I think that you and the owner misunderstand my review. To the owner, yes, detailed because I was reviewing the soup ONLY, not the ambience or decorations or garden or any other feature. Specific because I've not sampled the entire menu. The 'M' stood for Maggi. I'm sorry that the bizarre mix of condiments and spices each fighting for notice gave all three of us the sensation of ersatz, but it did, and I understand why. Also beef jus in mushroom soup - and not telling customers at the counter? Not cool. What has 'cafe not fine dining' got to do with taste? I'm not dissing customers who liked and like the soup, so you have no need to diss my review. My view is that good fresh mushrooms have no need of flavours which overpower their delicacy. There were plenty of mushrooms, as I said, but they were simply swamped by too many other ingredients. My view. Not yours. But I'm entitled to my view. As for Birdwoods, we went there on my recommendation because my previous visit was in the summer, in the garden. The garden is very pleasant. The interior on the second visit was warm etc., but I repeat, I reviewed the soup, not the place.

In reply to why you didn't get the fifth star, the first time we came here it was amazing, treated like valued customers, this time we arrived in a family group, wishing them to enjoy the service we SO enjoyed...However there wasn't any great customer service, the beautiful tray with the special touches forgotten and everything for all of us lumped on one tray. No one came to ask if we were happy, the jam and cream weren't enough for the number of scones. It wasn't special and we regretted taking everyone...

Can we bring our will behaved little dog on lead of course? Thanks Wendy

Do you offer tours in December and how much are they