we waited, on a Monday in late December, while the gaggle of waiting staff gaggles away at the till even before taking our order. The starter was slow enough in arriving for me to look at my watch when we finished it, secure in the knowledge that I would be able to report a long wait for the main. So I can say now, with confidence, "35 minutes". Our waitress came over after about 30 of those minutes and explained we were behind a large party, and that made us feel really great and important.

The hot sauce on the starter was hot. But the blue cheese dip seemed like herbs in cream, and even Lisa (who hates blue cheese) tried it, and tried it some more because she couldn't taste the cheese. And under the sauces - finger food - which the suace had been just poured over rather than marinaded, it felt like old stock crisped up.

Neither of us got what we initially ordered as main, as we were told on ordering that they had run out. When I asked if I could have XXXX instead, I was told "of course you can" and I felt like suggesting there was no "of course" about it, having just been rejected on two other dishes. The main was reasonable, but underquantitied, and overpriced for what it was. We braved the wait for a desert, and when it arrived it too was overpriced - I joked to Lisa that it was from page 126 of the Brake's commercial catering catalog, but although I joked I think many a true word may have been spoken in Jest. I would suggest they paid perhaps 48.5p for something they charged us [82][c2]ã4.85 for.

I will admit that we tried out this place without huge hopes, having read other local reviews. We went for the experience, and to be able to tell people what we thought. The team that looked after us exhibited little interest in our experience, and making any comment to them would have been water of a duck's back - no "how is your food" check, for example, no interest in the customer. So they won't know that their performance last night has placed them way down the list of places I would suggest to our customers, and they won't know that would have amounted to quite a lot of covers through the quieter winter months when customers who help keep them in work might be hard to come by. Sad - I would love to have been able to give you a positive report, tell you where I'm talking about and saying "go there". I can't, though. Some others who have been, may work it out, avid readers of other sites may guess, but I would be surprised if the management hears of this report or is aware of the multiple other like it that are out there on places like Facebook. Just in case they are, these are of course just our personal experience and views, and you may find it different if you go. I doubt it though, at least until they pull their socks up.

P.S. No disappointment in the company last night - good to pop out with Lisa, long pop though it was!
(written 2014-12-30)

 M401 - Well House Manor - Seeing how others do it
  [17] Differing tastes - (2004-08-17)
  [514] Crazy Day-sies - (2005-12-02)
  [619] If its Sunday, it must be the Norland - (2006-02-23)
  [693] The on line booking experience - (2006-04-21)
  [699] Extremes costs of getting on line - (2006-04-25)
  [714] Room for Octopuses - (2006-05-08)
  [736] New Tape Librarian - (2006-05-28)
  [966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
  [1011] Well House Manor and Beechfield House, Hotels, Melksham - (2006-12-29)
  [1026] The Wheatsheaf 2, The Bell 0 - (2007-01-09)
  [1091] The Psyche is all wrong. - (2007-02-24)
  [1205] Arrival and Departure experiences - another hotel - (2007-05-26)
  [1287] Work and play at Well House Manor - Football and Shell Shortcuts - (2007-08-02)
  [1301] Plastic or China - (2007-08-12)
  [1333] Kasteel Elsloo - Michelin rated hotel. - (2007-09-05)
  [1347] Wireless Internet Access at hotels - an update and some pitfalls - (2007-09-12)
  [1354] Match the Bedroom to the Hotel - (2007-09-17)
  [1356] Crystal Ball - How long do I need to be online? - (2007-09-18)
  [1374] Maidenhead Coffee Challenge - (2007-10-02)
  [1406] Away or home - which do I prefer? - (2007-10-25)
  [1413] The little gestures that can really count - (2007-10-27)
  [1454] From Sunday to Monday, from Melksham to the Balkans - (2007-12-03)
  [1458] The wrong way to put up prices - (2007-12-05)
  [1525] Just one thing let the service down - but that is my memory - (2008-01-31)
  [1547] New bathing idea for hotels from Hotelympia - (2008-02-20)
  [1597] Comparing hotels - as a guest and from the proprietors view - (2008-04-01)
  [1672] The Composting Cone Challenge - (2008-06-10)
  [1758] Lindors Hotel, near St. Briavels, Wye Valley - (2008-08-18)
  [1915] Quietly putting prices up - (2008-12-02)
  [2007] Launch of Melksham Food and Drink Festival - (2009-01-24)
  [2105] Hire Car, from Atlanta Airport - (2009-03-27)
  [2127] Call in the professionals! - (2009-04-12)
  [2308] A new place in pictures - (2009-07-28)
  [2311] Floor to ceiling - (2009-07-30)
  [2413] Sanity checking the price, and selling up to increase income - (2009-09-21)
  [2441] Not your cup of tea? - (2009-10-08)
  [2502] Monday night, Tuesday night - (2009-11-13)
  [2885] Twenty Questions - (2010-07-24)
  [2911] Feeding the Grockles - (2010-08-09)
  [3054] Longhope Hotel - (2010-11-16)
  [3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
  [3368] Well House Manor hotel, Melksham - recommended to you by our customers - (2011-07-23)
  [3754] Eyes Wide Open - (2012-06-06)
  [3776] Some traps it's so easy to fall into in designing your web site - (2012-06-23)
  [3794] Should hotel staff sit on the toilet in the customer bedrooms? - (2012-07-02)
  [3900] The Xxxxx Guest House in Xxxxxxxxxxx - my stay reviewed - (2012-10-20)
  [3963] National TV - Melksham - 9th January 2013, Pre-alert. - (2012-12-27)
  [3970] Comparing four VERY different places to stay - (2013-01-11)
  [3975] Being an amateur hotel inspector helps me run a professional hotel - (2013-01-14)
  [4058] The highs and lows of customer service - Cheltenham - (2013-04-03)
  [4081] Pushing down the advertised price, pushing up the total price charged. - (2013-05-08)
  [4091] A reminder of why we opened Well House Manor for our customers - (2013-05-17)
  [4093] More things to make sure that we do NOT do ... - (2013-05-18)
  [4109] What might you find at a tiny bed and breakfast? - (2013-06-03)
  [4177] Setting and publishing your hours to suit your customer base - (2013-09-18)
  [4245] It always happens to me when I'm in Borehamwood! - (2014-03-06)
  [4255] Making a personal gain from a more expensive business hotel stay - (2014-04-02)
  [4321] Are administration / review charges on hotel guests acceptable? - (2014-11-20)
  [4348] Taking my life in my hands in Swansea - (2014-12-11)
  [4443] Seventh stay away this year - and it's still only February! - (2015-02-25)

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Test driven development, and class design, from first principles (using C++)
A long and disappointing evening
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Conditionals, loops and methods in Ruby - a primer with simple examples
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