Grill by James Martin in Wychavon

Went with family and friends for a special lunch and was not disappointed. The dining room was not busy, so service and food delivery were all very timely. Food portions were quite adequate and each guest enjoyed their choice. Loved the ambience of the huge vaulted dining hall.

Visited James Martin Grill for a family birthday meal. Visited here a few years ago and it was awful so vowed never to return, but came back to give it another go since it has James Martin's name attached and he is our favourite TV chef. The evening started off terribly, with a miserable dark haird waitress who "greeted" us telling us abruptly to move outside because we were "in the way". However, there was no one in the entrance to greet us, and no sign to say "please wait here", so naturally you would enter the restaurant you have booked and expect a warm welcome. This isn't what we got and it set a very bad tone for the rest of the evening. Throughout the remainder of the night we had multiple waiters serving us, and no one looking after our table. They knew we were celebrating a birthday, but this was not acknowledged until right at the end after we had ordered desserts, when an additional dessert (so I now had 2 desserts) came out saying 'happy birthday'. This was very tokensitic, given we had already ordered our desserts and did not need an additional, and no effort had been made prior to this. There was no ambience, with no background music and the place felt rather echoey. None of the other customers appeared to be smiling, and none of the staff were smiling or making any effort with any of the tables. They all seemed to be stressed and rushing round, with food being dropped on the floor at one point. The food on the other hand was lovely, and we have no complaints of the food. We described it afterwards as "nice pub food". Definitely not worth the inflated prices you would expect in a luxury restaurant, especially with the awful service to go with it. Given this is marketed and priced as a luxury restaurant by a celebrity chef, this is not the service or experience one should be receiving. The bill came to around £500 for 4 people. We should have known better, as we know several others who visited and had a negative experience and did not recommend. I think they must rely on tourists who don't read reviews or come back - but it's a shame because locals will not be returning.

Visited 7/7, good greeting on arrival from Sandor and Pavla. Service from Petra and Val which was excellent. Highly recommend the crispy squid (however the portion size was smaller than usual?) along with the chicken Caesar salad; both dishes are delicious! Baby corn salad and steak frites I’m told were also very good although the baby corn salad was “over” charred!

We had high hopes about the restaurant and had struggled to get a table so we thought it must be in demand! However , the restaurant was half empty and totally lacking in atmosphere. The drinks service was extremely slow , as I was seated I ordered a glass of champagne. It took so long to come , the waiter came over to take our food order but I still had not received it - I asked to have this before we ordered and he said the bar was very busy . The food was decent , our starters were the best part of the meal . Again , a glass of wine took so long to arrive. My husbands steak was average and came without the sauce he ordered. Chips were overcooked . We were happy enough with the food but would not return as it just was far from the experience we hoped for .

We enjoyed some great food prepared by the recently appointed head chef Graeme; certainly maintained the standards set by Rhys. Front of house service was delivered by Caleb and Val; professional and attentive! Overall a very well run hotel by Graeme, Darren and the team.