Best Western Priory Hotel & Garden Restaurant in St Edmundsbury

Booked in for two days. The first night eat elsewhere. Ordered a drink and food at the bar. The steward asked where was I sitting I said I had not decided as yet but likely to be beside the garden window. The only other customer said it would be hard to find us. Food was tasty. The rooms were clean and like many Best Western dated. Served its purpose of the stay. Room was like a small garden single story room in a block of rooms.

Comfortable hotel close to Bury St Edmunds centre. Helpful staff, decent rooms and nice lounge areas. Older building was kept well and newer built areas combines well with large garden area. Food was decent with sensible pricing and some daily offers. Steak was great! Good choice offered at Breakfast. Would stay again.

We were sold a pre-paid package deal of a room, cream tea on arrival, three course evening meal, a bottle of Prosecco and breakfast. What we got fell well short of expectations. Things got off to a bad start when the person behind the reception desk told to use the self check-in screen, then proceeded to stare aimlessly into the mid-distance doing nothing while we, who are both of a certain age, grappled with the concept of touch-screen technology. No help was offered, and when we finally completed the task she just walked off without a word. It was a sign of things to come. For the cream tea, we were ushered into a dark corner of a deserted room, presented with a scone each and two pots of luke-warm tea. That was it. Job done. In fairness, the room we had was really nice and easily worth the 3-star description. The bathroom was particularly spacious and the bed, although a double rather than king size, was comfy enough. It was described as a superior room so perhaps they are not all like that. In contrast, dinner was a big disappointment. Despite having booked our table in advance, the waitress wanted to see the email confirmation of our booking before accepting that we had pre-paid for our meal. She then proceeded to tell us we were not getting the 3-course meal and bottle of Prosecco as stated on the booking. What we were getting was their “Taster Menu”. This turned out to be an extremely limited set menu with a choice of two main courses of modest proportions and a dribble of 5 different wines of their choice. Giving this meal a fancy name was kidding nobody. There was no Prosecco offered. Breakfast was bulk standard, although Eggs Benedict turned out to be beyond the cook’s capabilities. A whole cold unsliced muffin, hard poached egg and a spot of mayo. That is just wrong. This is a nice hotel in a good location but, oh dear, how the staff have ruined it. In future we will avoid Best Western. It has clearly gone down hill.

We have been here on many occasions and now our last. The food and service had always been lovely but this visit wasn’t good at all in both ways. We asked for a vegetarian option for the afternoon tea and notice that the sandwiches were ham and accompanied by sausage rolls. They promptly took away the plates and whilst expecting fresh lot of food, they had just removed the meat items and then returned the remaining items back on the same plates. Nice!

My husband and I went for afternoon drinks what a great experience fantastic atmosphere warm and welcoming staff well done Danny and jo we will be back

My wife and i went here for an afternoon drink and had a really lovely time the staff Danny and Jo were absolutely the perfect hosts it was well worth the extra couple of pence to have the friendly and very pleasant staff serving you..the atmosphere was top class . I would recommend it to any one well done to the staff

Wow… but not for the right reasons!! As you walk into the front entrance area, it looks like they have been robbed, no furniture and a stray cat!! Escorted to the dining area, by a right cheery old soul…. 🤔 sadly not. We decided to go for the carvery option, after choosing from their menu offering 5 starters, 5 mains 5 desserts. The meat was actually (ok) gammon and topside, steak knife required. It was all down hill from there, honestly the worst roast roast potatoes I’ve ever had. Dessert was tinned apple crumble nothing left to say on that. General Manger seemed in control, engaged and on point, the same can be said for the front man on the carvery unit, shame his staff didn’t follow suit, mass training required. Real shame as the owner has clearly spent a lot of money, although possibly not enough, as it seemed very basic in a lot of areas. Far better options in the local area.

Great service from the time we arrived. Excellent room. Smiling and helpful staff. Excellent evening meal and breakfast up there with the best.

One particular staff doing the service in the restaurant appeared to be on the racist side. Whether 'SHE' knows it or not, the experience I countered was bad enough for me to never wanted to return to this hotel. The pub opposite offers better food, better staff and better service.

Afternoon tea at the Priory was excellent value. We were the only 2 people there but our waiter still made it be a very enjoyable experience and was on hand to check if we needed more tea etc and also to answer our queries re the hotel's other dining options. He produced menus for us to take away and gave recommendations. The tea itself was well presented and prepared with plenty of sandwiches and lovely scones. Although the cakes were a little disappointing we were full anyway so it didn't really matter to us. We will definitely be returning to try the restaurant at some point.

We just got back from Afternoon Tea at the Priory. It was served in peaceful surroundings overlooking the garden. The staff were all very pleasant and helpful. The Afternoon Tea was absolutely lovely. A great selection of sandwiches with generous fillings, delicious sausage rolls (my favoutite), scones with cream & whole strawberry jam, and a few nice cakes. Plus of course bottomless tea or coffee. It was a very pleasant and relaxing experience.

Best Western Priory Hotel afternoon tea Great surroundings excellent service great variety to choose from - staff very friendly could not do enough To help and make it an excellent experience Would highly recommend.

Visited the hotel today for an afternoon tea. Lovely friendly staff who greeted us then a very pleasant waitress showed us to our table. Beautiful day so had our afternoon tea in the gardens. 4pm staff change over - we were then looked after by an equally pleasant chap by the name of Nathan. Good choice of foods - sandwiches cakes etc and blush Prosecco! To be recommended. Special thanks to Nathan

Food was overcooked and pretty awful. We were the only diners at peak time and so there was no atmosphere