The Wyck Hill House Hotel was the chosen venue for the second reunion of past inmates of the REME Junior Leaders Unit, Arborfield.
The address is Burford Road, Stow-on the-Wold, and if you arriving in the area by any other form of transport than car or coach tour the taxi fare from Kingham Station, four miles away, is £20.
According to the taxi driver it has been reopened, following a complete makeover, for about 18 months.
Reception is a desk in the hallway and I was greeted by a pleasant young lady who, having taken my particulars led me to my 1st floor room. I understood why as trying to direct one to the lift would have been quite a feat.
The rooms are spacious and comfortable, however they are certainly not soundproof. Mine was opposite the lift door and the “Ding” of it arriving was clearly audible; luckily there are not a lot of rooms per floor!
Perhaps I am just unlucky but my safe refused to lock and, after losing my cameras from a room in Rome, I am a bit paranoid about leaving valuables lying about.
Houskeeping got somebody to me in about 15 minutes and he duly reset the mechanism.
The bar is neatly set out and a Bombay Sapphire and Tonic restored my spirits. The £8.00 for a smoked salmon sandwich, the size of bridge roll, on ciabatta I felt was a bit excessive though it did come with a neat little pot of crisps and a bit of salad.
We were about 50 for dinner and the standard of the food and the service were impeccable..
I had a trio of fish for starter with a light hollandaise sauce and it could not have been faulted. The fish was firm and tasted superb and the sauce complimented it perfectly. The other members of my table reported theirs to first class as well.
I had ordered Pan fried breast of corn fed chicken with thyme rosti cake, savoy cabbage, smoked bacon and shallot sauce.
It came perfectly cooked, nicely moist, and the thyme rosti was a perfect accompaniment. We had the house Merlot to wash it all down!
I picked the Eton Mess for dessert which was adapted to include red berries rather than strawberries but lost nothing for all that.
We finished up with standard coffees.
Breakfast the next morning was delightful. A good selection of fruit, museli, cereals and yoghurts; a mixture of cheeses and cold meats or a substantial cooked menu.
I took the sausage, bacon and black pudding and asked for a soft poached egg. Three out of four right was not too bad. Why is it that nowhere seems to be able to soft cook any type of egg these days.
A large pot of strong English Breakfast tea was just the ticket to see off the excesses of the night (or morning even) before.
The tab for bed and breakfast plus the dinner was £120. Not really over expensive.