Princess Helena (Paragon Hotel)

I went to the Paragon for Christmas dinner yesterday and it was a huge disappointment!

My family paid £50 per head for a 5 course Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. When we arrived, we were pointed in the direction of the cloakroom which had the audacity to charge £1 per item. The restaurants/hotels I've had meals in before have never charged for a cloakroom so I should have known at that point what the day held in store. We then headed towards the bar where we were charged £8.50 for 2 drinks in somewhat dirty glasses - we found out by wiping a hankerchief on them how dirty they actually were. At 1pm, we were promptly shown to our tables. So one of the good things was that the tables were nicely prepared.

We had melon for starter (not something that you should be able to mess up) with a very odd sauce. This was followed by a lemon sorbet with a shortbread biscuit that had clearly just come from a packet of shortbread biscuits. The sorbet was more akin to ice slush served in a glass similar to the ones that we had been drinking out of earlier. The turkey meal came next. The turkey was not what we expected at all! We thought that we may get slices of succulent turkey breast meat - but no, it was formed turkey roll that was increadibly crumbly & fatty. The stuffing was not cooked, nor were the baby potatoes or carrots or brussels sprouts. I couldn't even say they were al dente as they clearly didn't make it that far. The dessert came next which was OK - not great then coffee and mince pies. The best part of the meal was the wine but then that was chosen by us. The serving staff although very pleasant were very hurried & clearly had no idea what was going on or even that a wine list existed. Finally, the meal was finished by 3pm - we had only been there 2 hours. We were expecting a leisurely Christmas Day but instead we got, a hurried 5 course meal which I wouldn't have paid £5 for let alone £50. Also, no entertainment was laid on (other than piped-through music) so as soon as the meal was over, we left.

My overall impression is that this hotel is just money-grabbing & has no idea how to cook for or entertain guests. I never plan to go back & will advise anyone I know to do the same!
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Tuesday, December 26, 2006