August 2025 by Mary Worby
This is a copy of an e-mail I have sent to the owners of the Whitebrook twice and received no reply.
I wanted to feed back on the experience we had at the Whitebrook yesterday evening (August 2nd). We had booked the 9-course tasting menu as a treat for our anniversary and were looking forward to a wonderful evening out.
I would also like to preface this with the fact we are no strangers to fine dining and have eaten out in many exceptional restaurants both at home and abroad.
We arrived at the restaurant promptly at three minutes to seven for our reservation at seven and were ushered somewhat hurriedly through to the restaurant area and seated. While we were offered water straight-away, it was twenty minutes before we even had sight of a wine list, for which we had to ask the waiter. We were served a selection of courses, all intricately detailed, with a huge amount of effort and lots of different flavours involved. It was clear there was real expertise in the kitchen, although we felt that perhaps the complexity was sometimes to the detriment of the real star ingredients, which should maybe have been allowed to shine more. The service was polite and effective throughout.
The major issue we had was the pace at which the courses came out. I am well aware that fine dining is not fast food, and these intricate dishes take time to prepare, but a tiny plateful of food every half an hour to forty minutes makes for a very long evening. It was well over three hours before we got to the ?main? course, the hogget, and by this stage we simply did not have the energy for the remaining two courses. We informed the sommelier accordingly and asked that we be brought the bill and not charged for the remaining two courses. We were told that the Whitebrook does not like to rush the experience, and we should have been aware that it could take up to three and a half hours to get through the courses. We were already three and a half hours in with two more courses to go. The time shown on our bill is 22:41.
The younger male member of staff then came to our table, admitted they were a chef down for the evening and accused us of arriving late. He said it was made clear that they liked diners to arrive half an hour beforehand for a drink in the bar (we have checked through all our correspondence and have scoured your website, including going through a full new booking process (but not completing it) and no mention is made of this). He added that the fact that we did not do this supposedly threw all their timings off, so our service did not in fact start until 1940. I have certainly not come across a restaurant that insists on customers arriving half an hour in advance of their reservation time. He tried to turn the blame for the slow food on us in spite of the fact that the sommelier had already admitted it had taken too long and agreed with us (in front of him) that we had indeed arrived before 19:00. We find that conduct utterly unacceptable. We did not withhold the service charge as that would have been unfair on the other staff members, i.e. the waitress and the sommelier.
We were charged full price for the tasting menu and one bottle of wine but not charged for one extra glass of wine each or our water. I do not believe is it is fair that we were falsely accused of arriving late. Promptness is something that is very dear to our hearts and I?m sure you have CCTV footage that proves we were exactly on time for our booking. Had the staff merely apologised for the slow delivery of food due to the fact they only had two chefs, we would have thought nothing more of it. As it is, the attitude of your staff left us with a very sour taste in our mouths.
July 2025 by Amanda Lillie
wonderful food and excellent service, a real treat to experience this level of cuisine
June 2025 by Isabella Harris
Tastes like a secret you?re glad got out. 10/10.
May 2025 by Michael Spezio
We happened upon The Whitebrook and Chef Chris graciously made room for 2 more for the 9 course Tasting Menu. What a wonderful experience. Manuel and the other staff were so very helpful and the meals were a wonder. Highly recommend!
May 2025 by Carl Guss Taff Young
Lovely, the food is light, fulfilling and dellicately delicious. The tasting menu with wine pairing left me feeling replenished and energised rather than stuffed full.
The staff are informative, attentive, and lovely and made our stay very enjoyable .
The Whitebrook feels like a doorway to the wild lands that surround and nourish it. Wonderful.
April 2025 by Paul W
One can travel to the great pyramids of Giza in less time than it takes to have lunch at the Whitebrook. Vast quantities of time shall pass between each of the pleasantly tasting, but minutely portioned courses (about 40 minutes each, for 2-3 mouthfuls). The food was delicate and seasonal, and staff were friendly. If you are lucky enough to have the wine pairing the sommelier will attentively describe each delicious offering to accompany each course; if you are driving you will not be offered any drinks over the 5 hour meal. I left thirsty and slightly bored, and regret not bringing a book.
April 2025 by Ricardo Cerqueira
Wife and I went in there just for food. It was incredible. You do need a bit of time, it?s a 9 course meal but they do give you a few extras here and there so it becomes a lengthy one. Just ignore your phone and enjoy the food really :) it?s amazing and the staff is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. The photo I?m adding is of my favourite dish of the night.
March 2025 by J C
Went for Sunday lunch, beautiful valley location. Arrived for 1230 we didn't leave until 1700.
Beautiful and considered dishes, amazing suckling pig, should have tried the dandelion expresso martini...next time.
The wine pairing complemented every dish, intensifying the flavours, dandelion root ice-cream.
Well worth taking the time to discover the beautiful valley, and plan on enough time to enjoy the food and hospitality.
March 2025 by C F
Just awful. The staff were incredibly stuck up. The food was quite nice but the unfriendliness of the place totally ruined it and we will not be returning.
March 2025 by Jenny
We came for an overnight stay using a voucher that had been bought for us. The servers were lovely, and the food was spectacular- 'everything but the squeal' in particular was a standout dish. I have to comment on the incredibly slow service though, as this really did affect our enjoyment of the evening. The first half of the service was OK, with dishes coming out every 15-25 minutes, but things in the kitchen seemed to slow right down for the second half. It ended up with a 40 minute wait between courses, so for a 7:30pm table we only left at 12:30 which was far too late. This is not a normal length of time even for a 9/10 course tasting menu. It was a shame, as it meant the second half became a real slog to wait it out. We wanted to try the cheese course so decided to give that a go seeing as it was already late- it was nice, but only a couple of the cheeses were interesting enough for me to be worth it. By the time the petit fours came out (which were lovely), we would have much rather just headed up to bed. Breakfast the next morning was nice, and thankfully a lot speedier service. We overall enjoyed our time here, but wouldn't recommend the tasting menu unless you come prepared for the long waits!
February 2025 by Thomas Webb
Excellent food well worthy of a Michelin star. Dinner B&B offers good value for what you get. Perfect for a special night away.
December 2024 by Hugh Stewart
We had lunch here on Thursday. I am in a powered wheelchair, the last time we ate there, I was able to get in easily, but this time, there was some work being done on the back terrace, but the waiter went and got a ramp and made a lot of effort to get me into the restaurant. The food was outstanding, we asked the sommelier to choose wines to go with the dishes and they were all excellent. We pushed the boat out a bit, so the bill was large, but you get what you pay for, and they have, quite rightly a Michelin star. No complaints from us.
December 2024 by Kate Tutty
Incredible food. Every dish was a work of art.
October 2024 by Megan Worrall
My partner and I came here for the 9 course tasting menu and it was absolutely fantastic. Really delicious food and incredible service! They were also understanding of my dairy intolerance as we gave them notice about it, it was nice to be included in the menu
October 2024 by R Patel
We dined at The Whitebrook restaurant for a birthday meal. For a Michelin star restaurant, the dishes, in our opinion, lacked creativity. The vegetarian menu and standard 9 course menu were lovely, but nothing that blew our mind. We've been to many other 1 Michelin star restaurants that have exceeded our expectations.
The service here was particularly poor on the evening - it took the team 20 minutes to bring each course out, so for 9 courses, we were here almost 4 hours for just a table of 2.
It also felt as though they were under staffed, as waiters were bolting off to the kitchen to grab the dish for the next table constantly. I was served a fish dish and had to correct them that I'm a vegetarian. We also had no body topping up our water or checking if we are ok for drinks. These sound like minor points but for a place like this, I'd expect top standard service, which we certainly didn't receive here.
Also absolutely no atmosphere to the restaurant - there were 6 tables occupied, all in close proximity and no background music in the restaurant. Meaning conversations were overheard by all tables in an extremely intimate and quiet room. It just felt strange overall and we were keen for the experience to end so we could FINALLY get home!
