Blantyre

Everything about Blantyre is impeccably elegant. Prices include gratuity, so the service experience is that of a grand country estate rather than a hotel. Wonderful.

For reference, we only ate in the restaurant. We did not stay here. Overall: A mediocre experience, hindered by anemic service, and overpriced, generic food. We had a reservation, but upon arrival it took several minutes to even figure out where to go as there were no signs and no serving staff. After someone finally decided to assist us we were weirdly handed off one direction then told to go back and sit in the main area and then brought back again. It was very awkward. Upon sitting, we were asked if we wanted water and if we were ready to order drinks. At this point we had not even actually sat nor had we received a wine list. No one gave us the specials, though I did hear them at a table later. No one gave us any proper greeting or information about the place. It was extremely peculiar. If I had to make a guess, the hostess for the hotel was serving us in a bit of a confused manner. We were sat in a side room, the conservatory perhaps. Upon sitting, while the chairs looked comfortable and quaintly "old posh", I also noted that they were severely stained and the stuffing was coming out. We sat next to a window, which should have been nice but instead it was quite dirty. The menu was not particularly big (which isn't necessary) but also not particularly imaginative. We did both think it was a real shame they didn't try for afternoon tea instead of generic lunch options. Finally the meal - after a few awkward rounds with our server we ordered our meals. At this point it had been ~15+ minutes since we ordered drinks and hadn't received them. They ended up arriving about 2-3 minutes into our appetizer (the shrimp - 5 slightly over cooked shrimp with an anemic sauce and an avocado). Our entrees were crab cakes & the ravioli. My husbands ravioli was undercooked and slightly tough. My crab cakes were fine but generic. The bread was actually quite delicious though served as an after thought by what was now a cycle of confused servers. We encountered 5 people all who kept repeating the same questions to us "would you like dessert?" No? Again? After this experience, we asked for our bill and one of the 5 confused people said to us, "oh we never mix business and pleasure at the Blantyre." This was literally our first experience of personality here. Honestly we were delighted. But... then we had to go pay for what was ultimately a $150 dollar lunch for 1 appetizer, 2 small entrees and a $30 glass of nameless champagne (didn't notice the fine print on my glass of champagne that the price was per ounce vs glass). We thought to walk around the grounds but were so un-enamoured with our experience that we actually felt rather bad for the hordes of clearly confused older people there. They weren't getting their value worth. It was honestly a relief to get back to our B&B (Federal House Inn) where the host had fresh cookies made to order, incredible wine socials and the best 4 course breakfast I've had in years.