Room Service

It is 10.05 am on Sunday morning and the telephone rings at the reception desk in Tinakilly House, Rathnew, County Wicklow. "I'm afraid all the room service staff are busy”, announces the receptionist almost instantly, with some extraordinary sense of clairvoyance, as she is able to make this statement without speaking to anyone at all. “Breakfast stops at 10am”, she then says, before placing the telephone down and attending to the trio of customers waiting to check out.

Standing waiting to check out, I can just picture the disappointed person upstairs in Tinakilly who now can’t get any room service breakfast, and fears that they may indeed have missed breakfast altogether. And all they wanted was a lie-in, perhaps the chance to make the most of getting away from the kids for a night.

Bad luck. The clairvoyant receptionist, who knows exactly how busy the room service staff are without needing to consult anyone, has put the dampener on their day already.

The receptionist then informs me that I am the lucky recipient of a voucher which will give me €100 euro off my next stay in a Small Luxury Hotel, so long as I quote the number on the voucher and tell them where and when I was given it.

Thanks, but no thanks.

The first time I ever stayed at Tinakilly, I had breakfast in bed, and I remember it even now as being a superb treat. But the focus which Bill Power brought to this grand house, the slick, militaristic mechanics which saw Tinakilly operate with gleaming efficiency, seems to have been mislaid somewhere.

It’s a pity, because young Jason Wall is doing some nice cooking in the kitchens – delicate salad of asparagus with baby leeks and green beans is excellent, and char-grilled veal is very tasty, though hot chocolate pudding misses the mark – and the house is still atmospheric, although the dining room has little energy, even on a Saturday night.

But the sharp service that was the defining factor of Tinakilly needs to be rescued. In good hotels, room service comes to the rescue 5 minutes after the appointed hour, making for happy, and very, very grateful, customers.

www.tinakilly.ie

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