The Rudloe Marco Pierre White

Some good points but many more bad points. The staff were very pleasant and polite, we can't fault that. The food was mostly very good, as expected seeing as the hotel is owned by Marco Pierre-White, though we know that he doesn't do the cooking himself, it is his team who do all that. The location of the hotel was perfect for what we wanted to do - visit the Roman Bath house in Bath. We were both given a complimentary cocktail on arrival (though this had to be claimed by 5pm on arrival day or you just wouldn't get one). There wasn't any choice of cocktails, you got what you are given. I'm not sure but I think it was a Mimosa as we were just handed it by the barman.... The gardens were typically of a Roman style, not surprising given the location and also MPW's heritage as he is half Italian I believe. They were nice, we sat in them for our arrival cocktail. They were a bit overgrown but we could still sit relatively comfortably at one of the tables. The food was good, nicely presented and always arrived very hot, and it kept the heat too. The menu was limited though, which we expected as our whole stay was bought through Wowcher and didn't expect the full whack anyway. I had poached egg one morning and part of the egg white was still not quite cooked, I put that bit aside but I'm not sure if I'd already eaten any uncooked egg before I noticed, and strangely enough I had a bad case of sickness and diarrhoea later in the middle of the night. Sides are all at an extra cost, so if, like my husband, you wanted potatoes and veg with your steak you will have to fork out an extra £5 - per side. So it cost an extra £10 just for my husband to have any veg with his steak! The steak itself was excellent, according to my husband. The breakfasts incur the same additional £5 charge if you want fresh orange juice with it, so again another £10 as we both like orange juice with our breakfasts. You do get complimentary tea or coffee with breakfast but neither of us drink that and the waitress looked at us as if we had two heads when we said no thanks to that and asked for some OJ instead. You'd think she would have just replaced the tea/coffee with the orange juice at no extra charge but that didn't happen. The cost of alcoholic drinks was ridiculous too, if you wanted another cocktail aside from your free welcome one it would have cost another £12.50, a bottle of beer is £7.50 and just a diet coke (unsure if it was a can, bottle or even draught - we didn't try to find out) was £4.95!! So if the two of us had wanted to stay in the fig tree garden and just have a few drinks without going elsewhere it could have easily cost us £100, just for one evening's drinks. But if you're thinking "Well we can just go somewhere local, buy a few cans and take them back to the room" - yes you could but if you leave ANY signs such as bottle tops or empty cans, you will get charged £40 corkage. So take any rubbish (food waste too) and put it straight

We decided to have a short break at The Rudloe as we have stayed at other MPW hotels and eaten at several of his restaurants previously. We had a seemingly good deal with a Groupon voucher so thought, why not. It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from our home but chose a very rural and picturesque route. On arrival we were greeted very warmly and informed we were in the annex, which was just at the bottom of the driveway about 50m from the main house. The rooms are very well appointed, tastefully decorated and comfortable. The lobby of the annex could do with a little TLC as it appears somebody may have scuffed the plaster with a suitcase, but other than that it was excellent. Our voucher deal provided us with two nights accommodation, dinner and breakfast, however as others had already noted previously, so we were aware, that was just the start. The main house is very dimly lit, but that adds to the character of the place. There is a multitude of photographs by Terry O’Neill, some of MPW, famous rock and pop stars and models, some of which are a little risqué for persons of a tender persuasion bit it fits in so very well. We had a drink in the equally dimly lit but atmospheric bar adjacent to the dining room. Cocktails are freshly made at around £15 a time and a small bottle of San Miguel for £8, which is on par with most hotels. In the dining room, which has an abundance of Strelitizia type plants festooned around the tables and once again quite dark and atmospheric, we were shown to a table by the window. We were presented with the menu for the evening and a drinks menu. Be prepared, make sure you are seated when you open the wine list, cheapest bottle is £45 ranging up to £720 although you are able to buy a glass of the cheapest bottles for only £10, but read the small print, as the wine by the glass is only 100ml. The menu was very limited, three choices a fillet steak, a cod fillet or a ragu of beef over gnocchi. Sides are an additional £5 each, we had 3 sides to bulk the meal to a reasonable plate of food. We both had the fillet steak which had a chimichurri topping, it was delicious. We were then offered desserts, I only take cheese and a very nice piece of Stilton was presented with 3 biscuits. My wife asked what the berries were on the granita, as she doesn’t like blackberries, the waiter replied “ I don’t know”, not I’ll go and find out….Just I don’t know. As I said earlier the room was very comfortable but we were unfortunate on the first night to have neighbours who have no idea of how to unlock a door without waking everybody in the building. Next highlight was breakfast, again we were in the main dining room surrounded by the massive plantation. Supplements are all over the breakfast menu so be wary, we did find the included portions were ample and very delicious. I asked for the poached eggs on crushed avacado with chilli, only to be informed they had just run out of avacado…So I had the eggs on mushrooms, which was a good second

Everyone has their view on the displayed work, but its the other things that make a trip memorable, in our case not a good one. Positives; Comfy bed, large tv, tea/coffee tray (after moving from the house to the annex which had neither) nice (1st) receptionist Negatives; Being lied to by the staff (changing room and being told the difference would be refunded, and on leaving being told no it wouldnt), no cocktail on arrival (even though it was included and paid for), no heating in our room, noisey plumbing (and that of the next door room) minimal lighting in the restaurant, same table d'hote dinner menu on both nights, too many restaurant extas, having to pay the extras before leaving the restaurant, being chased after on leaving the restaurant to ensure we had paid, being asked to move our car (parked by the front door) as it was for 'family parking' (without signage), threatening sounding fines about wanting to consume any outside food or drink (£40) or wanting an extra breakfast (£99) Our parting conclusion would be to potential guests is be prepared to pay for extras, and make sure that as guests you do as you're told. We won't be returning!

My partner and I have had two very different experiences of our two stays at Rudloe Arms. On our first visit we had such a wonderful time that we brought two close friends with us for a repeat visit on Sunday 9 March 2025. The contrast between them both could not be more different. On arrival we were informed that the advertised cocktail was no longer included in our Wowcher deal. The drinks we found to be quite pricy including a bottle of average wine coming in at just under £50. The evening meal we realised was so poorly designed in order to encourage diners to increase their spend by paying supplements in order to be able to enjoy a decent meal. I feel that the attitude of the waiter assigned to our table was confrontational from the word go. He was only interested in upselling each course in an aggressive manner. He was dismissive, abrupt and quite rude to any questions that we had. When a bottle of wine was delivered to our table it was plonked down without being poured. At the end of the meal our waiter, which turned out to be Marco Pierre White's son, Luciano, presented us with our bill which he told us could not be split, as this 'is not what we are able to do' despite having earlier already arranged for this to happen with our barman, Julian who did not think this was a problem. We took the bill away with us to look at under some light, as the lighting at the table was poor. Luciano harangued us with his disparaging personal opinion of 'Wowcher' guests. He then threatened us with calling the police, (an empty threat). If Wowcher guests do not fit the business model for Rudloe Arms, my question would be why have you signed up to provide this offer to the general public. My own take on this appears to be that it certainly attracts a fair amount of interest, if the number of occupied tables in the dining room was anything to go by. The opportunity therefore seems too good to miss in ensuring that copious amounts of drinks and upsells are purchased by as many people as possible. We won't be back, as, now reading many other unflattering reviews of Marco Pierre White's establishment it now seems that management simply does not care about the dining/customer service standard offered at Rudloe Arms and will continue to be undermined by one extremely rude, unhelpful, disrespectful member of staff. Good luck with this venture. An unhappy customer

Having read some reviews I thought if anything it would be an experience! For £125 for the night (3 course evening meal and breakfast included) I am genuinely stunned at what the hell other people expect. The reception staff were friendly, the food was delicious (yes there are some surcharges but you’re not forced to pick those! And quite frankly the dauphinoise potatoes were unreal and we were happy to pay the extra). We didn’t opt for any extras at breakfast and found what was included in the price was filling and tasty. Overall I think we spent an additional £42 on top of the room booking cost - in my opinion excellent value for money for - 3 course dinner and a room for the night. The decor is quirky and perhaps not to everyone’s taste but we found it fun. Our room was bigger than anticipated and had everything we needed. The only negative was that the mental bed frame could have done with tightening but we had a good laugh at that too. We really enjoyed our stay!

This was our second stay at The Rudloe and despite initial confusion around rooms we really enjoyed our visit . It’s a beautiful building full of amazing art and interesting and beautiful things with easy parking that is very convenient for the accommodation. Staff were friendly and helpful. We were upgraded to a room in the house and whilst it was clean , comfortable and in some ways rather special it had none of the amenities we had booked ( walk in shower , coffee/ tea making facilities , TV ) so we were puzzled but given our one night stay we weren’t unhappy with the change . The menu was limited and portions small but we enjoyed 3 tasty courses ,with no need for extras , and saw our overall package as amazing value . Both of us chose the terrine starter which was perfect, the beef ragu was very tasty / fish cake had plenty of fish and the Stilton and chutney excellent . It looked like someone had a bit of fun with the breakfast menu but we were fine with our choice of poached eggs , toast and coffee . Our booking was a special offer of £125.00 for dinner, bed and breakfast for 2 which we saw as excellent value for money so whilst we recognise some of limitations noted in other reviews we would definitely return . And we would recommend it to others.