Hôtel & Spa de La Bretesche

Came for two nights with my husband earlier this month. Beautiful property, even in somewhat dreary weather. Very quiet both in terms of area and number of staying guests. Lovely if you want to totally get away from it all. Very nice welcome and was upgraded to a suite which was gorgeous with an extremely comfy bed. Slept really well. A few things could have been improved upon such as the very squeaky wardrobe door, the lack of tea making facilities, very small choice of teabags, no milk. No kettle so have to use the Nespresso machine to get hot water. Not ideal. Poor minibar and a lighting switch selection that will bamboozle you. Was looking forward to dinner on the Saturday night especially as there is very little in the area. Lovely drink and nibbles in the stable bar then onwards to the dining room. Most diners in couples. Slightly odd atmosphere with very low music which you can hardly hear and bright lighting. Decided upon the 6 course menu. If we knew it was going to take four hours we would have gone with the 3 course. Wine prices are exorbitant so decided to go with the glass option where for the menu you can choose 2, 3 or 4 glasses at 49 Euros each. We chose 4 glasses hoping the sommelier would have paired the wines accordingly. Alas this was not the case. Despite presenting in English (which we really appreciated) he knew very little about the wines and choosing the semi-sweet Chenin to go with a mixture of Amuse-Bouche was not the start we’d hoped for. I asked him why it was chosen and he immediately blamed his superior with no other explanation. At this point we knew the wine choices were going to be ‘interesting’. We were not wrong. All our courses were also quite sweet, and at times, a complete mismatch of flavours and ingredients. It was like Chef was trying too hard and missed the mark each time. The food improved with the desserts making us wonder if the head chef that night was actually the pastry chef. The other three wines presented were disappointing unfortunately and not enjoyable with any of the dishes. The toilets were out of bounds that evening too and all the guests had to use a bathroom in an upstairs bedroom. Acceptable but not ideal. For a Relais & Chateaux property the food and wine offering needs work. The hotel also seems very under staffed. Can I also mention the choice of wine glasses is also very poor for a property like this. Breakfast both mornings was ok, nothing special and not comparable to other Relais properties we have experienced unfortunately. This a beautiful property that could very easily elevate to outstanding if they were to get the food and wine experience up and look at the smaller details.

Very children friendly - even though we have small kids, we felt we were in paradise. Being able to enjoy the pool area, the calm and a refined dinner that we could have in the bar instead due to the children were not in the mood of sitting still for a long dinner. We loved it! Thank you!

What a wonderful hotel with a lovely staff. The food in both the bistro and the restaurant was excellent. Don’t expect a big gym.