The best restaurants serving British food in Shrub End Colchester East of England

Spa day for Mothers' day. Lucky that the beauty therapists were so good because it saved the day. Pool area looked very good but the aromatherapy room had nothing of aromatherapy about it and the pool itself was icy. The relazing pool was also too cold to sit in but the jacuzzi was warm: unfortunately the bubbles were absolutely violent and because so much chlorine had been used in the water, it was spat in your eyes and we had to get out, eyes streaming. So we went to get our afternoon tea: what a disappointment! When we got to the café area we were left waiting for quite some time with no one to seat us. The room was in a mess: tables covered with detritus. They only managed to clear up by getting a beauty therapist to come and clear the tables! We settled in for tea.5 minutes later we had eaten it! We each had the equivalent of 2 slices of bread cut into 4 little sandwiches. Only 2 fillings: cheese and tomato and egg mayonnaise. Usually if you go out for afternoon tea you have double this amount and are then offered more. At Ballentynes you had a couple of mouthfuls and when we asked for more were told we would have to pay for them! The one scone each was actually very nice but the cake selection was dismal, with a small piece of chocolate cake that we had to cut to share ourselves and another that looked so amateurish that neither of us wished to sample it. Absolutely nothing special about this "special Mothers' Day" event. As is often the case in hospitality the management is trying to increase the profit margin by cutting back on the quality of the offer once payment has been taken and cutting back on staff so that staff, who were, I should add, all very pleasant, are rushing around and unable to provide the expected level of service.The place is definitely not meeting it's potential. We will not be visiting again.