Not So Fine Dining In St Andrews

Whenever we visit the caravan we try and treat ourselves to a meal out at least once during our stay. I was about to book for our usual favourite when I spotted some terrible recent reviews on TripAdvisor. Any restaurant or hotel can get the odd poor review and, provided the general trend is good, we tend to ignore the isolated grumble. But these reviews posted over the last few weeks were very bad indeed and we felt that we shouldn’t risk wasting a considerable sum if something is amiss there.

So we tried somewhere new; at least new to us. I’m not into criticism so I’m not going to name the restaurant but, whilst it had a lively and buzzing atmosphere, the food was decidedly average and we won’t be heading back in a hurry. At £65 for two including a glass of wine each it was not the cheapest venue in town - we’ve had far better meals in St Andrews at half the price. So it was a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. We avoided the risk of disaster at our favourite place but didn’t enjoy the substitute. We’ll be reading the Trip Advisor reviews with interest next time we’re here in September.

Today we discovered somewhere new when we went with Sarah and Rose to Craigtoun Country Park. It adjoins Craigtoun Meadows Holiday Park where we are sited but it was not open last year as far as I am aware. It’s a very pleasant park with a playground, boating, putting and plenty of other stuff to keep families amused and we had a very enjoyable couple of hours there in warm sunshine.

Our fortnight here is drawing to a close. It’s been very hot and sunny and I believe that there’s been similar in Framlingham. I just hope that after all the time and effort that Tony from DNA Landscapes put into landscaping the garden, our gardener has managed to keep everything alive. We’ll find out on Monday.  

I've Got A Confession

After watching that documentary "Attack of the trip advisers" on Channel 4 last night I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but (ahemm assumes sotto voce) I have been known to post the odd review on the site. Ok so I have only posted three in the past five years during which time we have eaten at many scores of restaurants and stayed at plenty of hotels. So why have I not written 200 reviews like the site members showcased last night? Well basically I've only written one when I have been so impressed by a hotel or restaurant that I wanted to give them just a little bit more than my custom and sing their praises to the heavens (or the internet at least). So I've only written three five star reviews - all in my own name without hiding behind the anonymity of a user name. That's not to say that I haven't eaten at plenty more restaurants and stayed at plenty of hotels that were also worthy of five stars (I am writing this now from the lovely Old Course Hotel in St Andrews which is definitely a five star location) but those three were just a little bit special and worth me going to the trouble of saying so on line.   


After watching the reviewers in the documentary I question their sanity. I suspect that the film makers wanted to play this one for laughs as, although the programme was predicated on a serious issue (the damage being done to some businesses in the hospitality trade), the examples used were Fawltyesque caterers and nit picking customers including one who went on holiday with his grandma and put hidden dots on the sheets to check if they were being changed daily (do you change your sheets daily at home?) - even his nan who claimed to love her grandson dearly did not think that being served gin and tonic instead of gin and lemonade was worthy of being broadcast to the whole of cyberspace. I have to admit that I often use Trip Advisor before deciding upon a hotel but both Marion and I tend to ignore the reviews that are so obviously out of kilter with the general tone of other reviewers and I would advise you to do the same.


In the meantime if you want a few recommendations from us try Locanda Cipriani in Torcello, Villa Cipriani in Asolo, Chapel Cottage and the Sun Inn in Kirkby Lonsdale, Northcote Manor near Whalley, The Peat Inn near St Andrews, Mint Hotel in Manchester, The Old Course in St Andrews, The Freemasons Wiswell, Cicchetti Manchester, Ile De Re Holiday Homes, Bistrot Marin St Martin Ile De Re, La Route Du Sel in Loix, Le Lodge Kerisper in Trinite-Sur-Mer and The Lazy Fish near Cockermouth. We can recommend all of these from recent experience. 


We once had an experience at an inn in Derbyshire (which has since changed hands so it will remain nameless) that would have merited zero stars on Trip Advisor. When we complained that there was no hot water to bathe our very young children, the manager came up to the room with a bucket of it. Another one that would have made a good TA review was a farmhouse hotel in Eire that my brother and I once booked for a fishing trip. The  proprietor welcomed us with the unforgettable words "Welcome lads. I've been to the butchers and bought a wonderful piece of beef for yers...................and I've minced it."

The Price Is Not Right

With the recovery from the hip replacement almost complete, our minds turned to planning a short break. The surgeon has said that I should not fly for a few more months to limit the risk of DVT so a UK holiday would be the best option. We thought that the Lake District might be a good choice. It was an old stomping ground in my childhood but we haven't spent a great deal of time there in the last twenty years and it would be pleasant to see how things have changed. So we booked a week at an extremely fine looking cottage near Cockermouth that Marion read about in the Guardian a couple of years ago and made a note of for future reference. It looks very special and I'm sure that we'll have a great time. Marion will be celebrating her birthday while we are there.


As the changeover day is a Monday I suggested that we should lengthen the stay a little by travelling up on the Saturday and having a couple of nights in a decent pub. We logged onto Trip Advisor and checked availability. We found plenty but the prices looked extortionate. We're visiting our daughter in a couple of weeks and staying at one of the very best hotels in Scotland for less than the price of a night in several Lakeland pubs and we could have seven nights in Tenerife including the flight for £60 less than two nights in these Lake District hostelries. OK so I only picked pretty up-market pubs when I was looking and I imagine that the Canary Island break would be far from luxurious but I have to wonder if the British tourist industry has got its sums right. At one particular inn, every one of the fourteen rooms was still available. Perhaps it will be a different story by March but if there is plenty of late availability it might be time for a rethink.

Here are two people who won't be moaning about paying two hundred pounds for a night in a pub. I've been watching the transfer deadline news with interest today and been fascinated by the sums being talked about. It seems that Liverpool are to sell Fernando Torres to Chelsea for £50m but will be spending a massive £35m of that on Andy Carroll. I'll be sorry to see Torres leave Anfield. Whatever you think of his sometimes sulky demeanour he is one of the few truly gifted footballers we've had at Liverpool since Robbie Fowler left. As for Carroll? I don't know much about him but I read on one website that £35 million is more than a million pounds for every senior goal he has scored in his career to date. Whatever the outcome of the transfer saga, Wednesday night's match against Stoke, when I will be making my own return from injury, should be an interesting one.


Someone suggested to me the other day that now that I have retired I should take up fishing. It sounds quite attractive -the peace and the solitude. A bit like this.