A well known Edinburgh hotel and restaurant has come under fire on TripAdvisor for a “sharp and unexpected” welcome.
The TripAdvisor visitor made brunch reservations with friends for the restaurant at Gleneagles Townhouse hotel in September, slammed the visit as “disappointing.”
The visitor said their reservation was for 10.30am, and as they approached the front doors at 10.31am, they received a “sharp and unexpected” call from restaurant staff.
“[My] reservation was for 10:30am. My mobile phone rang at 10:31am,” the visitor said.
“I was literally 10 yards from the front door about to head in. The tone of this call was rather sharp and unexpected. It really took the edge off of the experience.”
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The visitor had nothing horrible to say about the rest of their experience. They concluded that the food was good without being “overly exciting” and could have had better choices, and commended the decor and bathrooms as beautiful.
“Would I return, probably would but I wouldn’t be in a rush to do so. All the hype is in the name/venue but nothing special,” the visitor said.
“However the welcome was rather disappointing and left a bad taste.”
The general manager at Gleneagles Townhouse responded with apologies for the cold welcome.
“I am sorry to hear about your experience at The Spence. The welcome you received from our team is not our usual standard and I hope you trust me when I say that this was an isolated incident. Please rest assured I will follow up on this personally with the team,” he said.
The Spence is a finely decorated restaurant in the Gleneagles Townhouse hotel serving “Modern, Scottish-inspired cuisine and a drinks menu for all tastes” in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town.
The Spence has an average 4.5 star rating on both TripAdvisor and Google.
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