We live locally to the Elms but haven’t been for years, and since the hotel changed hands, so when I got brought a gift voucher as a birthday present it was timely to give it a go and I booked dinner at Badgers. The location and look of the hotel is stunning. The welcome from colleagues was very friendly and we started with a drink in the bar. The cocktails were amazing. The restaurant is a lovely room and atmosphere was relaxed. The food was excellent, very elegant, beautifully presented and clearly made by chefs who know what they’re doing. The portions were relatively small which suited me fine as it was a good opportunity to have three courses but I think my husband would have liked the portions a little bigger. Service was good but the restaurant was actually quite busy and I don’t think they had enough colleagues working to sufficiently look after the quantity of guests, although it was clear all colleagues were working hard. Badgers is extremely expensive and I knew this from looking at the prices on the menu when ordering albeit I hadn’t keep a tab on exactly what we were spending. Cocktails were £12 - £14 each, starters circa. £15 and mains pushing towards £30. I considered having a steak but they charge per 100g which I noted would have worked out crazily expensive for a reasonable size so made an alternative choice. There is definitely some room for improvement to bring the level of service in line with the standard of food, for example, when we moved from the bar to the restaurant we had to carry our own drinks whilst trying to balance coats, bags etc… I would have expected drinks to be taken through on a tray by a colleague. And no offer of having my coat taken so it sat thrown across the back of my chair. When I asked if there were nuts in a dish due to an allergy I was told ‘probably’ so had to point out I would need a definitive answer from the chef which was then given. Generally speaking, we had a really lovely time and I would definitely return although it would have to be for a very special occasion perhaps on a yearly basis to justify the cost which is a shame as we live so close. We’ll definitely be swinging by for a cocktail more regularly though! Their cosmopolitan was one of the best I’ve ever had!
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