Clarice House Colchester 1.6 11 reviews

Latest Review

I booked a superior bliss day for 2 during a special offer with my sister as both our daughters were turning 18 and we thought this would be a special treat for them. I hadn't read any reviews but seemed to be very good value, and have only been to The Sanctuary before on a Red Letter day (won).
The welcome could have been better, we kept having to flag staff down to ask questions as the menu wasn't clear what was included in the 2 course lunch. The food was very fancy - too much for my daughters tastes!
Unfortunately my sister suffered a puncture en route and so was very late (12:45) but the staff did re- arrange the massage they had missed and also got their food ordered, although again they weren't told they could have a mains/pud rather than starter/mains so ordered puds and paid for them! :-(
The 3 treatments were lovely, although we all got different levels of service, I think my therapist for the manicure/facial (Donna) was excellent and my nails look great!
On the negative side we were very uncomfortable sitting at lunch in rather wet robes, the lunch service was appalling and although I'd like to go back for treatments I'd rather not bother with lunch! My sister and neices starters were brought out before anyone had taken a drinks order, my wine appeared with a fruit fly in it - (this was changed no fuss), my daughters burger was like a bbq gone wrong - charred on the outside, pink in the middle, and then it was ages before our plates were cleared, this itself being requested and then the staff member took 2 plates away and forgot to come back for the other two.
Eventually the puds arrived but we ended up sending the girls away to use the spa while we complained/paid the bill. This involved us going to find someone, we were initially offered the bottle of still water off the bill then the house manager came out, this was the same person that only cleared half the table! She offered us all the soft drinks free, at this point we just wanted to get back to our day and warm up so we accepted.
I think the spa itself is great but obviously there was a lack of service in the restaurant, no-one wants to waste precious spa time sitting around waiting for food, especially when half their party have only just got there!