Queens Head Inn

“Good value”

Comfortable beds, clean rooms, good value

“Old style village charm”

Amazing rural B&B, like many village hotels it’s got some old style charm and is well kept.

“Great food and very friendly service in a lovely setting.”

We had an absolutely lovely meal at the Queens Head last night. We arrived quite late but the very friendly landlord and landlady guided us through the menu and we did not fee rushed. There was a great selection of home-made meals; including a range of home-made sausages, burgers and pies. I had t… more

We had an absolutely lovely meal at the Queens Head last night. We arrived quite late but the very friendly landlord and landlady guided us through the menu and we did not fee rushed. There was a great selection of home-made meals; including a range of home-made sausages, burgers and pies. I had the gammon, egg and chips. A generous portion of home-cooked gammon and lovely chips hit the spot. My partner had the halibut and chips and declared them the best that she had eaten in a long time. They even came with home-made mushy peas and tartar sauce. We sat in the huge garden, overlooking the river and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere as the sun went down. All in all, thoroughly recommended.

less

“Fabulous food, delightful staff, tranquil riverside beer garden, badly let down by the bedroom”

It’s such a shame that the very high quality of the excellent food in the restaurant and great service from the friendly staff is badly let down by the quality of the bedrooms. It was adequate for a one night stay but it could be so much better, and I hope the owners will take on board my suggestio… more

It’s such a shame that the very high quality of the excellent food in the restaurant and great service from the friendly staff is badly let down by the quality of the bedrooms. It was adequate for a one night stay but it could be so much better, and I hope the owners will take on board my suggestions below whenever they get around to upgrading the accommodation. THE GOOD POINTS: We received a lovely friendly and professional welcome from Nicole on reception. The single-storey chalet-style bedrooms are in two long blocks behind the pub, so there are no stairs to climb and it’s not too far to carry luggage, as a large car park is adjacent and parking spaces are also located directly outside the chalets. The bed had very good quality, crisp white high thread-count cotton linen with great pillows and the two bath towels provided were large and fluffy. The food quality and presentation of both the starters and mains in the pub’s restaurant was excellent. We both enjoyed the complimentary bread and oils and then had the delicious creamy garlic mushrooms to start. My main was a very tasty and succulent chicken breast with potato rosti and delicious sauce. My husband also enjoyed his chicken schnitzel. All of it was served hot and freshly cooked, in good time by genuinely engaging friendly staff. THINGS THAT SHOULD BE IMPROVED (to fulfil a 4-star expectation): We stayed in room 5 which felt rather unloved and could really do with a deep clean. There was a lot of dust in the radiators (in both the bedroom and hall) and a thick layer of dust on the shelf in the wardrobe. Fortunately we were only there for one night, so we didn’t need to hang anything up in there. It’s just as well really, as most of the space in the wardrobe was taken up by a random mattress being stored in there, which we assumed was to keep the two large resident spiders comfortable. There were no drinking glasses anywhere in the room, so we got some from the bar so we could have water by the bed. There was no information folder in the room (apart from the fire safety notices on the wall and a peculiar note in a drawer advising guests to call 999 in an emergency). Surprisingly there was not a sample menu for the restaurant (which in my view is a missed opportunity as it is the main selling point of this Inn). Following the disappointment of our uninspiring room we very nearly didn’t bother going to the restaurant, as we assumed it would be to a similar standard as the room. If we hadn’t have been a captive audience (with it being the only place in the village to eat) then we would have totally missed out on the best facility at this Inn. The décor in the bedroom was rather stuck in the 90s, lots of the paintwork in the bedroom needed touching up and there were sloppy paint drips on the radiator from when it was last decorated. The radiator was full of dust and the temperature selector had been removed and placed on the top. It had a separate hallway within the unit that appeared to be larger than the bathroom which seemed crazy. If ever the owners re-model the bedrooms then please halve the hallway and incorporate that area into the en-suite space, so you’d have room for a decent sized shower cubicle. The toilet was already hemmed in beside the 6 inch thick wall of the shower cubicle (it would create more space if it was just a glass screen), but to make life even more difficult for guests using the loo, there was a glass shelf along the wall next to the toilet which only limited the constricted space further. It would be far better to move it up to eye level, so you don’t keep hitting your elbow and shoulder on it when getting up from the toilet. The toilet flush handle was very loose and emerging from the cistern, there was no loo brush and the loo roll holder was just a stub of metal sticking out of the wall which the loo roll promptly fell off. The bathroom fan was badly fitted, very noisy and took a long time to stop after switching the bathroom light off. The pedal bin pedal did not work, so you had to lift the lid with your hand. There was a tiny plastic bottle of shampoo and another of shower gel provided along with a small bar of soap which was about as effective as a piece of chalk at cleaning your hands. It would surely be much better, economical and ecologically sustainable to install wall mounted dispensers instead. The shower cubicle was like a phone box and it was difficult to avoid the surprise of touching the very hot water supply pipe with your body as you turned around in there. Additionally the shower hose looked very grubby. There were no hooks in the bathroom to hang bathrobes or clothes on - even the solitary hand towel provided was placed on the sink by the cleaner due to a lack of hanging space for it. We expected a hand towel each in a 4-star Inn. The main ceiling light in the bedroom was quite dull, there was no light above the dressing table mirror and no practically sited socket to plug a hairdryer in to. The nearest socket was located beneath the dressing table, (so most of the short hairdryer cord would be stretched underneath the dressing table) so I would have had to get down on my knees on the dusty floor to use it if I wanted to style my hair in the wall mirror as I dried it. Instead I used a socket by the bed and used my hand mirror. There was only one USB socket in the room but the fitting was a bit precarious in the wall with a lot of space around it, which didn’t instil much confidence that it was safe to use. The net curtain at the window was dusty and there was mould in the silicone sealant around the window. The bed was comfy and firm, but it was only a double, where it would be so much better to get rid of the separate day bed (which took up lots of space in the room) and invest in a king-size bed instead, thus giving weary travellers the comfort level expected from the 4-star rating. The main problem we had was our sleep being interrupted by gushing water running through the pipe work randomly all night long, as other guests in our block frequently used the toilet throughout the night then had showers early in the morning. The owners really need to look at insulating the water pipes so when guests do eventually fall asleep they are not woken up every half hour. The dusty theme continued in the restaurant, as our table in the restaurant was next to the radiator and we saw it was very dusty in the top. The Queen’s Head, Nassington is adequate for one night (so long as you’re not too bothered about interrupted sleep) but it’s not the 4-star experience indicated by the AA 4-Star Inn sign hanging proudly outside. The restaurant is currently doing all the lifting in that star rating and with a little TLC and a deep clean it could easily be so much better in the bedrooms.

less