Cliveden House - an Iconic Luxury Hotel

If you are looking for service, comfort, heritage and a beautiful setting, this is the pleace.

The fine dining restaurant was a disappointment. We had a cheese soufflé and vegetable tart for starters, and a sea bass and the halibut as mains. With the exception of the soufflé which was perfect, the other dishes lacked any form of leading taste, cohesion of ingredients, texture and presentation. What do raw slices of plum on a saltless poached filet of sea bass do in a bland kelp consommé?? Why call a few rough pieces of unrelated cooled vegetables a tart? The halibut would have been helpless if it wasn't for the creamy sauce it was sitting in. Chef, just stick to proven recepies, like the soufflé, and your guests will certainly enjoy a lot more.

The Hotel and location are magnificent. The staff are so well trained and so polite. Duart, especially, is so thoughtful and seemingly anticipates what you need. He was totally familiar with our booking on arrival, welcoming us by name and knowing exactly what we had booked: seriously impressive. The room was very good with a great bathroom, the bed was really comfortable with excellent pillows and the hotel seemed to have thought of almost everything. The grounds are a joy to walk through and so well maintained. We hired Belmont, a 33 ft Slipper launch, for an hour's trip on the River Thames. It was magical.

This is very picky but the seats at our table for dinner in the dining room were too low for the table and made it awkward to eat, The Chicken and Egg starter came in a small but very deep bowl that from a presentation perspective was unimpressive (you couldn't really see and consider it before eating) and made it particularly difficult to eat the dish, which was absolutely delicious.

Room upgrade will make it far more likely we'll return. A big factor. Every member of staff 100%. Beautiful venue. Nice touches around our mentioned "new job" celebration. Swimming outside in April. A lady cleaner was about to get in lift as I walked up to it. She stepped aside. No amount of insistence would make her either take the lift or join me in it. Personally I'd be happy to share a lift with the person cleaning my room but her courteous professionalism was a credit to her and her training. All above applies to Astor Grill too.

I've never encountered a service charge on accommodation. Whilst on checking out it was made clear I could decline, (maybe being very "British") I wouldn't decline, and had no reason to, the service charge has just stuck in my mind as a negative. It seems to just to remove 5% from the face value of the room. It was a toss up between returning to The Grove or trying Cliveden. You might think the superficial price reduction worked, but actually it tips the balance toward a simple price. Asquith Bath tap needs a bit of maintenance.

To put it simply, we had the most magical weekend imaginable at Cliveden. It's not hard to summarise what makes it so special - the beautiful grounds, the incredible history and - without question the most important feature - the quite brilliant staff. From the moment we arrived Dina made it very special and this continued throughout our stay thanks to the wonderful team. Particular (and very heartfelt) thanks go to Sebastian, Philip, John, George, Dragos and Dina. We are already very excited to see you all again. In a world of constantly falling standards, it was rejuvenating seeing all expectations smashed by Cliveden. Many thanks once again! Andrew and Salma.

The House is of a gorgeous elegant architecture. Loved the French Dining Room from Chateau d'Asnieres. Loved the Gardens. Loved the Spa, with indoor and outdoor pools, hot tubs, steam room etc. Loved the dinner. Loved the breakfast.

We would have liked to stay longer. There was a big wedding going on while we were there. But our personal timing worked out so that we were not really bothered by that group.

Beautiful location, hotel and garden. In general, friendly staff and good spa facilities. Good quality food.

Service in the evening restaurant was not that great, with premium prices and a wedding next door. The room was spacious, but with some humidity stains in the corner ceilings (in shower and the bedroom). Also the stairwell ceiling close tot the room was in bad shape with paint peeling off (but I assume this is an isolated issue, as the hotel in general is in okay shape).

The hotel is a beautiful historic building located in stunning countryside. There are many beautiful places to walk around, enjoy nature and take photography.

The quality of pastries for the afternoon tea could be much better. They were very simple and buttery and for the price they cost a much better quality could be offered. All of us who tried them had the same opinion.

The service was impeccable. We had a room upgrade with cake and champagne in the room due to the trip being for our birthdays. It was such a lovely touch. The room was breathtakingly beautiful. We had the tasting menu which was delicious and the staff were so helpful and friendly. We walked the grounds which were lovely. I have nothing bad to say! A wonderful trip! Thank you.

Super breakfast choices, both cooked and cold buffet items. The bed was vast and comfortable with high quality bedding, the bathroom had great water pressure for the shower and was warm with a piping hot towel rail and under floor heating. Lovely views, spacious walk in wardrobe and antique furniture and art works.

The table for dinner as I was enclosed by a curtain which obscured the view of the dining room.i was amazed at breakfast to see the whole room which I had not seen the previous night. Very odd when there were so few diners on a mid week evening.

The reception team and porters were next-level attentive. They sorted everything out for us in very quick time and well out of hours. The room was very, very nice! Immaculately clean too. Coffee in the library was stunning and the view over the iconic garden and Thames was wonderful.

N/A. Once in a lifetime stay for us!