Tresco Estate staff are reeling this week after a savage mauling in the national press.

An article in the Daily Telegraph’s Weekend supplement has described the food at the Island Hotel as ?beyond grim,? the New Inn’s bar meals as a greasy mess, and Tresco itself as claustrophobic and middle-aged.

Journalist Jan Moir, who stayed at the hotel for two days in February, also takes a swipe at its guests, calling them ?haw-hawing gents in blazers,? who ?flirt with the waitresses and order another round of port.?

It’s all a far cry from the accolades heaped onto Scilly’s second largest island in the past. The hotel scooped a ‘Best Overall Hotel of the Year’ award from the English Tourism Council and ‘South West Hotel of the Year’ in 2002, whilst the New Inn is one of only twelve pubs in the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall included in the new ‘Eating Out in Pubs’ Michelin Guide.

The blurb on Tresco Estate’s website boasts of the hotel’s ?carefully prepared, imaginative cuisine’ which makes ?an excellent showcase for locally caught fish, island vegetables and Tresco reared beef? The food successfully combines the classical with the modern and will not disappoint.?

It’s a claim that Moir and disgruntled companion ‘S? would dispute. One meal is described as including ?cack-handed pastry, tough and tasteless beef, moribund lamb, salads dressed with cheap and nasty oil, a whiffy oyster and a ?study of chocolate? pudding that appears practically radioactive with chemicals.’

Only the staff at the New Inn are spared Moir’s acid tongue. Even an ornamental bone on the balcony keeps her awake at night whilst a meal on the Inn’s menu scares her ‘half to death.’

But whilst Tresco supporters may be shocked, the article has struck a chord with some. A spirited discussion on Scilly Online’s forum includes the post: ‘Are you reading and listening to the Telegraph, Mr Dorrien-Smith? The money-grabbing, greedy, pretentious lot on Tresco have been rumbled by the outside (real) world!!?

Jan Moir’s article about her visit to Bryher’s Hell Bay Hotel will be featured in next weekend’s edition of the newspaper. No doubt managers there are quaking in their boots…

Check out the article at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk (write Scilly in search box) and discussion: http://www.scillyonline.co.uk/new_forum/viewtopic.php’t=327