Belle Epoque, Knutsford

We booked this place for my b'day with a number of my friends so we had a rather large table upstairs. The drinks took ages to get there despite the friendly waiter. The starters came & were served cold - we all decided to bite our tongue & continue. Then the mains came but at all different times and majority were cold and they got the orders wrong and mixed up with other tables. A few of us sent our food back & it came back no better. some of us decided not to eat our main course. My husband organised a large b'day cake with them & when that was served it was stale. Eventually my friend decided he was going to complain and the attitude of management was really poor. They were really defensive & made excuses for everything. The manager eventually said that she will do something with the bill. But all they did was take off a few drinks even tho' some of us did not touch our main meals & sent them back & the cake was stale. My friend went back down and insisted on them taking the meals off and the cake. And they could not get rid of us fast enough even tho' we left a very generous tip for our waiter - it was not his fault that the chef could not cook etc. NEVER AGAIN!!! DONT SAY U WERE NOT WARNED

We recently married at Belle Epoque (Christmas '09) and had the most amazing day! We really feel that the venue and the staff played an enormous role in that. The Belle Epoque is such a stunning venue. Its the only wedding venue I visited that really captured my imagination. It is so unique, stylish and romantic. The size of rooms keeps everything intimate and personal, unlike so many venues in which you feel lost and there is no atmosphere. There is such a wondeful vibe in the place. Asides from the venue, it is the people within it and the work they do that make events special. Our wedding planner and the team worked exceptionally hard. On the day the team were wonderful, keeping everything running smoothly and everyone happy. All of the staff are so friendly and helpful. They all went out of their way to make our wedding run like clockwork. She is very responsive, providing lots of help and advice. She puts in alot of hard work behind the scenes to organise the day and is very nice to work with. In addition to this the food is delicious and some unusual options are offered. So many people commented to me about the venue and staff. Many said it was the best wedding venue they had ever been in. We could not have been more delighted with our choice

I believe some of the rooms were nice, but found ours to be shabby.

There was a lot of noise from what seemed to be the staff for some considerable time after 1 am. Their loud chatter and laughter kept us awake for hours as the sound of their voices drifted up to our rooms. When we complained, the management said it was the guests - which we thought unlikely as the voices sounded as though they were coming from an area out of bounds to visitors.

Although the majority of the staff were friendly, I have noted that one had a seemingly confrontational attitude to my complaints, no matter how polite I was. I think that they need to learn how to deal with complaints politely, constructively and effectively. I was shocked by this staff member's attitude towards me. Taking these three things into consideration, I cannot recommend this hotel as a place to stay. I felt that our problems were dealt with poorly and the rooms seemed overpriced considering the tired looking furniture.

The food at Belle Epoque in Knutsford is locally sourced and cooked to perfection with a great choice of flavours and all good old english traditional food.