Hencote

Fantastic location and views across the vineyard and Shrewsbury. Went for a wine tasting session, our guide Wes was extremely welcoming and knowledgeable about wine and all things related. The tour of the winery itself was interesting, and the wine selection (whilst not to everyone’s taste) fit the bill.

Took friends for Sunday lunch and we were really impressed. The venue is lovely, the views are wonderful. The service was great and the food excellent so we will definitely be back.

It's not often as a supplier we review venues, but it was our first time at Hencote, and it REALLY stood out! We do weddings, Birthdays & corporate events all over the UK and Hencote really is top tier. The welcome from staff, the venues standards were absolute top tier! If you are considering it for your event, do it! The back drop behind our DJ was absolutely stunning, we could have easily been in the south of france with that view 🫠 Thanks to all the Team for being fantastic on the night, it was a pleasure to work at a venue with such high standards 🍷 Thanks Team Club Class Entertainment 🙂

I attended one of the bottomless brunch events held at Hencote. Overall it was pleasant enough; food was delicious and younger waiting staff were great. It’s obviously a beautiful venue and the concept of bottomless brunch there is fantastic. However, there was one older female member of staff/management that was firstly caught rudely criticising our group to other staff, and her tone throughout the afternoon was short and unprofessional and put a real dampener on our day. Admittedly, 1 member of our group was 5 minutes late to arrive to the scheduled event, and we were not allowed to forget about how "inconvenient" this was for the entire restaurant the whole afternoon from the aforementioned older manager/staff member, while all the younger staff were very pleasant and polite in contrast. We all realise it’s a bookable event with more than one sitting per table, but we apologised profusely and it was not intentional to be stuck in traffic. It’s also a well functioning, experienced restaurant, but probably needs further review if one party is 5 minutes late to be seated and this apparently caused such hassle for the staff and kitchen. These things happen, against all our best efforts, and our one member of our party felt embarrassed and very upset by the treatment from her. We were not offered to be seated and start our bottomless brunch until all of our party had arrived, but surely this would have been better to start if it was causing such significant disruption to the restaurant. But this option wasn’t provided to us and instead we were interrupted multiple times in the 20 minutes from initial arrival (well before our scheduled seating time) to enquire where the other member of our group was. We all said we absolutely appreciated that this wasn’t ideal, but to be made to feel so awkward, and to then overhear the manager criticising us meant we didn’t leave very happy customers and all said we’d be reluctant to return in case we got the same cold treatment from the female manager.

I visited Hencote on 9 May 2026 with my family to celebrate my sister’s birthday during their Malaysian tapas event, and unfortunately the experience was extremely disappointing from start to finish. What should have been a special occasion was completely overshadowed by poor organisation, inattentive service, and a complete lack of professionalism. The venue promotes itself as offering curated and refined dining experiences, yet the service we received fell far below what would reasonably be expected from a restaurant positioning itself in that way. Whilst staffing issues were later cited as the reason for the poor service, the restaurant’s follow-up response was equally disappointing, as it appeared more focused on justifying the experience than genuinely acknowledging the failings we encountered. Particularly frustrating was the suggestion in their latest response that we could simply have gone to the bar ourselves for drinks because it was "only a short distance" away. If I had wanted a self-service experience, I would have chosen a pub, not a restaurant. They also attempted to excuse the lack of service by describing the dining experience as "relaxed and informal," which in reality translated to disorganised, inattentive, and unprofessional service. Main Issues • No one was available to greet or seat us on arrival, leaving us waiting around awkwardly. • Our table had not been properly set, and several surrounding tables were also left unset, creating a poor first impression. • Drinks service was extremely slow, and we eventually had to order at the bar ourselves. • When we asked for a straw, staff told us to "get one from the bar" because they were busy. • Food was placed on the table with no explanation of the dishes whatsoever. • No staff member checked on our table during the meal or asked whether we wanted additional drinks. • When we requested to speak to a manager, we were instead told someone was "the closest thing to a manager." • Despite informing the restaurant beforehand that we were celebrating my sister’s birthday, this was not acknowledged.