The Refectory in Malvern Hills

food was generally excellent with good flavours.Certainly one of the best in the area.goats cheese starter was served cold which was a little surprising and the monfish curried did not have a sauce with it which was also a little surprising, but we will certainly go back.

Super atmosphere and brilliant food. We were there for Christmas and it was a wonderful occasion. Staff were attentive and could not do more to assist. Will be back soon.

Staff were so helpful . Beautiful surroundings , special mention for Casey she was so helpful and friendly

The tasting menu had a small (3) but interesting choice for each course. I very much enjoyed apple & parsnip soup, scallops and beef all nicely cooked, presented and served. The flight of wine to accompany it was also interesting and enjoyable.

We had an evening meal on a Sunday. We started with Honey roasted butternut squash soup and Pea purea, focaccua, gherkin and mustard. We both had Roasted sirloin of beef,Yorkshire pudding and vegetables. The food was nicely presented and very tasty. One couse is £15, two courses is £20 and three courses is £25 - 10% is included. The restaurant is modern and very smart. The atmosphere was great and the service is excellent. I would suggest that you reserve a table a week before you go.

An enjoyable afternoon was spent at Stanbrook Abbey, with drinks at the contemporary decorated George's bar followed by deliciously flavoured warm scones, cream and jam and an interesting range of teas. The coffee was pretty good too, so my friend says. Nice ambience and provides a good place to meet friends and also, for a special occasion, as you do feel you are having tea in a rather special place. We've had tea at the Ritz, the Dorchester etc.. and we would rate this tea (in its more modest offering) as being just an enjoyable.

Ate dinner and breakfast in the Refectory whilst staying in the hotel. Enjoyed good food well cooked and presented by attentive friendly staff.

Had a menu tasting experience for our silver wedding celebrations. Food was absolutely amazing and generous portion sizes. Would highly recommend.

Food was very poor, staff lovely and helpful, nice ambience. Food looked better on paper. Menu had good vegetarian options but odd combinations that were not very appetising.

I didn’t realise there was a separate listing for the Refectory so please see my full review under the hotel listing

The term synergy is, I believe, meant to reflect the fact that whole can be greater than the sum of the parts. Unfortunately this is not an exclusively positive scenario. Let's start with the positives. Once you have looked past the monstrosity of the 'new' building that spoils the old the very recent refurbishment of what was the wedding banquet hall into the new restaurant is impressive, and oozes style and quality. However here is an abbreviated version of our recent experience which was unfortunately based around a collective of negatives. Let's deal with drinks first. "George's Bar" only offers Ales from one local brewery - theoretically 4 variations although they only had 2 of the 4 on the day, a very dark Rye and a golden one. The barman had to fetch the latter from the cellar so we completed our drinks order and continued into dinner. The Ale arrived c. 20 minutes later. Upon reordering some time later our server came back to say that they only had 1 remaining, not the 2 that we had ordered. We have no idea how many more of the unwanted beer they had but this seemed to demonstrate abysmal planning and/or stock control all round. Food. We knew in advance that the menu was restricted - that's fine, most places offer similar or less choices on a Sunday. Given that at the time there were between 24 and 30 customers including ourselves, I am somewhat mystified as to how our starters could have taken quite so long to arrive but the environment is pleasant and there is no feeling of being rushed to we commented quietly amongst ourselves and that very British way and smiled pleasantly when it arrived. The goats cheese starter was beautiful but everything that should have been warm barely qualified and the soup bowls were ridiculous in that the receptacle itself probably constituted 30% of the platter area. The main meals arrived after a considerable additional wait potentially partially due to the fact that the table nearest to us had already returned theirs due to it being cold. Servers collected the vegetables from the table what appeared to be 10 minutes after the meals had been taken away. Surely any Chef, or waiting staff, or manager would then ensure that no other diners suffered cold meals. Yes, we would have thought so and would have been wrong too. Having waited for such a long time for our meals, we determined not to send them back but to mark the visit up as an unfortunate experience. Quite unusually the beef was not horribly overcooked so that was a bonus, but neither the roast potatoes or gravy were of the quality that we had expected from such an establishment. The accompanying vegetables were very limited, also arrived cold, and were possibly enough for 4 people rather than our 6. Only 3 of us opted for deserts, one of which the cannot-possibly-go-wrong option - ice cream. Five minutes later and our server was back explaining that they did not actually have one of the flavours requested. This proved to be the proverbial straw and those that had ordered deserts gave up on the idea. This was now more than 1 1/2 hours since we sat down. Staff. Our main server seemed more interested in promoting themselves and telling us what a great job they did rather than actually doing the job itself. Sure, they were initially as efficient as perhaps service from the kitchen would allow but when we commented on the food not being hot the response was dismissive, and when we later enquired as to whether the manager had anything to say on the matter we were told that they would 'take it into account' or something similar and was followed by the server's opinion that we should not be complaining to them as they were not the chef and it was not fair. Unfortunately the latter exchange did nothing other than leave a bitter taste. Some waiting staff did not appear to know what they were serving and we were having to play a game of guess the dinner which would have been all the more amusing if we had a larger party or had order more than 2 meals that were not a traditional Sunday dinner. One member of staff seemed to have managed to gain a job that existed purely on moving cutlery and glasses from one place to another! Now "The Refectory" may well be in it's first month and as such there could be 'teething problems' but Stanbrook is not a new entity, and I presume their chef has not just enrolled at Chef-school. If they cannot cope with less than 30 diners, ordering from a restricted menu over a 2 hour period then I feel sorry for anyone thinking that she might cater for a larger party or a wedding. If they can get past the issues above then the Refectory could be fabulous although I have to say that I am against the principle of an automatic service charge being added - a service charge or tip should be deserved.