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I attended a charity ball event here recently and can only comment on the dining experience in this review. The appearance of the hotel is good. A sign indicating that the ball was upstairs would have been useful to the large number of guests who were looking puzzled when they arrived in the main reception area. The room was one that I have sat in numerous conferences before I retired and I was amazed by the transformation that had taken place in it. The tables were nicely decorated and the glittery curtains added to the glitzy occasion. I had to wait over 30 minutes at the bar for a drink as there only seemed to be two staff serving over two hundred guests. Once you arrived at the bar you could also pre-order wine to accompany the meal, which was a good idea.Now on to the meal. What can I say? My first course consisted of two and a half small tiger prawns on a few leaves served with a huge dollop of horse radish sauce. I have never been served such a small number of prawns before and could hardly believe my eyes!! The horseradish sauce was overpowering so basically I just ate the prawns and leaves. Some of my friends chose soup and they left quite a lot of it because they described it as insipid.My main course was a more generous helping, in fact, instead of three roast potatoes that everybody else had, I had six on my plate! They were the best part of the meal because they were overdone, but I enjoy them like that. My meat was dry, but I was so hungry as it was getting on for 10p.m. by then that I would have eaten anything!I had cheese and biscuits for my last course and that was OK, but I would have enjoyed bigger portions of cheese. ( A friend had the Mississippi Mud pie and she said it was the best part of the meal.)The service throughout the meal was well organised considering the large number of guests being served.As I mentioned earlier, I have attended several conferences here, and I was always disappointed by the buffet lunches, so perhaps I should not have been surprised by the poor quality of the food. However, I certainly won't be rushing back to have a meal here!!

When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised with the entrance of the hotel. It was more modern than i expected from looking at the hotels pictures so things were looking good. Going to our room, the halls looked lovely, decorated with mirrors upon mirrors, however when we got into our room i was disappointed. The room was dark and just not very nice for a 4* hotel. The bathroom was worse, even darker and shower head looked dirty. We rung down to reception to see if there was any upgrades available, and was told it would be ¿¿15.00 if we wanted to have a look. Before doing this we went to have our afternoon tea, just us and a table of three in the room. The courses were lovely, and the banoffee pie was amazing! I wanted two!! Selection of teas were different and we had a nice afternoon. Back into reception, we got shown to a upgraded room, which consisted of added extras -water,chocolate, bathrobes and air-con. And better light and view!So we decided to move. After doing this we decided to go down to the pool. We wasn't expecting much, but the ladies changing room smelt disgusting and the steam room was out of use. Five/six children were in the pool splashing at the same time so we didn't stick around for long.We didn't eat at the hotel and slept okay. Breakfast was too busy, not enough room to fit everyone in, so had to wait to be seated. Selection of foods were poor. Checked out by 11am.

I was due to visit the hotel for a short business meeting and checked the hotel's own website prior to my visit.I found an 'Exclusive Meal Deal' offer advertised for a very well priced ¿¿70. This offer was for a double room or a twin room and included bed breakfast and evening meal. It was even cheaper than a room only! My business trip then turned into a pleasure trip as well.As a result, I travelled a day early with my wife so we could stay and take advantage of this offer.The overall impression of the hotel was good. Our standard double room was just what we expected it to be and had everything we needed.The surprise came when we ate in the restaurant. The meal deal entitled us to eat any food off the menu to a value of ¿¿21.95 EACH! This in addition to our bed and breakfast made it a truly exceptional offer indeed. The food and service were good.My wife used the swimming pool and had a workout in the small gym as well.The hotel was clean and seemed to function well. The staff I met were all very helpful and polite.If I had one small issue, it was that two of the tables I sat at in the bar the next morning had not been cleaned from the night before and were covered with sticky drinks residue which meant I could not put my papers or laptop on them without risking staining.Apart from that, a very good experience.The hot and cold food provided for the business meeting was also good.I will certainly return to this hotel and will now be looking for similar offers at other Best Western Hotels across the country.

We recently spent 6 nights at this hotel and used it as a base to explore Essex and southern Suffolk. We chose it because Mark's Tey benefits from good rail links. The hotel is a short walk from the railway station - although it does involve crossing a number of busy roads. On the way, there are convenience stores, a bakery, a food emporium, a petrol station, a chip shop, an Indian restaurant, a bike shop, a pharmacy and much more. Quite a surprise for a village. The hotel was built in the early 1970s and, from the outside, reminded us of the comprehensive secondary schools we attended when we were kids. On the inside, there were daft attempts to draw on the local Roman connections (i.e. the Claudius room, plastic bust of an ancient horse in reception, etc.) but there was no disguising the fact that the decor was inspired by the 1970s. The hotel was full of patterned wallpaper and carpets with the corridors lined with large mirrors. Most of what we saw, including in our room, appeared fairly new, rather than original, but it was all very busy to look at. Not that we were offended by it. This is a large hotel with fingers in many pies, or scones at least. It appears to do particularly good business on the pensioners' coach tour circuit. Frequently, our march down the corridors was halted by a gang of old ladies trying to remember the number of their room. However, there was also a wedding party and some very tall young sportsmen to be seen too. None of them disturbed our stay, which for the most part was peaceful and pleasant. Having said that, our room had a connecting door through to the adjacent room. Although it remained locked throughout our stay, it didn't help with soundproofing. We could hear every noise that was made by our neighbours. This might have been fun but the noises mainly consisted of events such as an elderly gentleman shouting down his mobile phone to someone who he couldn't quite decide whether or not he knew. Thankfully, our sleep was not affected by this. We made frequent use of the gym and swimming pool facilities at the hotel. These were, by and large, excellent. A good size pool and one of the best equipped hotel gyms I have experienced. It even had boxing gloves and a punch bag, which gave me something new and exciting to try out. However, my skipping technique is embarrassing. We had no complaints about the condition of our room. A lovely bright sunny room, clean, with a comfortable bed. In addition, the curtains were so gloriously thick that we were not awoken at 6am by brilliant sunshine. The only slight problem was the power of the shower, which hailed on us rather than rained. We used the showers in the gym instead, which were much better. Breakfast was not included with our room but when we did pay for it, we had no complaints. Perhaps the only other observation was that the staff, whilst efficient and fine, did not seem particularly warm as if they were not happy in their work. All in all, this was a great place to stay. Any criticisms were minor and our week away was extremely enjoyable. We would definitely stay here again.

Could not fault this experience. The ladies were so helpful and accommodating as we had my two small grand children with us, even getting the chef to prepare a special sandwich that was requested by one of them. The food was fresh and delicious, a small dish of seafood, finger sandwiches, fresh cream tarts and cakes, and of course scones, jam and clotted cream and to finish an individual trifle. Excellent.