The Old Lodge

What a wonderful place. My family and I had the most delicious dinner served by Olivia and Manu. Delicious food, great personal service and beautiful setting. Honestly can’t recommend this treasure highly enough. We will be back in a shot. Thank you for a wonderful evening. See you soon 😃

The Old Lodge is located a couple of miles south of Stroud and overlooking Nailsworth Valley. It is exactly what it says on the tin – an old lodge. The layout is quirky, with a jumble of interconnecting rooms on the ground floor, narrow staircases and corridors with random steps. Guest rooms are on the first floor. The location is glorious, high up on Minchinhampton Common with splendid views. The common is popular with golfers, kite flyers and, err, cows, so it can get very busy during the day, which may account for the popularity of The Old Lodge's very pleasant beer garden. There is no car park as such, but there are plentiful parking places on the road and verges immediately outside the lodge. My room could best be described as 'snug'; it came with double bed, wardrobe, desk, television and generous hospitality tray / kettle squeezed in, but little room for much else. It was, though, comfortable and tastefully decorated (although the floor had a very obvious slope down to one corner). I understand larger rooms are available at a cost. Wi-Fi, as you would expect, was available in-room free of charge (although when I connected, my laptop flagged up a warning that the wi-fi protocol was outdated). The en-suite was tiny, containing a toilet, sink and small shower cubicle. Top marks, though, for supplying generously sized 'bath sheets'. There is no air conditioning; it is possible to open the windows, but since most of the rooms overlook the gardens they will be susceptible to chatter from drinkers outside. It wasn't really a big deal since the weather was cool and breezy during my stay, but I could see this being a problem during long, warm summer evenings. There is no reception as such. Guests are given an entry code which will allow them to let themselves in after the bar / restaurant has closed. Obviously the big deal at the moment is Covid. I asked about mask etiquette when I checked in, and was told that it was entirely up to me, it wasn't enforced. Generally the staff seemed relaxed about it. There is a one way system in place, so there are separate entrance and exit points and a specific route to follow to get to the guest rooms. Despite the pandemic, rooms are still being cleaned and made up every day. Breakfast is table service, with a choice of different breakfasts. I chose the Old Lodge Full English, which was delicious, and was made with good quality ingredients. Toast, juice and coffee / tea also included. Obviously The Old Lodge is a very different proposition to a chain hotel, but notwithstanding the modest size of my room I was left with the impression that the management had set out to offer a high standard of service and accomodation.

I joined a pal of mine up from London for breakfast here as he'd just spent the night at The Lodge. He went for the trad breakfast which looked was according to him, lovely. I went for the veggie breakfast and was very disappointed. On the list was a vegetarian sausage, this turned up as a small mauve coloured blob on the plate and I was told it was falafel? That's not a veggie sausage is it? Two fried eggs were crispy all around the edge and bogie all across the top, there were about 6 small slivers of mushroom which I doubt amounted to one Portobello. The toast turned up on a roof tile and looked like the ends from a couple of loaves and were rock hard. And I also just realised there were no hash browns which there should have been. A real shame as 3 of us had a lovely meal there the night before which was very good indeed.

This is my favourite place , we had an unexpected mid week lunch outside in the sunshine .. All the waiters were lovely helpful young people , very attentive . We had baguettes and they were excellent , a chilled glass of Rose .. can’t wait to go back

There are no soft furnishings so the restaurant is very noisy. When sitting in the restaurant the "stunning views of the common land" are blocked by the cars parked just beyond the floor to ceiling windows. In the male toilets the record of cleaning checks was empty for the day of our visit and mostly incomplete for the day before. [Tip: have one record sheet per day and remove it at the end of the day - Oh, and make sure it is filled in on time]. The one way system between the restaurant and toilets was not clearly signed - most visitors to the toilets retraced their route from the restaurant. The food was good.