Petwood Hotel, Woodhall Spa - BEWARE

What a shame.

I had emailed and called the Petwood MONTHS in advance to book a table for Afternoon Tea for Mother's Day, stating one dietary requirement for a party of 3 people. One of the party was coeliac and it was confirmed by email (two different receptionists) and phone (bar manager), that this would not be a problem and the hotel could definitely cater for us and in fact they make their own gluten free scones which would be served in afternoon tea. I explained it was a strict coeliac (avoid cross contamination in the kitchen) with also no oats or oat flour.

I drove two and half hours to the venue to take my mum out for a Mother’s Day treat.

I was informed on the phone that there was a wedding taking place that day, but we would be able to dine in the drawing room from 4pm, so I booked our table for 4pm.

When we arrived I needed to queue at the bar for 5 minutes to be taken to our reserved table.

Once seated by the bar manager (Simon), I was informed that a colleague would bring us some menus. Ten minutes later we were still waiting for the menu, so I had to queue again at the bar for around 7 minutes to finally be given some menus.

Once we had decided on our selection, I needed to queue for another 5 minutes to place the order. I stressed again that there was a coeliac and to mention to the kitchen it was a strict coeliac and not someone on a faddy gluten free diet, I also ordered a decaf coffee for the coeliac. The waitress (Zoe) actually came over to our table and ensured us that everything would be OK!

Ten minutes later the afternoon tea was delivered to our table. The decaf coffee option had not been passed on, so we were brought a normal coffee by a waiter to quickly follow by the decaf coffee by Zoe.

The gluten free option had 3 small finger sandwiches, a wedge of cheese, some biscuits (which did not look gluten free) and two slices of fruit cake (again which didn’t look gluten free) and a serving of butter, jam and cream (to go onto what, I wasn’t sure as there was no sign of the gluten free scones). I went back up to the bar and asked Zoe if she could check what the biscuits and fruit loaf were as they looked like they weren’t suitable. She was going to check with the kitchen.

10 to 15 minutes later, and we still hadn’t had a response. I had to queue again at the bar to ask Simon the bar manager if his colleague was actually checking the suitability as the biscuits definitely looked like they contained oats and to check what the fruit loaf was as I was told on the phone there would be gluten free scones (which were not present). A phone call later and I was told by the bar manager  “no and no”. I queried, “no they don’t contain oats”, to which the reply was “no, neither are suitable”.

I asked how on earth this could happen when it was clearly asked upon ordering and they had had months’ notice and informed me they were able to cater. I asked for the plate to be cleared and for a refund. I was refunded but the plate was never cleared.

The bar manager then came over after investigating and said that the biscuits were gluten free oats, I explained it didn’t matter if they were gluten free oats, I specified NO OATS. Apparently the fruit loaf contained rye (gluten).

The duty manager (James) then came to the table and said “I hold my hands up, it was my fault, I put them on the plate, and it was a genuine mistake”. I explained that you can’t make mistakes when someone’s health is involved. It should not have happened and had we not been paranoid to check everything again before eating, we would have spent the evening in the local A&E. James replied that he DID in fact have catering training but we asked why this then happened and were just offered an invite back “on him”. I explained we would NEVER eat back there every again and would just like a full refund so we can go home. We were refunded.

This is outrageous service. Not only was I not able to sit at the table with my mum due to needing to visit the bar SIX times to chase things, coeliac disease isn’t just a fad diet, it is an auto immune disease with serious consequences. We explained to James that if the hotel cannot actually  cater for coeliacs and ensure adequate checks are in place not to poison people, not to even offer the option.  I would rather know ahead that coeliacs aren’t catered for, than to look forward to something for months to then nearly ended up in A&E in agony. What if we hadn’t have checked – the poisoned food would have been eaten.

Our neighbouring table also experienced issues with their afternoon tea. When it arrived to three people, they had three scones yet one serving of butter, jam and cream to share between three. They also were not given plates to eat their food off and when they did remove a sandwich from the server, they saw that the food had been place on a dirty (unwashed) server. This was returned but they were still waiting (half an hour) for a new selection or refund.

This is a popular hotel in the area and yet on this afternoon they have lost 5 local customers and one who will pass on the dangers of attempting to eat there if you are coeliac.

In this day and age, mistakes like this should not happen.

Petwood Hotel – sort yourselves out - stop offering coeliac options when in reality you haven’t got a clue.