Smokehouse Hotel Cameron Highlands

“British colonial concept ”

Very well maintained British colonial accomodation rooms are very big spacious and clean,garden is truly a calm area to read a book in the noon. Staff are very helpfull and kind gave us very good hospitality during our 2 days stay in mid of summer holidays. Well maintained area with alot of histori… more

Very well maintained British colonial accomodation rooms are very big spacious and clean,garden is truly a calm area to read a book in the noon. Staff are very helpfull and kind gave us very good hospitality during our 2 days stay in mid of summer holidays. Well maintained area with alot of historical history

less

“It's in poor repair.”

The Smokehouse sells itself as an English style institution for afternoon tea. In reality, the building is in poor repair and its all rather dated and scruffy. Afternoon tea, well it's average at best. Surprisingly we still enjoyed the experience.

“It could be so much more, it could so easily be and its not a reflection of “Britishness”!”

The score of 3 is even a bit generous but as they are making renovations I will give the benefit of doubt because the staff were really lovely. The review is based on a 2 night stay eating in the restaurant both nights. Starting with the good. The staff were very friendly and helpful and wanted to… more

The score of 3 is even a bit generous but as they are making renovations I will give the benefit of doubt because the staff were really lovely. The review is based on a 2 night stay eating in the restaurant both nights. Starting with the good. The staff were very friendly and helpful and wanted to make our stay as wonderful as they could make it. The overall design and ambiance of the place is great, you can sit outside in gardens in the day (these days a bit of road noise unfortunately from just behind) and squeeze into the bar either in front of the log fire or in one of the little rooms around the back. The wood beams, old fashioned fittings all make it fun and a throwback to the days when we visited in the 1970’s. But after this it starts to slip. The restaurant is like a cafeteria for breakfast. You sit in a sort of conservatory and go and help yourself to cling film covered fruit or yogurt. The coffee is middle range at best that you get from a warmer and for somewhere that should do an amazing cup of tea it just needs to do better for the price that you are paying for the rooms. When you go for dinner you come out of a wonderful bar area and sit in a dark dining room with portions screened off if there are few guests (there were not many eating). The food portions were 1980’s style lots of food which felt like a compromise for quality. While I would say there was nothing wrong with the roast beef there was not a lot to shout about. It just felt like Sunday lunch home cooking rather than a succulent restaurant beef with duck fat crispy potatoes. So the food is okay but nothing to write home about. The room that we stayed in was a suite and not cheap. You enter up some narrow outside stairway and enter past another room into a lounge area which had potential but there was no focal point, it was just a large dim area with a table. The furnishings were average. After this you go through an attic area where you can only walk in the middle of the room because of the roof. There is a haphazard kitchen of sorts which is not usable but a helpful fridge. After this the room opens out into a large bedroom with 4 poster bed of sorts. It looks like it had drapery off the top at one point but for us it was just some wood structure. The room furnishings were average, the walls were in need of paint and repair and the room was musty. We found the source when we got into bed, the sheets needed airing. Unfortunately worse was to come. The bathroom was simply awful. The bath was about the size of a bucket, the shower was over it, the basin was old and partially serviceable and the toilet needed a PHD to work out how to flush it. We had been looking forward to our stay so much and there is so much potential in the place. I really hope that the owners are doing proper renovations and also invest in the catering. At the moment I feel it is massively overpriced for what it is and until they learn that a cup of afternoon tea should be served with cold milk, not hot, they cannot be promoting an old piece of “Britishness”. Please, please sort it out and make it what it was many, many years ago when our family used to visit.

less