Mr & MRS Smith Double Red Duke

Most wonderful little hotel. The room was spacious and beautifully decorated with an amazing organic toiletry selection. The staff were friendly, welcoming and went above and beyond their way. Delicious food and great bar selection. Definitely coming back.

We have visited the DRD multiple times, for overnight stays and breakfast, lunch & dinner on separate occasions. Not only is the setting and decor to die for (namely the snug with fire & 2 person roll top bath), the staff are the most friendly and helpful people you could want to meet. To set the scene for our trip this time.. we had booked a family holiday elsewhere in a local village cottage (Easter holidays) for Monday - Friday but had to leave part way through due to no hot water & the management company being thoroughly useless getting any issues sorted. Extremely annoyed and on our way home to Hertfordshire, we arrived at the DRD for lunch, as a last ditch attempt to cheer our son up due to our failed trip. We spoke to a lovely lady at reception & enquired (very last minute) if a room was available for my family + dog to stay overnight. Thankfully it was! The lady at the desk was super helpful & managed to bag us a fantastic room (double shower AND roll top bath) & a table for dinner. This isn’t the first time we have stayed as a couple, but it was my son’s first time. He was blown away by the friendliness of the staff and ‘awesome’ bunk bed in the room. There was a dog bed and bowl in the room with a bag of treats which was a nice touch! Lunch was amazing - unbelievably good fish & chips and very well priced shandy!! For dinner we had a steak which was fab and lots of small plates. We left our disaster of a family holiday on a huge high & its just cemented our love for the DRD even more. We can’t wait to come back!!!! Special thanks to all the WONDERFUL staff working on Thursday 11th April, you really were all so great xxx

Great accommodation. We had a garden room which was really spacious and had great furnishings. One of the most comfortable beds I have slept in! The food was excellent and the restaurant setting is very nice and the staff were lovely and friendly. A great trip and would definitely stay there again.

We visited for Easter Sunday lunch as visiting from London. The four adults chose roast dinner three beef and one chicken plus one child’s fish and chips. We were disgusted at the portions two roast potatoes each one carrot and one parsnip albeit a large Yorkshire pudding probably to fill the plate! The beef was delicious . The fish had to be sent back as all batter and very little fish even for a 3 year old!! We noticed the table next to us also complained about the fish and chips. We are dog lovers but large aggressive dogs is not what we expect when having our lunch. The fact you were charging exorbitant prices we would have expected better portions and better service £11 for a 3year old’s meal quite disgusting. Extremely disappointing and will not be returning nor recommending as pricing forecasting on the tourist trade.

Great experience. Lovely food, very tasty. Old fashioned pub with easy going atmosphere. The Double Red Duke has very knowledgeable and helpful staff. The bar has plenty of drinks options and they have an adult and child’s menu with plenty of choice.

Our third visit to DRD and we were rather disappointed. It’s a special venue , we had a lovely table by a roaring fire but the service was slow. We had been in the restaurant 45 minutes before we had a drink in front of us! Other tables around us were served more quickly. We loved some of the dishes, others were only ok. Asparagus spears were very tough at the fat end. Lamb was beautifully tender but the sauce was extremely salty, thought the balance of flavours was off. To be honest the prices seem to have crept up and the service and standard of food has dipped. The bill was wrong too!

I was amazed by the shabbiness of the furniture in the first area of seating on entering the Double Red Duke. The stuffing was coming out of the arm chair, and the sofa cushions were threadbare. If this is their interpretation of shabby chic it differs to mine.

Service, ambience, food and accommodation were superb. Would love to return! We also took advantage of the massage service which was great. The weather was awful but it didn't matter as the Double Red Duke is so comfortable with open log fires and lots of nice areas to sit and relax.

Our first time visiting DRD, probably our last. Service is severely lacking. We sat down, wasn’t given any menus, was then given drinks menu and asked if we wanted water. Couple next to us who came in after were then given food menu’s and told about the specials and then we finally got the food menu ourselves, strange. Was described to us as a ‘tapas style menu’ which the menu doesn’t really reflect or the location, seems like DRD isn’t sure what it’s trying to be. First drinks took a good 15 minutes to arrive, asked for a straw for a drink which never arrived. Considering we were told the food was a tapas style menu for sharing, the portions were small. We ordered Scallops and were given a single scallop, how do you share that? The two mains we ordered were good but again, small, especially for the price. Sides of fries with a steak had about 10 fries and the Potato Gratin was in the smallest cast iron pot I’ve seen. Second round of drinks we ordered never arrived and had to ask for them again. So overall good food but massively overpriced for portion size and the staff either need training or better quality staff need hiring.