Just returned from a quick weekend stay at Castle Hill Inn in a beach house. Some quick thoughts below.

Room/Location:
- Great location. The beach houses are literally right on the beach (very small beach though) and on a nice day would’ve been nice to sit on the porch and relax/watch the waves. The main house is on top a hill and offers spectacular view of the surrounding area.
- Clean and well maintained room, although the furnishings and finishes felt a little cheap to me...especially the kitchen. It was like a nice Airbnb. The room was also a little cramped, I think ~400sf?
- I know this is personal, but the mattress has got to be one of the worst I’ve slept on recently. Hard and lacking support. Both my partner and I woke up with lower back pain.

Service:
- Well intentioned in general. The doorman / porters were especially friendly and pleasant to deal with. Dining room staff eager to help though a few of them could be a little more polished. Anthony (sommelier / beverage director?) was a star.
- One observation is that they were definitely understaffed. Everything took longer than it should’ve from getting checked in, getting seated for lunch/dinner, to fulfilling housekeeping requests.
- We were quite annoyed at dinner as we arrived at 8:10pm
for a 8:15pm reservation and was told “we can only seat you closer to 8:15pm”. Really? They did not seat us until 8:40pm
in the end.

Food:
- As the weather wasn’t cooperative we had both lunch and dinner in the dining room (in addition to breakfast). Lunch was...average. Okay food and very slow service.
- Breakfast was good. Enjoyed the lobster hash very much and loved the banana bread. Coffee was weak though.
- Food at dinner was quite good, and I thought it was reasonably priced for the quality. Very well put together wine list, and again, very competitively priced.
- The chef was not very flexible though. We all went for the tasting menu which started with the beef tartare. One person in our party does not eat raw beef and asked if we could get it exchanged. The waiter offered to switch it to the oysters but came back and said the chef said no and it’s either all oysters or all beef tartare. I’ve rarely had simple substitutions like that rejected at a tasting menu restaurant...surprising to say the least.

Others:
- One of my friends had a massage in the spa. Said it was good and the treatment room was cozy.
- They use a local organic brand (Farmaesthetics) as amenities. Really liked the body wash and bought a full sized bottle in town.
- I am still waiting for my electronic folio to arrive...

All in all I thought the hard product was honestly mediocre for the room rate ($1k+ last weekend, and apparently $2k in the summer??), the service was nothing to write home about, and even though dinner was good, I can easily come have dinner without staying here. We will not be returning.