Could be rated 5 but slips on some points

Given this hotel already has over 1000 reviews, this may make little difference. We probably won't be returning - mainly because of the weather - but it may be useful to both for the hotel and future guests if some aspects were improved. We booked a Junior Suite with Thomson. The allocated room had a very uninspiring view of the road in front of the hotel - while the Thomson website illustration clearly showed a sea view. We asked reception about our allocation and was told a supplement was payable for a sea view. I noted that Thomson did not include such option and had given the wrong impression. The Reception Manager changed our room quite readily - so that may be a problem with Thomson. But it is worth noting that a number of the Junior Suites appear to have similar uninspiring road views, so it may be worth checking at the time of booking since this is not clear either from the hotel website. It may be worth noting that the sea views get little sun on the balcony since they are generally North facing. Normally this is not a concern to us since we normally prefer shade, but the weather was not at all warm in mid May, and more sunshine may have had advantage - but on balance we preferred the sea view. The other room issue was that in our first 5 days we found the room not serviced until after 2.00 pm on 2 occasions and only after asking - we had to ask twice on the second occasion and only just getting it by 3.00 pm. This may in fact have been quite common since we had returned rather later on other days - but given the cost of the room we wanted to be able to enjoy it without the bedding from the previous nights turn-down service cluttering up the sofa etc. The evening food also deserves attention. We were satisfied with some tapas we had on our first evening - but speaking to another diner said that her meat had been tough. We only gave that a little bit of weight since we then found breakfast in the hotel was excellent and we returned to the Spanish restaurant. I did not eat the main course because it tasted bad - and my wife was unimpressed with her food - and we completed the survey expressing considerable dissatisfaction but nothing happened. We saw the GM next morning and told him about it. He expressed considerable surprise and assured us about the quality. We since discussed with another couple how they had also had similar experience on a previous stay in the Italian restaurant and had accepted the offer of a replacement meal in the Thai restaurant - but had not enjoyed that either. Another couple had only described their meal in the Thai restaurant only as "adequate" even though the restaurants in the hotel are pretty pricey compared to those outside. Despite over 1000 hotel reviews it is interesting that the evening restaurants are rarely mentioned, and then the reviews are mixed with some having similar poor experience, others noting they are expensive and comparing badly to a number of restaurants very near outside which were much better. We'd particularly mention the Magnolia where we ate one lunch and 3 dinners. Thus the restaurant issue can be avoided by guests by dining outside in the evening, but we do like to eat in occasionally and would have liked to have room service food where we had more confidence to enjoy on our balcony. The GM did offer a replacement meal as well, but we wanted more confidence we would enjoy it even if it were free. Final slightly negative remark is about the pool area reserved for over 16's. We liked the child restriction and convenient shallow depth of the pool since my wife does not swim. However, it was in the spa area, and it was rather more tranquil than we would like making conversation quite hushed, and no significant apparent refreshment service. On positive matters, the staff are almost all very friendly and helpful (but with a few exceptions), breakfast was extremely good, lunch at the general pool generally very good, the gardens beautiful, the bar very good with the drinks pretty reasonably priced (comparable to outside), and we enjoyed the evening entertainment without it being intrusive. The main reason we won't be returning is because the weather was disappointing. We knew the weather is cooler and wetter than the South, but had hoped the hotel would make up for that - but both were not as good as hoped.