We went back to the opening lunch for a belated ce...

We went back to the opening lunch for a belated celebration. Menu was restricted which is true for many restaurants opening up again. There were a large proportion of high risk people in their 70s & 80s so understandably Ockenden were very careful of their hygene which had downsides for the rest of us.

Only the main modern restaurant was open and people not allowed into the smaller character rooms, I heard guests dissapointed by this. We were not allowed to handle the extensive full wine menu, instead we were asked to use our mobile phones for which scrolling through a 50 page list is a pain. I would have preferred an option of using the paper wine menu but for reasons above I understand Ockenden might consider this too risky. I suggested they published the daily menu online so we could choose wines from home.

Personally I found the refusal of male staff to recognise the existence of females disturbing, even after two previous written complaints. For mixed couples this might not be much of an issue because waiters would concentrate on the male guest, who presumably could protect himself. For female only such as ourselves I find it more secure to bring a passport and monitored personal alarm with me when visiting Ockenden.