Cloisters Restaurant - Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa, Surrey

Cloister’s is the in-house restaurant that resides in the rather lavish Nutfield Priory Hotel and Spa. With silver tableware, crisp white tablecloths it befits the beautifully picturesque landscape that encompasses it.

The expectation when walking into a self labelled ‘fine dining’ restaurant is obviously very high but in this case no amount of attentive care from our lovely 80 year old waiter could make up for the glaring reality that our food was terribly executed. 

Dinner and breakfast was included as part of our overnight package, however if you went off piste with the menu then you had to pay a supplement. My mother did and ordered the Steak for an additional £9.25. She asked to have it medium. It arrived and looked like something a good vet could pull around. Much to my dismay she’s not the complaining type and so she ate around the centre. What a bloody waste. My Lamb with Celeriac Puree and Sherry Jus was perfectly fine. The presentation was the most impressive part of this dinner, especially my Beetroot Cured Salmon and the Ham Hock Terrine starter.

At breakfast I had the indulgent Egg’s Benedict and she has the Full English. I was hoping that they would redeem themselves after the unimpressive dinner but unfortunately my eggs were so underdone that the whites were translucent and snotty in consistency. My poor mother’s second round was the coup de grâce: plain canned baked beans, bland sausages and underdone eggs. I’m sad to say the best thing on the table was the salted butter we put on our toast.

I conclude that because the grounds of Nutfield Priory are so lavish the restaurant feels that it must keep up. It’s therefore trying as hard as it can to be fancy and because of this they’re not paying enough attention to cooking their fantastic produce to the customers satisfaction. It’s sad when such effort is put into something and it falls short. I can’t help but feel sorry for them.

Cloister’s Restaurant
6/10
Nutfield
Surrey, RH1 4EL
Tel: 0845 458 0901

http://www.handpickedhotels.co.uk/hotels/nutfield-priory