Lochside House Hotel & Spa

Rooms are clean, well furnished and cosy. Lovely outlook over fountain, beautiful views and great staff. The star of the show is the restaurant. As a vegetarian I was very impressed that for once I was given a separate menu for vegetarians. Fantastic, as this happens so rarely!! Professional chefs not based at Lochside please take note, a lot of vegetarians are absolutely bored stiff with the usual unimaginative offering of risotto or tomato pasta usually squeezed onto the menu between meat and fish !!Tonight I enjoyed delicious tempura vegetables with a light and crispy batter followed by chickpea en croute served with perfectly cooked al denté vegetables. Absolutely delicious !! Thank you.

The actual afternoon tea was nice. A good selection of savoury and sweet with the addition of a small cup of soup, it was tasty. The white bread felt fresher than the brown and the tiniest pot of whipped cream would never have covered 6 small scones. I do prefer and expect clotted cream with an afternoon team.m but appreciate that is preference. But it is the service I need to call out as needs improvement. Our food was dropped off at the table with no description of what anything was….we had to work that out for ourselves although the soup was described when it arrived. We all had tea but when one of us went to pour we spotted a dirty cup. We tried to catch attention of the staff but eventually my partner went up to the bar to have it changed. When he said it was dirty, he was told it was just coffee stains. It wasn’t! But regardless, that should never have been the response. We continued to eat the food and eventually ran out of tea as the small pot was only sufficient for one cup. Again, we tried to catch attention of staff however after about ten minutes I had to go to the bar to request more tea. Not once did anyone ask if everything was ok or did we need anything else. It almost felt like they purposely avoided eye contact or any engagement with guests. My final request was for the bill, again I had to ask at the bar for that. We left with no further comment from staff, no thanks for coming, have a good day or even goodbye! Summing this up, food good, nice environment but service needs seriously addressed! I also don’t understand how tea for two is £35.95 however for one it’s £22.95 when it was all served on the same dishes. I would not return nor would I recommend to others.

Beautiful hotel our room was lovely and the bed was so comfortable. Our evening meal was absolutely amazing:) Everything about or stay was perfect could not fault in any way. I would definitely recommend for a relaxing get away. Will return in the future thank you to all at Lochside.

Ok what to say about our stay? From the Lowes suite we stayed in, to the bar and restaurant. I can only say one thing. “They just do everything right”All the staff are a credit to the hotel👍 At tentative and professional. The grounds and views are great also

We went here with a voucher we were given for overnight stay plus dinner,bed and breakfast on probably the worse night of the winter so far.We were given room 5 upstairs and the first thing I noticed when entering room was the creaking floorboards in our room and could hear the same from people moving around next door.Room was lovely but when I went round the side of the bed the floor was soaking,I thought maid must have spilled something but next morning it was the same.I reported it to the receptionist in case it was an underfloor leaking pipe,reception said rooms on other side had problems with roof tiles week before but not our side.Bathroom very nice but toilet pan had a constant drip that annoyed me all night,I ended up putting toilet paper in pan to try to reduce noise.From 4 in the morning for 1 and a half hours there was a constant thump thump noise coming from somewhere I think outside but don’t know,it woke my wife up as well and she sleeps like a log.I think we were dead unlucky with the room but I had the worse sleep ever.Dinner was very nice although the supplements were quite harsh.Breakfast was nice as well but again supplements were uncalled for.My wife asked for pancakes instead of full Scottish and got charged £4 or something,The decor in hotel was very nice and is without doubt a lovely place to go but I was there years ago at a funeral during the summer and was much better as the scenery is spectacular.It really was a shame about our room but for the cost of our stay we certainly didn’t have a nice experience.

Good food. Poor, slow service. Table 19 is very small. I asked for the only remaining window seat after i saw our table. Our waiter said he would check to see if it was reserved. We saw him setting the table for us, but another waiter gave the table to a couple who arrived after us and were seated elsewhere when they asked to be seated at the window. The staff members conversed, and our waiter returned and then lied to us and told us it was reserved for them even though they were seated elsewhere at the time. We tried to make the best of our visit after this, but the service was slow and very unattentive. I had to go to the bar to order more drinks due to the lack of service. We really enjoyed our food, but it was overshadowed by the poor service.

Our favourite hotel to stay in. We always stay in a garden view room which is stunning. The spa is brilliant. Food is lovely and the staff are amazing. We come here every year. And are never disappointed. Value for money and is a touch of luxury in every stay. Love it.

Booked a table for breakfast on route to visit fiends in Ayr. Never been before - location lovely - and that’s where it ends. On arriving in restaurant (which was not busy - 11:00am) was told by staff member (will be a minute need to set up a table) before I could say we had a table booked she walked off. Never been greeted in such a way - training defo needed. My breakfast - if you like greasy bacon/sausages and forgetting some of the order and slow service - not for me. Think I got what was left of morning breakfast . I have worked in the hotel industry and first impression of this place was - don’t bother - spend your hard earned money somewhere else.

Our stay in the hotel was good, but I am concerned that the hotel do not take food allergies seriously, and their response to my concerns has been non-existent. We had booked the Heavenly Unwind package which included a visit to the spa and smoothies in the relation room. Before my spa treatment I completed the medical questionnaire detailing my allergy to kiwi. The therapist discussed this with me and agreed a treatment plan avoiding the use of products containing kiwi. The treatment was excellent. Once we had finished, we went through to the relaxation room where the smoothies were brought through by the therapist. I observed that the drink was green and as I am extremely cautious due to previous severe allergic reactions, I asked if the drink contained kiwi. My therapist said that she would go and ask and when she came back she confirmed that it did and offered me an alternative drink. I accepted this, but felt that she did not appreciate the severity of the situation that could have unfolded if I had not noticed there was kiwi in the drink. I was unable to enjoy the new drink as any remnants of kiwi on a glass or in the preparation area could have had a serious effect. On returning from our stay, I e-mailed to make the hotel aware of the incident, not to complain as our stay on the whole was enjoyable, but simply to ensure that this did not happen again. I did not receive a response, so after a week or so completed an online enquiry form. Again, I have not received even an acknowledgement. It is now nearly a month since the incident and it seems that the hotel simply do not care. I am concerned that this could have serious results for someone else in the future and needs to be reviewed. I understand that the therapist may have been considering my medical form with a view to the treatment she was performing, but it also needs to be followed through until the end of the stay. It may seem like a trivial allergy, but if I take the slightest amount of kiwi it has an anaphylactic effect which is at best traumatic and at worst life threatening. This did spoil what had been a very pleasant experience and I would not wish any future guests to experience this. The hotel needs to review staff training to make them aware of food allergies and how serious they can be. Perhaps offering guest a choice of drink and detailing ingredients would also stop something like this happening in the future.