Cotswolds Hotels - Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel, South Cerney (near Cirencester)

Cotswold Four Pillars Hotel, South Cerney

The Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel, situated on the outskirts of the Gloucestershire village of South Cerney, is a "contemporary luxury Cotswolds hotel set in a wonderland of lakes, rivers, woodland and open countryside. The hotel has been designed to complement its beautiful surroundings, while retaining all the modern features of a premier 4 star hotel."

For those of you who know the South Cerney area, The Four Pillars hotel can be found on the Spine Road, near to Cotswold Outdoor (the outdoor clothing and accessories specialist). travelling from the dual-carriageway from Cirencester take the South Cerney exit and the Cotswold Four Pillars hotel can be found on the left hand side (before you get to South Cerney village).

The hotel has been open since 2008, but it is only recently that we have had occassion to visit.

A Sunday night restaurant meal certainly didn't see the hotel at its busiest, but it was nice to see that we weren't the only people to venture out to this lakeside hotel on a cold winter night.

On entering the hotel, you will find the reception to the right, a large seating area in front of you and the bar to the left. There is a general feeling of space, but the aforementioned lack of Sunday night patrons probably added to this. Having said that, there is a plentiful supply of comfy seating and tables to support many more people that were present during our visit. It would have been nice to have seen more bar staff serving as this would have meant that we wouldn't have had to wait as long to be served. Sunday night must be skeleton staff night!

When we booked the table for four in the restaurant we were asked if we wanted a window table overlooking the lake. I'm sure that on a nice summer evening the view would have been lovely, but a dark winter night meant that we could only see the decking outside the restaurant.

The menu consisted of two courses for £19 or three courses for £25 (some dishes, such as steak, incur a supplement).

The wine list offered a choice of about 15 white and 15 red, along with a couple of rose and champagne bottles.

The menu has a couple of "local" options including sausages from Jesse Smiths in Cirencester and trout from Bibury.

The food was certianly not top restaurant quality, but easily matched good quality "pub grub".

The service was a bit hit and miss. We had to remind the waiter that we had ordered wine, and then had to remind him which bottle we had ordered. We also had to request extra napkins (only one of the four table places had one) and we had to ask for a jug of water twice. Comically we were delivered two jugs within 30 seconds of each other. It's a good job the unusually large table could easily house the extra glassware.

Apart from these problems, the service was friendly (a little too familiar at times perhaps).

At the end of the meal the bill was presented to us without asking if we would like coffee. It was only after we enquired that we were told we could lake coffee in the lounge.

The bill came to about £130 (Four three course meals at £25, £26 for a bottle of red wine and a few Pounds for extra drinks).

Coffee, served in the lounge, cost £9.05 for two black coffees, one espresso and one bottle of J2O.

It would be interesting to re-visit on a busier night, something which we will be happy to do (perhaps on a summer evening when our window table will allow us enjoy the lakeside view).

As for the hotel itself, how much does it cost to stay?

Well, we'd like to be able to answer that question, but on enquiring at reception we were told there was no printed tariff. The receptionist told us we would need to visit the Cotswold Four Pillars website for this information. So if you do phone to book a room, I would suggest you ask what their best price is when they give you the initial cost.

Our visit to the Cotswold Four Pillars Hotel was made during January 2009.