Afternoon tea - Judges Country House Hotel in Stockton-on-Tees

Took a friend her to celebrate a milestone birthday. I have no grumble with staff or the service, staff were all lovely and our server was very attentive and friendly. Personally, I think the hotel is looking a little tired so not as luxurious as I’d hoped and for £28 per person the afternoon tea was not that exciting. 5 fingers of different flavoured sandwiches, standard fillings and a selection of tiny cakes and savouries that didn’t blow me away. We had a lovely afternoon and were well looked after but I’ve had nicer afternoon teas for a fraction of the price in slightly less “premium” locations.

After booking a retirement afternoon tea for twenty people, food preordered, everything organised in advance, it should have been a piece of cake, excuse the pun, however, massive mix up with the food, one guest didn’t get anything, one quest cancelled but had to still pay although we notified them, which is fair enough but they didn’t serve that food that was paid for. Instead of teapots of tea for each table, the waitress poured everyone a cup of tea and took teapots away, I like afternoon tea to be hot and flowing with your food, not just a random cup when the waitress decides. However, the food was delicious which is more than I can say for the service, the waitress made some very inappropriate rude remarks which made me feel very uncomfortable and also my guests commented on her bad attitude, we were accused of ordering drinks from the bar and not paying for them , they approached us three times about these drinks but after arguing about them they discovered it was another party and not ours, unfortunately the afternoon was spoilt due to several bad attitudes of the service staff, this then spoilt my retirement party which should have been a memorable occasion, sadly I will remember it for the wrong reasons. I emailed the manager on the evening of my visit, no reply, I emailed again a few days later, no reply, and again , and again, and again, no reply. I rang and spoke to the receptionist who informed me he had been given the emails and I asked her to inform him I was not happy as he was totally ignoring my emails, guess what, still no reply. Two months later and nothing. Such a shame that I have to leave a negative review for this wonderful venue with gorgeous good, let down totally by the service and the shocking non exsistant manager.