It’s starting to look like Daily Telegraph journalist Jan Moir fell out of bed on the wrong side the morning she visited the Isles of Scilly.
‘Absolutely appalling,? ?beyond disgusting,? ?completely unacceptable,? and ?a right old load of rubbish,? is the acid-tongued critic’s verdict on food at the Hell Bay Hotel in today’s Weekend supplement.
After the pasting received by Tresco last week, Bryher has fared better ? but only slightly.
Moir, who visited in mid-February, lists a catalogue of complaints about everything from the d’cor and ?funny smell? in the hotel bar and the stale pistachio nuts to the ?pointy hairstyles’ of the unfocussed waiting staff ? and that’s before she even tries the food.
Here it’s a familiar story. Moaning Moir and miserable companion ‘S? ? who seems to have spent his entire visit screaming, running away or on the verge of tears ? pick their way through ?uninspiring? food including a lemon sole which hasn’t been gutted or cleaned, a mash that is ?just a wodge of onion-scented glue? and a ?wrinkled, semi-retired parfait with a skin growing on top.?
The crab salad, which she describes as ?pretty good,? is dismissed as ?just a matter of assembly using the top notch local product? - making a reluctant compliment sound more like another complaint.
At least she has good things to say about the view.
Hotel Manager Philip Callan hit back with some fighting talk when ScillyNews caught up with him today. “I stand by a lot of what Euan Rodger has said. Nothing will change here either. Obviously we’ll have a look at the way we do things but at the same time, we are happy with it. The article was grossly unfair.”
He added that although he had received a few concerned phone calls since the article’s publication, there had been no cancellations.
And he pointed out that Hell Bay Hotel representatives are to travel to London next week to collect a VisitBritain award as one of the top three small hotels in the country.
What is certain is that Tresco Estate is not taking Moir’s attack lying down. “Robert Dorrien-Smith is very upset and is taking it up with the Daily Telegraph at the highest level,” said Callan.
As the Island Hotel, New Inn and Hell Bay are left to pick up the pieces after Moir’s visit, it’s fair to say that she wasn’t exactly taken with the Islands. She ends her assault with the words: ‘Now we can honestly say that we’ve been to Hell and we’re certainly not going back again.?
Doubtless there’ll be sighs of relief all round.