Chateau de Montreuil

You know as soon as you arrive that you are going to enjoy yourselves. The staff are without exception charming and anxious to assist and our room was delightful. For dinner we had the Chef's menu with wines for each course selected for us, which exceeded all expectations. In a long life of self indulgence, I can't remember anywhere to exceed the Chateau de Montreuil!

My partner and I visited with friends who were celebrating their wedding anniversary. They had stayed several times previously and kept returning because it was such a pretty quintessential French chateau with an excellent restaurant. Unfortunately this experience was dreadful. We were not aware that the chateau had changed hands and the new owners had undertaken extensive renovation, in our opinion sacrificing the charm of the hotel with modern soulless decor, artificial grass to the rear of the building and a large arch of plastic wisteria over the main entrance. However we appreciated it was partly our fault that we had not checked it had changed hands or been “updated” so although extremely disappointed we decided to stay for the 2 nights we had booked. What a mistake that was ! We had reservations in the hotel restaurant both night and anticipated a lovely anniversary dinner. Three of us, myself included, ordered the lobster main course. I had just had a couple of bites of mine when I felt something in my mouth. I gingerly extracted the offending article to find to my horror that it was a curly thin wire over an inch in length . I dread to think what could have happened if I had swallowed this. We called the waiter over and discreetly explained the situation. He apologised and removed my meal, offering another one but this experience put off not only me but the other lady from eating any further. We asked to speak to the hotel management but were told that there was no one present until the morning when he would get someone to speak to us. We asked to speak to the chef and we’re told that he would see us when he had finished cooking…. This didn’t happen. No one seemed to care.The next morning we fully expected to be approached by someone senior but nobody spoke to us . We didn’t have our previously booked breakfast or any further food in the hotel yet incredibly no one addressed what had happened the night before. On check out the following day we spoke to a girl on reception . She said she had heard about our experience but yet again management were not available to speak to us. My meal and a bottle of champagne were deducted from the bill. We had to argue that my friend had not eaten hers either after my experience but I want to stress that this dreadful review is not about the money but about the non existent customer service and care. We are astounded at such lack of concern and will obviously not be returning to what was once such an amazing establishment