We stayed April 09 . Our sleep was disturbed every night. Management pointed it out that it was the bar staff finishing early morning (2.00 am) they live on site.The bedroom was a little tired, wallpaper coming loose in places. The welcome was not warm, especially from the face less man from behind the desk!
The food however in the Tweedies bar is to be recommended, however the steak was as amazing as I had been told.

We got married at St Oswalds Church Grasmere 16th May 2009 and all guests including ourselves stayed at Dale Lodge for 2 nights. Jenny made the organisation of the wedding stress free, any queries were answered immediately and nothing was any trouble to organise. All 53 guests had a fantastic time, the food was excellent, the wine good and free flowing, the rooms clean, the tap water tasted cold and fresh, the showers hot water constantly, the bathrooms had molton brown products too, the beds comfy, staff friendly and happy. The hot tub was great. There is not one single think we would change about the place - it made a special weekend the best day of our lives and all the guests are still smiling and thanking us 4 days later, Dale Lodge has left a lasting impression with everyone what more can you say, but perfect place to stay on any occasion

We chose this hotel as it took dogs. The welcome and reception were excellent. The Hotel lobby area was classy without being ostentatios, the refurbished areas were all stylish. The grounds wer beautiful and very convenient for walking the dog.
The attached Tweedy's restaurant and Pub were perfect. Even better 50 yards away was Jumbles , style restaurant with justifiable accolades.
The only problem was the room in the hotel. Room 5 is on the ground floor and overlooks the car park. It is the smallest rom in the hotel and just about fits the double bed. During the day unless you want to be looking directly at fellow guests in the car park , the shutters have to go down. This of course shuts out the Lake District and the lovely hotel grounds. The room was £120 a night, minimum stay 2 nights and with an additional charge of £25 for the dog.. We felt we had already been given the worst room in the hotel and then to pay extra for the dog seemed unfair.

Stayed Sat 2 and Sun 3 May, paid the extra to stay in the new "luxury" mews accomodation, which were promoted as being the best rooms in the hotel. The room itself had it's own entrance, a downstairs lounge area and seperate upstairs bedroom. There was nothing wrong with the room, it was just nothing special. There had been no consideration given to making it luxury, other than providing a gown and slippers. The room was lacking in decor, and little touches could have made it so much better. There was one portable heater to heat both rooms, which in the winter would not be good enough. There was no mini bar or fridge which I would expect when paying £160 a night. We ate in the restaurant on Sat night, the food was very disappointing and my main course had to be sent back as it was burnt in places. Having said that, the waitress was very helpful and I can't fault her service. On Sunday we went for a long walk (when having breakfast you need to allow 40 mins - 1 hour as service is very slow) and returned at 4.30pm to find the room had not even been cleaned. The cleaner came to the room and asked if we wanted it cleaning, well we did, but not at 4.30 when we wanted to wash up after our walk. I was told by the cleaner that she had to clean 16 rooms that day - well surely the most expensive rooms should be done first? Our main complaint was on Sunday night, the staff sitting out the back of the kitchen drinking and partying kept us awake from 12am - 2am, ironically our sleep would not have been disturbed had we not paid the extra for the "luxury" rooms!

On our second night we ate at The Jumble Rooms just a few steps away from Dale Lodge - the food, wine and service were fantastic, 5 stars I would definitely recommend eating here (and you'll probably need to book).

All in all, it's an average hotel, average food and service. If you can get a good deal then go for it, it's clean and tidy. Just don't pay the extra for the mews rooms, really not worth it.