Star Castle Hotel

Everything was perfect beautiful hotel with exquisite food, particularly the seafood Staff very helpful perfect location for lots of places from st.Marys

Absolutely lovely hotel. Full of character and history. My only criticism is that I had a room on the top floor and being 6’4” had to duck all the time so I didn’t bang my head and stoop when I had a shower but that’s my issue not the hotels. Breakfast was delicious, beds were super comfy, and the room was very clean.

Booked the lobster lunch at this hotel for a celebration of our 30th pearl wedding anniversary. We expected the lunch to be in the Vine Restaurant, which according to the website is adorned by a magnificent vine in the conservatory. The photo on the website advertising the lobster lunch shows a lobster lunch served on a terrace with a vineyard in the background. It also states that they organise wine tasting and lobster lunches at the Vineyard. In reality this was not the case. The lobster lunch was served either in the dungeon bar or outside on the terrace battlements on a wooden picnic type table with no view when sitting down. When we queried this, we were told that the Vineyard had been closed for five years! I suggested that they updated their website. The receptionist, when this was brought to her attention stated that this was just a picture of a Vineyard! which of course she was absolutely right, this is very misleading advertising. Be aware! Although the lobster was very nice, the new potatoes included with the lunch were undercooked in our opinion, we bought this to the attention of the staff at the time. This was booked by telephone and no confirmation sent by email as we were told “we are old school”. Staff were otherwise friendly and service good.

Stayed at the Star Castle 6 to 9 August 2025 with a 10 month old and 3 year old. We had an absolutely amazing time. The staff are so family friendly and go out of their way to make sure you have everything you need. The kids menu (served handily at 5.30pm) was fresh and balanced. The chef even pureed all meals for my 10 month old meaning she could eat delicious food and not have to live off jars for the duration of the holiday. Special shoutout to Luke who our 10 month old fell in love with. Breakfast was also great for both adults and kids. What was such a treat is that we could put the kids to bed and eat a lovely, adult meal, a stone‘s throw away with the monitor on the table. We loved the Castle restaurant. Excellent wine list and really appreciated that they didn’t try to push the expensive wines and we had a different, delicious, mid range wine every night. Wonderful and warm indoor pool went down very well with the toddler. She also loved the Wendy House. The hotel driver, Kris is also an extremely nice and helpful man. In summary, it’s a wonderful, family run hotel, where the owners have instilled an extremely warm and friendly culture in all their staff. They go out of your way to make you feel welcome and also make the most of your time in the area. Would highly recommend.

Had dinner in the vine conservatory. Nothing special inside. Staff very scruffy looking but polite. One of us had starter of seared squid, so small and definately not seared. Duck over cooked. Whole experience a bit uninspiring.

For the last few years our final treat of our Scillies holiday was to dine in the conservatory of Star Castle . What a treat that was .Beautifully presented imaginative and superbly tasty food . It was a short menu with 5 or 6 options in starter main and desert . Not cheap but excellent value for money in a very pleasant environment . Not any more , all that has gone to be replaced by a pub grub style menu card with many more options . That wouldn’t be so bad if they could deliver that with any degree of quality .From tonight’s experience they can’t . Something has changed , maybe the bean counters are in charge ? Maybe the talented chef has moved on to be replaced by a cook that sought refuge in st Mary’s .One thing is for sure is that he isn’t French and he can’t cook . Starters was a bitter tasting chicken liver pate served in a jar that may have once contained baby food followed by a bouillabaisse that wasn’t . It wasnt a bouillabaisse and it wasn’t even nice . In fact it wasn’t even edible . Random bits of fish covered in a gloopy curry coloured thick sauce that was utterly tasteless but surrounded by mussels . It was sent back and replaced by a very ordinary roasted chicken breast with a gravy . At least that was home from home . Star Castle no longer offers anything close to fine dining but still demands the price . The pubs in Hugh Town do what star castle does much better and at half the price . It’s so sad to see how far this once fine dining experience has fallen .