Guest User
July 27, 2025
A Sunday lunch treat at the Higher Trapp. Well not exactly. The place maybe trap by name but nobody would want to be trapped here for long. On arrival the place looked pretty quiet and a bit unkempt, loads of car parking space was a definite plus. On finding an open door we entered Fitzys restaurant, to find a totally empty room, after snooping around we discovered a lady who took us back to the empty, silent, dark, unwelcoming room and found a waitress for us. At this point we were into minds about staying until the waitress said that this was the last Sunday they would be doing lunch due to a lack of customers, the thought of us possibly being the last Sunday lunch guests spurred us on. Tired is too gentle a word for the restaurant room, shabby is probably nearer the e mark, the splendid view of the grounds and countryside beyond helps but doesn’t disguise the torn chairs and worn tables. The drinks arrived fairly pronto, we were the only people there, the waitress then asked if we were dining and on our reply provided menus and trundled off returning shortly with a chef in tow. We decided to keep it simple and went for three small plates with fries. You could almost hear the microwave pinging as the food quickly arrived, Camembert, chilli honey chicken and salmon and prawn arancini with fries, some of it was good, some ok and some not very good. Often in these situations the beer saves the day for me but even though I had a pint of moorhouses, it tasted nearly as flat as the place, which by the way had got lights and music by now. We had a walk through the gardens and a bit of a wander through the rest of the hotel, none of it was as bad as the restaurant room and some parts looked quite ok. Lavender hotels are going to have to spend some big money on this place if it is to come anywhere near its local competition. Alas we won’t be returning for Sunday lunch as I mentioned earlier neither will anybody else and unless there’s some drastic changes to the place we’ll not be returning at all.