Orange Grove Hotel & Gardens

Stayed over new year’s for a friend’s wedding at the hotel. Good things first - good food, beautiful wedding facilities, lovely little bar and comfortable dining room. The building is a big draw of course; gorgeous to look at and there’s fun little pods in the garden for dinner. Then you go upstairs to your room. I was in 204 and paid an average of £136 a night for 3 nights for a room that, I’m not exaggerating, wasn’t as good as my student room at university 20 years ago. It felt like a converted bedsit. Badly appointed and battered kitchenette, cheap laminate-style floor, 1990s-style furniture, dark little bathroom. I liked the antiquated appeal of the window shutters and a good view over the drive, but I still felt like I was in some inner-city short term rental. Other comments were made by other guests about their rooms, to which I understand the hotel explained that they’d renovated the main communal areas (restaurant etc) first and were due to do the bedrooms. Well, lovely, but why are you charging me a premium price for a bad room to fund your commercial aspirations? I flew from Australia for this room and, whilst I understand it was new year’s, I could still get a better room at a Novotel or similar hotel in Australia for this price at that time of year. I left feeling ripped off and disappointed. Did I complain at the time? No, because I didn’t want to make a scene as the hotel was booked out by our wedding party and nobody wants to be ‘that guy’. But if you stay here you need to know what you’re getting for the money.

so the entrance and the building were very nice, The out door dining pods were novel and a great idea. we arrived for a one night stay and had booked for a room for our dogs. We were told that those rooms for pets were in the basement, not a problem, until we were faced with 15 step concrete steps down , one of the dogs negotiated this ok but I had to carry the other one. Should be clearer with this., the room/apartment was big and had two rooms. There is a feeling of under spend everywhere tho. there was a hole in the wall were the toilet roll holder was, should have been filled in, the sofa in te lounge was a sofa bed and was unusable because it was the cheapest rubbish sofa bed known to man or beast. Bed was one of those spongy ones . all in all not that comfy a room. on the plus side the staff were very helpful, the food was good although they recommended a bottle wine which ended up at £42. ooch. Overall the rooms felt under capitalised more money needs spent on the quality of the furniture and upkeep of the apartments. Also the fire door in the basement was jammed OPEN with a block of granite. I pushed it away and came back an hour later and it was again back to being jammed open . just take away the granite, its breaking the law!!!

visited for breakfast - nice location and drive up, attentive staff, and very well presented inside but let down by the 'cafe' menu charging top prices - where is the buffet selection (believe this is known as the pantry selection) - cereals, breads, croissants, toast, mini cakes etc, fruit, juices - we had glasses on the table but they stayed empty as that would have been extra, not even a jug of water because and asking for tea/coffee refill was extra as well cooked breakfast to order and very nice - but was under the impression you are a hotel, if i'd stayed the night and come down to that i'd have been very disappointed - even the run of mill premier inns and the such do better than that

Poor accommodation and breakfast. Rooms poorly designed, beds uncomfortable and pillows terrible. Service and breakfast poor. Service at breakfast wasn’t great, long wait and sub-par food. House is nice from the outside but that is the only positive.

Just had a great full english breakfast at mansions. It was excellent plus great coffee latte and good service. It was a nice day so we sat in the garden. The whole place looks amazing and the pods out in the garden look great. I would imagine this place to be a perfect place for a wedding. But just for a tea coffee and breakfast i would highly recommend it

We attended a wedding at this venue and I have to say it was excellent. Sadly the accommodation was what let it down. We had a (apartment) room on the second floor. There was no hot water to the shower, the caulking around the skirting board was either coming away or non existent. The tap in the sink in the kitchenette was loose, coffee table had numerous white paint spots, as did the dining table. The whole room was just "Tired" . I did mention this to the receptionist and was informed that they were renovating one room per month.. Would I recommend this venue for a wedding or a function. Definitely. Would I choose to stay overnight. Not until the renovations are completed

A HUGE thank you. We had a pod last night for a meal following my son’s graduation in Portsmouth. There has been some tough times but he has amazed us. We had never heard of you before but the place is just stunning. We sat in a pod and the service was fab. The girls serving were so helpful and friendly - true credit to you. I would name the girl who served us but didn’t take her name. We were in the first pod on the left at 7pm. The food was absolutely spot on. Great quality, well cooked and delicious. We will certainly come again.

Went for drinks at The Mansion and found plenty of available parking. The terrace area is lovely on a sunny day and every Thursday they have a sax player. The gardens here are really well looked after and the grounds have some well established trees. We enjoyed the sun, lovely surroundings and some excellent sax music which was really relaxing. Drinks are relatively expensive at £9.50 for an Aperol spritz but regardless of this we had a nice time. Didn’t eat but the food being served around us looked good. There are toilets at the rear of The Cabin or inside the hotel, both were clean and tidy. Would definitely recommend and return on. Thursday night.

I booked a table for four. The approach to the 'Mansion' is quite impressive and there were plenty of parking spaces. We were greeted and showed to our table which had a lovely view of the gardens and there were tables outside with Sax Player playing jazz. Overall the atmosphere was excellent. We ordered three fish pie specials and one shepherds pie. The food and puddings were delicious and we had a lovely time there with our friends.