Matfen Hall Hotel, Golf & Spa

An excellent 3 night stay. The bedroom and bathroom were lovely and the food in the Cloisters restaurant was very good. Service throughout the hotel was friendly and efficient. John at the front door and Natalie in the restaurant were particularly good.

Visited Matfen Hall in March 2025 for Sunday lunch in their Emerald Restaurant. What a wonderful environment to dine in! Quiet, calm elegance with attentive, but not intrusive, serving staff. The food, beef and salmon respectively, was full of flavour and joy. The waitress was able to give knowledgeable advice regarding wine pairings and all staff made us feel comfortable and very much at home. A wonderful experience and one we will long remember.

Disgusting snobby place. I made several phone calls and emails to organise an event with promises of a reply but no reply whatsoever. Clearly they’re selective about the who they host. Their communication is terrible and near non existent.

This hotel is a must visit when staying in the northeast, if you’re looking for a 5* hotel and Spa. The building itself he’s been renovated to the highest level of detail, the mixture of new and old works together in perfect harmony. There are bars and restaurants both in the main hotel and also at the golf clubhouse which is just a few minutes walk away. The Spa has everything you would expect and ever need, swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and a steam room. The rooms are well appointed with all the opulence and comfort that you would expect in a hotel of this stature.

14 of us stayed and had the most amazing time. Nothing was too much trouble from start to finish. Check in was welcoming and efficient with a glass of champagne. The place is gobsmacking, especially the Great Hall. Fires were lit. No expense has been spared on the interior. The room decor is modern yet classy. The bed and the sheets are incredible. A special thanks to the Golf club manager who put the Rugby on for us and found us seats for 14, such a friendly, helpful guy. We had a private dining room which was wonderfully decorated. Our server Steven was fantastic, attentive yet discreet. Made us feel special. The food was so delicious! Every course! Fin, the cocktail maker was so obliging and made great cocktails. Breakfast was faultless and again delicious! Getting 14 different orders correct and all served hot at the same time is no mean feat. Issac, our server did this perfectly! We will definitely be back. I honestly can’t say that there was not one negative regarding this place.

Stayed for one night with my partner as part of the Sunday Lunch & Stay offer. In short, the staff were very attentive, food on the whole was great and a nice range of drinks. We enjoyed the spa facilities and the gym is fantastic. We wish we lived closer to obtain a membership! The grounds and interior of the property is at an exceptionally high level. The interior of the CLOISTERS bar and restaurant is the nicest I’ve ever seen. I’m one lottery win away from replicating in my own house. Upon arrival, the reception staff were great and guided us to the Emerald restaurant. The Sunday lunch was very nice and all of the staff were very attentive. Negatives: The hotel room was immaculate but I do understand other guest concerns relating to the heat. The underfloor heating and radiator does create a warm temperature. We managed this with opening the windows and didn’t require the fan. I can imagine this might be a bit trickier in the summer months. I didn’t mention this to the staff, therefore cannot place any blame on them, but during the early hours of the morning there was a very loud drilling noise. This immediately waked me and my partner. Frustratingly it lasted about 5 hours and impacted my sleep. I managed to link it to the bathroom radiator which made hissing noises and general heating related sounds. It stopped on and off but would return for a whole hour from around 1am - 5am. I figured if I reported this the hotel would have offered an alternative room but with it being early AM I opted to manage through it. Again, no fault of Matfen as I didn’t make them aware of the noise but if this is read, I would recommend checking the heating systems within room 71. Other guests may not be as laid back as us! We ate one meal at the Keepers. I understand this is primarily a golf club / restaurant but sadly the food was a miss. I ordered a ‘wood fired’ pizza but you could tell it was frozen and tasted like any other supermarket pizza. At £12 though I guess it wasn’t the end of the world. I made the staff aware prior to booking that it was my partners birthday. The reception staff acknowledged this upon check-in. With this, I had expected a small token, a small card would have sufficed but sadly we received nothing. The staff brought up the birthday to me upon check-in which gave the impression they may have done something. We explained my partners birthday was the following day. We woke up to a letter under our door the morning of her birthday which I thought may have been a card but it was an invoice! A simple nice touch would have been appreciated. I wasn’t expecting a cake or anything fancy but a simple small note could have gone a long way! Positives: All of the staff were very attentive, in each area of the hotel we visited. The welcome drinks were a nice touch and the receptionist (forgive me I can’t remember his name) was great. He explained it was his fourth day but you wouldn’t have noticed. His colleague, a geordie younger wom