Matfen Hall Hotel, Golf & Spa

Visited Matfen Hall in March 2025 for Sunday lunch in their Emerald Restaurant. What a wonderful environment to dine in! Quiet, calm elegance with attentive, but not intrusive, serving staff. The food, beef and salmon respectively, was full of flavour and joy. The waitress was able to give knowledgeable advice regarding wine pairings and all staff made us feel comfortable and very much at home. A wonderful experience and one we will long remember.

Special overnight treat for a big anniversary. Bought Christmas vouchers to stay and have the 8 course taster menu and paired wine. The food was beautiful but didn't like the wine pairings - didn't expect the additional £43 service charge either. Morning was manic - over 80 having breakfast and having waited 30 minutes without any hot drinks eventually got our breakfast but without any toast. Missed the fried egg on the breakfast and when mentioned, they forgot it again. (Staff did apologise). Appreciate we didn't pay the full £600+ price it should have cost but I must admit we were expecting a bit more when paying over £400 for food and overnight stay. We've visited a few times before the new ownership and although it looks nicer now, and the reception / evening staff were fab, we left disappointed. Not sure if we'd visit again but perhaps local people are not their prefered clientele. Beautiful rooms and surroundings but costly and variable quality of service

This hotel is a must visit when staying in the northeast, if you’re looking for a 5* hotel and Spa. The building itself he’s been renovated to the highest level of detail, the mixture of new and old works together in perfect harmony. There are bars and restaurants both in the main hotel and also at the golf clubhouse which is just a few minutes walk away. The Spa has everything you would expect and ever need, swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and a steam room. The rooms are well appointed with all the opulence and comfort that you would expect in a hotel of this stature.

In a truly magnificent location this is a lovely estate with a grand hotel building. There are 2 golf course and a driving range as well as a swimming pool and spa. There are three restaurants, the Keepers is not in the hotel but is part of the main golf complex near the hotel, the driving range and short course are some distance away on the estate. Keepers is an interesting venue with a good menu and service, you are offered a buggy ride back to the hotel after dinner. The Emerald restaurant is truly marvellous with an excellent tasting menu and wines. We had a truly fantastic young gentleman looking after us who also looks after the bar. He made our evening memorable. The Cloisters is average and is the main restaurant and breakfast venue. Our evening meal was helped by the same person serving us as in the Emerald. A very luxurious bedroom and bathroom complimented by a very professional 'front desk' team made our stay.

Posto molto bello con molta atmosfera . Siamo stati per un afternoon tea e sinceramente siamo rimasti molto delusi , per circa 40£ a testa ci hanno servito dei miseri ( molto miseri !) vassoi con roba tirata fuori dal frigo ( meno male che bisogna prenotare con 24 ore in anticipo! ). In aggiunta si sono presi il 12,5% per il service !!! Non ne vale la pena , credetemi !!!

Stayed for one night with my partner as part of the Sunday Lunch & Stay offer. In short, the staff were very attentive, food on the whole was great and a nice range of drinks. We enjoyed the spa facilities and the gym is fantastic. We wish we lived closer to obtain a membership! The grounds and interior of the property is at an exceptionally high level. The interior of the CLOISTERS bar and restaurant is the nicest I’ve ever seen. I’m one lottery win away from replicating in my own house. Upon arrival, the reception staff were great and guided us to the Emerald restaurant. The Sunday lunch was very nice and all of the staff were very attentive. Negatives: The hotel room was immaculate but I do understand other guest concerns relating to the heat. The underfloor heating and radiator does create a warm temperature. We managed this with opening the windows and didn’t require the fan. I can imagine this might be a bit trickier in the summer months. I didn’t mention this to the staff, therefore cannot place any blame on them, but during the early hours of the morning there was a very loud drilling noise. This immediately waked me and my partner. Frustratingly it lasted about 5 hours and impacted my sleep. I managed to link it to the bathroom radiator which made hissing noises and general heating related sounds. It stopped on and off but would return for a whole hour from around 1am - 5am. I figured if I reported this the hotel would have offered an alternative room but with it being early AM I opted to manage through it. Again, no fault of Matfen as I didn’t make them aware of the noise but if this is read, I would recommend checking the heating systems within room 71. Other guests may not be as laid back as us! We ate one meal at the Keepers. I understand this is primarily a golf club / restaurant but sadly the food was a miss. I ordered a ‘wood fired’ pizza but you could tell it was frozen and tasted like any other supermarket pizza. At £12 though I guess it wasn’t the end of the world. I made the staff aware prior to booking that it was my partners birthday. The reception staff acknowledged this upon check-in. With this, I had expected a small token, a small card would have sufficed but sadly we received nothing. The staff brought up the birthday to me upon check-in which gave the impression they may have done something. We explained my partners birthday was the following day. We woke up to a letter under our door the morning of her birthday which I thought may have been a card but it was an invoice! A simple nice touch would have been appreciated. I wasn’t expecting a cake or anything fancy but a simple small note could have gone a long way! Positives: All of the staff were very attentive, in each area of the hotel we visited. The welcome drinks were a nice touch and the receptionist (forgive me I can’t remember his name) was great. He explained it was his fourth day but you wouldn’t have noticed. His colleague, a geordie younger wom