Our stay at Ballymaloe House was a bit of a mixed bag. The house, grounds, and dining were all excellent, but the staff (less the waitresses and bartenders) were the low point of our trip. We had several interactions where, at best, we were made to feel like an inconvenience, and at worst like we were lesser. Basic requests like ordering room service for dinner were met with obvious annoyance from the front desk. So much so that we actually dragged ourselves to dinner after a terrible day of travel because it seemed like such a burden for them. On our final morning we showed up to breakfast as it was opening because we needed to get an early start. The hostess seemed aggravated and treated us like we had showed up an hour early. While none of these interactions were hugely problematic we left feeling like we needed to apologize for showing up in the first place.