I took My boyfriend to Hotel Felix for the weekend, we had a wonderful time. Our room was clean and very modern, and a bit different to the usual hotels we stay in - when we usually end up in a Thistle hotel, or one of the big chain type of hotels.

The food was lovely. Although my boyfriend being a bit of a stick in the mud wasn't impressed.
Breakfast was a bit on the megre side but I am not complaining. I had a bit of a hangover so too much food would have been a waste.

The hotel and staff were very nice and it make the weekend very special.

I had a small problem at reception - they overcharged me. BUT they were very quick to amend the bill and give me everything in writing to show that refunds had been made. Hey - we all make a mistake sometimes and they were very good at sorting it out.

Sitting on the terrace surrounded by mature beautiful gardens, sipping a perfectly chilled glass of wine served by a charismatic French Restaurant Manager, this was the perfect English experience.

Why would anyone want to be in the middle of the city, when less than a mile a way you can get the best of both worlds?

English charm at it's best.

Okay, lining up the caveats.... having exhausted my Mr & Smith guide, in the absence of any similar type hotels in Cambridge, and despite reading the reviews (and thinking that that many people can't possibly be wrong) I decided to give the Hotel Felix a chance. To be honest even before reading the reviews, when I first looked to booking the Felix it was with some degree of trepidation - things just didn't seem to add up. I wasn't disappointed.

Let's get straight to the point. For £190 and upwards (we had a premier room - all the others were booked out) you expect a certain standard. To be honest if you've stayed at places like Hurst House, Blanch House, Babington, Hotel du Vin or Malmaison for business, in rooms at or around £200 you will be disappointed - they all do it so much better. There are so many excellent role models for good boutique hotels in the UK that you wonder how they managed to get it so wrong. It's all about value. Whether money is no object, or you've saved up for a special occasion, if you are not getting value for money you've got to be unhappy about it. I'd pay nearly £400 for a stable room at Babington, £160 for a garden room at Hotel du Vin, or £100 for a room at Driftwood because they demonstrate excellent value for money - you feel it's worth it - and whether you're a prince or a pauper, that gives you a warm glow and a smile on your face.

It's about the whole package, you go to Boutique hotels for an experience. When you feel you are not getting value for money you look for faults, and quite frankly at The Felix they are not hard to find.

The Rooms are uncompromisingly small and dark (although I hear the loft rooms in the old house are better) – smaller in size than say the smallest Malmaison room - whilst the decor is of a reasonable standard it is dull and in want of a few splashes of colour (in stark comparison to the public areas which are well lit and relatively welcoming). The bathrooms are just small. You realise just how far the Felix has missed the mark when you see their ‘King Sized’ beds – whilst these may have the obligatory Egyptian Cotton sheets – a 'King Sized' bed is actually two smaller beds pushed together with no cover to prevent a dip being formed in the centre of the bed. Not uncommon I know but still truly, truly awful.

Dinner was excellent, and the restaurant smart, if not knowingly unostentatious. Executive chef Stuart Conibear used to work at the Ivy and his prestige is demonstrated in an interesting and well-thought menu. The wine list was short but reasonably priced and well sourced – the house champagne is extremely good, and the cocktails fine – demonstrating a element of training (albeit nothing special) amongst the bar staff. The serving staff whilst friendly were slow and forgetful, I twice had to get up from the table to remind them of things we had asked for, simple things like a bottle of water or the lighting of a candle were completely forgotten. This despite the influence of the charming maitre d’ who was attentive and friendly.

We took the continental breakfast (included in the room price) which other than a good muesli and pastries was pretty poor which belies the excellent and clearly well sourced kitchen we found at dinner – a full English was extra at around £10.

The Felix really could be a whole lot better. The building blocks are there, the location is fine (in relation to the centre of town) if the situ is ill-concieved. The extension is very Travel Tavern -esque. They are the only Hotel of this sort in Cambridge (a captive audience!) and they need to demonstrate a bit more savvy in a highly sophisticated boutique hotel market. Frankly, they need to wake up to the fact that we've all become a little bit more sophisticated in what we want as consumers. Starting point, they should look at their pricing strategy (closer to the £100 mark on their lower end rooms - or do some weekend offers), everyone's first complaint is always about the price, if you're not happy about that then everything else will always be having to work so much harder because we will be looking for other areas of fault. The domino effect. Everything needs to be tighter and better.

The only thing that brings this close to resembling a good boutique hotel is the food in the Restaurant. Had my dinner been mediocre there wouldn't have been anything positive to say about this place in its current incarnation. A restaurant certainly does not make a Boutique hotel, and few would book in on that basis alone.

My suggestion would be to stay in London or somewhere within 60 miles, and if you want to visit Cambridge make it a day trip - perhaps pop in for dinner. If you stay at Hotel Felix I can't see how you won't be disappointed.

The dog in question is Felix and the hotel is named after him. During the extensive building work a few years ago a statue of a dog. Felix. was found in the grounds and he now sits proudly at the entrance. But this hotel is a bit of a 'dog' in more ways than one and fundamentally it really doesn't cut it as a luxury 'design' hotel.

At best the Hotel Felix aspires to Malmaison standards but it doesn't really deliver. Put simply, it is dramatically overpriced and the service on the whole is very, very average.

We stayed during a fantastic weekend in July. The weather was wonderful and temperatures reached 28c for most of the weekend - why is this relevant? Well, the first major drawback of Hotel Felix is that there is no a/c anywhere in the hotel. Where you miss it most is if you are staying in one of new rooms in the ugly extentsion. These rooms are doubleglazed and the windows open only a few inches so the room get very hot and airless. In a room costing around £190 per night this is daylight robbery. We simply didn't want to spend any time in the room which is a real shame considering how much we'd paid. Even the Travelodge down the road has a/c in rooms - at less than half the price.

The 'Premier' Rooms (£190 per night) are also relatively small and lack character. Yes, they are relatively contemporary but they still miss the mark. In concept they are similar to a room you'd find in a Hotel du Vin or Malmaison. But they cost more and don't look as good. They could do with a bit of colour, better magazines (instead of local free sheets) or even some fruit. On the plus side the beds are big and linen is excellent - the best feature of the room. Bathrooms are bland, the windows don't open and are small. They're ok. Just.

However what disappoints most is the service. In particular the restaurant & bar service. They are a young team but show none of the enthusiasm for the job or the place you'd expect. We felt we were imposing every time we asked for something and it took an age for anything to arrive. It all felt very amateur. And remember the food is charged at London prices. The food actually is very good but the manner in which it is delivered lets the experience down. Trying to get a drink from the bar during the day is slow as well. In the evening things improve dramatically.

There are good things about the Felix. The reception staff were extremely helpful and enthusiastic. The public areas in the main house are very well done - lots of good touches (why don't they carry these over to the rooms?) and the restaurant and bar area looks great too.

As other reviews have pointed out it is located out of town and you need to get a cab to the centre of Cambridge. But we didn't find this a problem, it's only 5 mins in a taxi and they arrive very quickly at the hotel.

A final word about the new buildings. They are hideous and do the main Victorian buildings no justice at all. Your first impression on arrival is that you are turning up at a conference centre. We kept expecting to bump into 'delegates' in a 'break out session' to 'network'. It's best to close your eyes until you get inside. Maybe Felix was a guide dog...