Marle Restaurant at Heckfield Place

Booked Marle for my engagement lunch celebration with my parents and fiancé. Food was very tasty, and seasonal. Fantastic for veggies. Sadly lacking the 5* service which was a huge disappointment. We arrived early hoping to have a walk around the 400 acre estate advertised so beautifully online. However, as non hotel guests, you only have access to the walled kitchen garden which was not quite as we had envisaged for our county walk to be so short! We then asked for a pre-lunch cocktail which took forever, when it arrived we were then moved to the table after spending about 20mins looking at the menus which we had to ask for, plus the wine list and cocktail menu, the service was very clunky and did not match the price tag. Main courses were also forgotten. It felt very impersonal service and no reference was made to our special occasion. Which I had flagged when booking and on the reminder email 48hours prior to our arrival. The moon bar is also only accessible to hotel guests, which again is a shame, as it had a lovely roaring fire. Again, something that could have been nice to offer us given occasion. Glad we tried it, and the food was delicious, but I wouldn’t rush back for the service.