Exmoor White Horse Inn

Came on my own for the day and was made to feel so welcome. I was able to have breakfast on arrival. It was so nice to relax, catch up on some work and have a little walk. Had lunch and dessert (treacle sponge was incredible). Had a final drink when my husband arrived back before heading off. Thank you to all the staff for letting me hang around for the day and being so friendly, polite and helpful.

This was our fourth autumn trip to this lovely hotel in the heart of Exmoor - other family members have been coming here for decades. The White Horse never disappoints from the condition of it's fine Exmoor Brewery cask ales, to the excellent food and comfortable rooms it cannot be faulted. Linda and Peter makes us very welcome and staff members - Mark, Nick, Emma, Elysia and the ever present irrepressible Vince (who is part of the fabric) are professional, obliging and friendly creating an atmosphere other places must envy. We shall be back next year and are looking forward to it already. Exford is a lovely, friendly village - can also recommend The Crown, The Village Shop and The Farmer's Den - and the perfect place from which to tour all of the beautiful National Park.

This place has many fans: we're glad so many others enjoyed their time here. Ours was a disaster. We're not especially demanding, I assure you, but our room was either superheated or freezing and bore no resemblance whatever to the gorgeous pictures on the website. We slept a few short hours after lying awake in tropical conditions till the heating calmed down. The staff were inattentive, halfwitted, and unable to answer the simplest of questions. Food was barely passable - not enhanced by an over-sharing waitress who told us it had been cooked by a young member of the wait staff who was hoping to become a chef... Not impressive. No wifi in the room, which was apparently decorated from junk shops. Main space is a weird layout of scruffy rooms, a scrappy reception area, and ill-used spaces. Decor is an incoherent jumble. No sense of control or professionalism (eg "Only the owner knows the answer to your question, and he has gone home".) Terrible value for money. I hate leaving bad reviews: I'd much rather praise - see my other reviews - but I have only ever once had a worse experience and that was thirty years ago. This visit was supposed to be our wedding anniversary treat: we booked for four nights, but stayed only for one, and didn't even take breakfast as we couldn't wait to leave. Draw your own conclusions. I thought long and hard before leaving this review, as I didn't want to be unfair to the place. But I decided it was more important to be fair to prospective guests. My advice to customers: proceed with extreme caution. Make sure you see the room before you agree to stay, and I hope you are a lot luckier than we were. As for the management: if you truly cared you would have fixed all these problems long ago. Disagree? Then spend the night in your own guest rooms and see if _you_ think DB&B is worth £300 a night.

The rooms and food at the hotel are excellent. However, We had booked a table in the restaurant on the Saturday night before our stay. Before we arrived we had looked at the restaurant menus and could see there was rabbit pie, venison and trout, none of which our party wanted to eat. We asked the female receptionist if we could eat from the extensive bar menu in the restaurant, but were told this was not allowed. The bar was full that night so we could not eat in there. Very reluctantly we were then told we could eat bar food in the restaurant, but this was only after consultation with the owner. Such silly rules, if it had not been raining, we would have gone elsewhere to eat and they would have lost business. On the Sunday night we were told that we had to eat in the bar as there were tables free, although the restaurant was nearly empty. Apart from a male waiter, the staff had no personality and were not friendly. A little staff training is needed in this area. We will not visits the hotel again on principle.

Decided to treat ourselves to a Traditional Sunday Carvery on our short stay in Exford and wasn’t disappointment. The food was amazing and extremely tasty. Beautifully cooked meats and the best roast potatos I’ve had in a very long time. Just had to have the Jam Rolly Polly and custard to finish and couldn’t fault it. Proper good, well cooked, traditional food. Loved it. Wonderful atmosphere and friendly staff. A rare find.

A lovely setting and the smell of a real fire was so alluring! However, if you are not local, you will not be served before them. We waited at the bar for a good 15 minutes, without acknowledgement, while the barman served customers who came to the bar after us. If he'd noticed them, he must have noticed us! We walked out with one of the locals shouting after us, 'he's ready to serve you now!!' Too late...just rude! We will not be returning. Very disappointing