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Reviews of The Knife and Cleaver

3.5 out of 5
The Knife and Cleaver
The Grove, Houghton, Bedford, England

Reviews

8.6

Excellent

Rating 10 - Excellent. 82 out of 161 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 52 out of 161 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 14 out of 161 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 9 out of 161 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 4 out of 161 reviews" "

8.8/10

Cleanliness

8.8/10

Staff & service

8.2/10

Amenities

8.6/10

Property conditions & facilities

8.4/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Richard

Stayed 1 night in Jan 2024

10/10 Excellent

Jo

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Hidden Gem
Hidden gem close to lots of places. The good was fantastic and definitely gastro and reasonably priced. Everything you need and very friendly staff
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2024

10/10 Excellent

Kenneth

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Motel like rooms very pleasant. Staff were really good and friendly.
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2023

8/10 Good

Rebecca

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Very good- nice staff, comfy room, good restaurant
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2023

10/10 Excellent

CM

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
You really must visit this one!!
This is a real find, staff are fabulous food amazing and room private and cosy, with lovely fresh cotton sheets. All for a really fair price
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

4/10 Poor

Mark

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Disliked: Staff & service, room comfort
Lack of Customer Service
Check in took 15 minutes due to Manager standing 3 metres away training new waiting staff. Waited for 5 minutes to be seated although both new waiting team were standing 5 metres away and did not even bother to engage with me. I left and went back to my room. The bedroom was very nice until i got into bed, the most uncomfortable mattress i have ever slept in.
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

Ralph

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

Colin Paul

Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

6/10 Okay

David

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Simone

Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

M D

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Highly recommended
A great pub and rooms with a friendly welcome and atmosphere
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

6/10 Okay

Ian

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
No WIFI in the rooms
Decent room and food. Terrible WIFI in the room. Connection kept dropping out. For me this is important. So will not be visiting again.
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

M D

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
The knife and Cleaver
The staff where welcoming and the breakfast was great
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

4/10 Poor

Laura

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Utter rubbish!!
We got there after a 3 1/2hr drive to a cramped cabin that was not as clean as we would have liked, grubby bathroom & cigarette burns in the throw on the bed. What made it worst was the shower cutout after one of us briefly used it after a long trip. This was not fixed though a plumber was called due to not having the right part. We ended up washing in the tea-cup of a sink we had. Nothing has been done to date despite reporting it on check out. I would not be going back anytime soon.
Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2023

6/10 Okay

Carmel

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

Graham

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Very nice and clean with easy access to rooms when returning later
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

8/10 Good

Hugh

Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

8/10 Good

ASHLEIGH

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Property was lovely, restaurant and bar were clean and bright. Rooms were clean and well decorated. Freebies were also really nice. With the warm wether a fan would have been nice in our room, our friends next door had one but when asked at reception no one knew where to get one. Bed was a little hard but for 1 nights stay was okay. Would stay again just as overnight but wouldn't recommend for long stays! The room was also right opposite a function which luckily ended early but trying to nap through the day with the windows open because of hot weather was slightly difficult. Overall would rate 7.5/10
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

Adrian

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

6/10 Okay

MARTIN

Liked: Cleanliness
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2023

4/10 Poor

Sean

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great pub, bad management
Great location, good staff who make you feel very welcome. My stay, was tainted by the manager. Never heard anyone talk to their team like he did. Completely shocking and I would be shocked if they dont have a staff retention issue.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2023

4/10 Poor

Verified traveller

Disappointing
One night stay, the room was clean but dusty plastic plants. The bath seal leaked so the floor floods when using over bath shower, despite closing the shower curtain as instructed. Glass shelf above sink not secured so collapsed as soon as a toothbrush was placed on it, fortunately didn’t smash. We went to the bar to eat at 7pm, ordered a pint of cider- no problem but ordering a pint of beer took three attempts to find one they had in stock. We got dinner menus and enquired about the pie advertised on blackboards outside and inside the bar but they had sold out- at 7pm. There is an extensive menu, we sat in cosy alcove with our drinks while we chose - chicken wings and pork steak… neither were available. We tried to order three more main courses, each time the lady had to come back to say they were unavailable, so we had mushrooms on toast from the starter menu with a side order of fries which amazingly they seemed to have. Both average. Breakfast equally disappointing there were 4 options but 2 were unavailable, we ordered bacon egg and tomatoes but there had no tomatoes despite them being offered as part of the full English. The cleaning staff were hoovering the room around us while we ate and the toilets were out of action. The staff we met were friendly but we felt were embarrassed and frustrated, creating a tense atmosphere and we overheard many angry sounding conversations. Overall disappointing -the pictures online look so inviting, we wont be back.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2023

2/10 Terrible

stephen

Stayed 1 night in Feb 2023

10/10 Excellent

Hayley

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2023

10/10 Excellent

Rod

So Relaxing
Amazing Comfy accommadation, great fresh food ,a bit on high side price wise ,great freindly manager Will, very informative and knowledgable, Waiting on team great ,Amy was so passionate and sincere you want to eat the whole menu, through her enthusiasm
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2023

10/10 Excellent

Gemma

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 26 Oct 2020
Thank you for leaving us a 10/10 review! We hope to see you again soon.

8/10 Good

Rupert

Stayed 1 night in Oct 2020

8/10 Good

frank

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 17 Oct 2020
Thank you for leaving us a good rating! We hope to see you again soon.

10/10 Excellent

PAUL

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
we arrived very late but was greeted very well and had drinks an food within minutes. Escorted to our rooms and give take away breakfast. This is in spite of the covid restrictions Excellent service
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 25 Sept 2020
Hi Paul, Thank you for leaving such a lovely review. I'm so pleased you enjoyed your stay and we hope to welcome you back again soon!

10/10 Excellent

Mr cd

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Very nice room good food and the staff were very helpful Would highly recommend
Stayed 1 night in Sep 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 24 Sept 2020
Thank you for leaving us such a lovely review. I'm so pleased you enjoyed your stay with us and we hope to see you again soon!

10/10 Excellent

Neil

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Relaxing stay
The accomodation was separate from the main building which made it very quiet. Over the road was a church so you had the bells of the clock to wake you up, if your windows were open. The room was relaxing with a good en suite and a good heater if you were feeling cold. The pub part had a comfortable lounge bar area, with a large new addition for the restaurant part. The village was small with a few shops.
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 18 Sept 2020
Hi Neil, Thanks for wiring such a lovely review. I'm so pleased you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you back soon.

10/10 Excellent

Fay

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 6 Sept 2020
Thank you for leaving a lovely 10/10 review!

6/10 Okay

chris

Business traveller
Liked: Room comfort
Disliked: Cleanliness
Lack of clean room was a worry
This review is a Covid era review so bare this in mind. On arrival a young had the job of showing me my room and that’s literally all he did... The room was a good size with a good bathroom. It was disappointing that the sink taps and round the shower obviously hadn’t been cleaned from the previous guest and the table in the room was super sticky, again not been cleaned. Because of Covid I cleaned them myself. Dinner was ok, service was very slow until I pointed this out then it got going. The food was ok... The highlight of the stay was the breakfast, freshly cooked with excellent coffee. Would I stay there again or recommend it, maybe.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 6 Sept 2020
Hi Chris, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. I'm sorry to hear about the issue with the cleanliness of the room, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'm pleased you enjoyed your breakfast with us and hope that you will join us again in the future.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Business traveller
Basic
No reception, just a key in a lock box. Just a room in a bungalow, no special comfort, basic cleanness, some rust in the bathroom.
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 6 Sept 2020
Thank you for taking the time to highlight the points in your review, we are currently in the process of having some work done in our rooms. We would have loved for this to be done during the time we were closed however this was not possible. I do hope you will come back to us again soon to have a look at what has been done.

8/10 Good

Paul

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Cozy British village Pub
Lovely cozy pub great food amazing Ribs
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 1 Sept 2020
Thank you for your lovely review. I'm so pleased you enjoyed your meal and we hope to see you again soon!

8/10 Good

Thomas

Business traveller
Liked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 3 nights in Jul 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 6 Sept 2020
Thank you for taking the time to give us a good review!

10/10 Excellent

Graeme

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Knife and Cleaver
The rooms at the Knife and cleaver are clean and well equipped. The colour of the décor does leave it feeling a bit closed in, but this is a minor problem. The bar next door is excellent and the food was very good. Unfortunately Food was not available no Monday and Tuesday due to Covid cut backs, but there are plenty of places only a short drive away.
Stayed 4 nights in Jul 2020
Response from Danielle (Marketing) on 1 Sept 2020
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We are glad you enjoyed your stay with us. We are now open on Monday's and Tuesday's. We hope to welcome you again soon!

4/10 Poor

Kendall

Stayed 1 night in May 2020

8/10 Good

Anthony

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2020

10/10 Excellent

Adrian

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2020

10/10 Excellent

Kevin, Jersey

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Lovely old pub friendly welcoming staff great food clean comfortable room.
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2020

8/10 Good

Wayne

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
nice place to stay for the night
Stayed 1 night in Jan 2020

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Room spacious with good en-suite. Separate to main pub building. Quiet (early March).
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2020

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Stayed 1 night in Mar 2020

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Business traveller
Liked: Staff & service
Room was so-so, blind did not lower and shower tray leaked
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2020

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Travelled with partner
Liked: Staff & service
We liked the pub and restaurant, but unfortunately the decor in the rooms we found to be depressing and in need of an update. The mattress was really uncomfortable, the blind did not work properly and there was no curtain at the front door. The staff were accommodating and the above can be fixed, but travellers should be aware that the bells in the church opposite strike every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day.
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2020

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Mar 2020

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, room comfort
The room had a musty smell and the toilet was not very clean. Nice evening meal.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2020

8/10 Good

Emma

Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lovely food - shame about the room
Nice looking local pub serving fantastic food. Rooms need a little bit more thought. Decor very dark, lighting needs addressing. Bed uncomfortable hard mattress no headboard. Kettle left with water in which had limescale floating around. Lots of limescale in shower area. Most staff friendly but not particularly attentive, at breakfast no plates for toast, empty orange juice jug wasn't refilled. All put right when asked but be better not to have yo ask! Had an evening meal and 2 breakfasts which were fantastic. 5 stars to the chef
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2020

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Business traveller
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
Useful things to know. Wi fi is only in the main pub building rooms are across a courtyard in separate building. TV reception is poor with only 3 or 4 channels available this may have been due to weather and improved when the weather does. Expected more from breakfast after eating in the restaurant in the evening.
Stayed 1 night in Feb 2020