Larder Restaurant - Reading

The girls afternoon was fabulous

So many thanks to the team making a family get together so pleasant

One of the worst afternoon tea's that I have had,no correction it is the worst Afternoon Tea ever that I have had. They took ages to serve us then when we finally got the food the bread was stale (like the sandwiches had been left uncovered for some considerable amount of time) some of the sandwiches had crusts on them the salmon was turning brown at the ends, the cakes looked like they had come out of a packet! The mini eclairs were still partly frozen & there was only a plain scone which again was like it had just been taken out of a packet. I have always had a choice of two scone's in other afternoon tea's.
We complained to the manager who at one point said that the restaurant wasn't meant to be open! But if that's the case they should not be offering afternoon tea's! We did get our bill reduced from £59 to £35 but once home I rang them to say that I don't think we should have paid anything! Was told the food & beverage manager would ring me back but of course no one has so tomorrow I will be ringing the manager of the Hilton hotel to ask for a full refund, if I don't get it then I shall write to head office!

Due to an apparent internal water leak we were required to take afternoon tea in the bar.
When the food arrived it was very disappointing-the sandwiches were very basic and tasteless and the cakes were sparse and nothing special. The scones were microwaved and doughy.
Overall, it felt as though the food had been purchased from the local low cost supermarket and put on a cake stand.
Upon complaining, the waiter simply shrugged his shoulders and offered no response.

Disappointed. Very disappointed. Not what i had expected from a large chain of hotels like Hilton hotel. Had afternoon tea there, teas arrived 15-20 mins before food by then they had gone cold. So had to ask for more tea. Asked for vegetarian option, emphasized 'no meat' was limited to cheese & tomotoe, humous , egg and mayo sandwiches only. Other hotels give you a larger vegetararian variety and throw in a fish sandwiches too. Bread used to make sandwiches was stale ( no excuse not to use fresh bread) and scones were cold. I would understand if the restaurant was extremely busy and staff were rushed of their feet, but it was very much dead, a total of 6 people were there. Would not go to another hotel and would not recommend to others.

I had a gluten free afternoon tea. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The staff were very friendly. I would go again.

We booked afternoon tea here. The waiters were very friendly but clearly didn't know the first thing about what an afternoon tea consists of. For 2 of us, we had 5 very small individual cakes between us and 1 scone each in addition to an odd number of sandwiches.
The waiter happily brought us another plate of cakes, so we could actually have 1 each and 2 fruit scones, as the ones we had were plain. That said, the cakes and scones were very nice.
As I said, the waiters were happy to help but considering we had booked in advance, surely someone should inform the staff appropriately?

Great waiter, service and food!

I'm sure the restaurant would have been acceptable, if it wasn't for the fact that it was shut. It seems at 3pm it's always shut, so if you are booking a late lunch, beware, you won't get it, at least not in the Larder Restaurant.