The Angel Hotel

This is a quaint well appointed hotel in the lovely village of Lavenham; my partner and I stayed for one night over the Easter weekend. We did enjoy our stay but unfortunately their was a few points that let it down; firstly the service for our pre booked table for the evening meal was very slow in that not only did we have to wait 45 minutes before they even took our food order we had to ask twice before they even brought us drinks! We questioned this and were told that they had a “big” order (that turned out to be a table of 5) that had to be for filled before they could come to us…. The excuse given was that there was issues with the equipment in the kitchen; sorry but for a restaurant that is positioning itself at the higher end of the midrange market that is simply not good enough. On the plus side the food when it eventually arrived was excellent and we thoroughly enjoyed the meal but upon paying the bill we quite reasonably asked for the service charge to be removed but the girl called Millie who appeared to be the supervisor seemed visibly annoyed at that request and struggled to stay polite ( it felt like “who the hell were we to ask for the service charge removal”) The service charge was removed in the end. Lastly I came down to breakfast alone and had ordered the full English which came out promptly unfortunately one of the sausages was clearly out of date it smelt and tasted off - I literally spat it out back onto my plate. I mentioned this to Millie when I paid the bill and she seemed totally uninterested and no offer to reduce the bill was forthcoming; I didn’t want a confrontation so waited to write a trip advisor review instead. Unfortunately Millie who appears to have her feet firmly under the table there had a generally bad attitude to paying customers and perhaps should not work in a customer facing roll and leave it to the girls that work there. I don’t know if we caught her on a bad day (we all have them) but nevertheless the attitude to reasonable request left a lot to be desired. To end on a positive note the room was clean and worth the money we paid and despite the issues above I’d be willing to give the place another go..

Decided that rather than cooking tonight we would go out for a meal. The Angel had space and asked us to come at 7.40 rather than 7.30 so the chef would have time to prepare. We arrived at 7.45 and had a glass of wine and then waited, and waited. There were only 4 other diners and a few people in the bar but the meal still took 45 minutes to arrive. The food was good and nicely presented but there were 4 girls serving and when we left at 8.50 there was nobody in the bar and only 2 couples left in the restaurant. Nice food but why, oh why, did it take so long - and then they charged a service charge of 12%!!!

Boxing Day meal .. exceeded expectations, amazing food, friendly service well done to all, beef amazing, really large dinners … good atmosphere .. highly recommended .. staff must hv been so tired but all smiling nothing to fault .. what an amazing place

Another great stay. Fabulous staff and great food . Lovely friendly atmosphere . Always made to feel welcome. Such a great place to base yourself for a lavenham visit. When the staff make feel like part of the team you are in for a good stay

Breakfast- one word-don't! I Can only comment on breakfast. £9+ for 3 tablespoons of salty scrambled eggs and a small bit of salmon. Filter coffee was luke warm. I would strongly advise to have breakfast somewhere else in this village. Disappointing

Excellent comfortable and enjoyable short stay which we extended to a third night at the heart of this beautiful village! The staff were helpful and friendly - have to give special mention to Daisy who was so enthusiastic about The Angel and took time from her very busy morning schedule to show us the newly decorated small function room in these historic premises. We enjoyed two delicious evenings meals, both a la carte and weekday special menus and breakfasts were lovely - freshly cooked to order plenty of choice. Our room was No 7 and we enjoyed the separate,level, easy access onto the very quiet historic lane and none of the negative reviews expressed in another review were applicable on our stay. Parking was plentiful when we stayed, free and probably closer than most hotel private car parking!

When it comes to comfort levels,the Angel Hotel, Lavenham is compromised by its architecture and conservation status. Such a handicap should not however be complemented with poor service, especially when a 12.5 percent service charge is added . We could cite several shortcomings but typical was the inability to serve a boiled egg for breakfast. "It's not on the menu,- we can only serve what's on the menu, and anyway there's no demand."

Booked a celebratory meal in the hotel's restaurant. Food was superb and is highly recommended, but the service was abysmal. The lead waitress/ supervisor failed to smile once and was very curt in all her responses. She lacked attentiveness, politeness and any positive traits of a good waitress. She also ruined our planned surprise despite earlier discussions to run things smoothly. I was truly beyond disappointment. Was hoping to opt out of the 12.5% service charge but unfortunately this is fixed. Paid up silently and left knowingly never to return.

Would highly recommend.This is a period hotel built around 1420 and suits the medieval town of Lavenham to a tee.With all the features expected of a property of this age ,but with all the mod cons .Lovely and clean,great host and very friendly staff.Food is excellent and breakfast is as good as anywhere we’ve visited.Set in the village square with ample free parking,it’s also got a great vibe at night with a good smattering of friendly locals.What else can we say,but it’s as good as it gets.Also dog friendly .Julie and Dennis Cocker