Hotel breakfast likes & dislikes

[Daver6]

A few folks have mentioned breakfast finishing too early. I agree with this.

I also have issues where breakfast starts too late. Eg EL at Sofitel City Centre, Singapore. Breakfast only starts at 8am, which is too late for me sometimes if I've got to get to the office at a decent time.

 

[kookaburra75]

This is why I don't like airbnb's.

It is optional

 

[PineappleSkip]

I'm unfussy.

likes

• omelet person
• buffet refilled regularly
• pineapple (of course!)

dislikes

• buffet mostly empty at 9 am
• staff too busy making EL canapes that will be stale at the afternoon drinks
• being shown to an unset table, and coming back to table and someone else at that table - and they're drinking the coffee I ordered

A hat trick of my dislikes at my last visit to Pullman Sydney Airport

cheers skip

 

[Hvr]

I like these placards to place on your table and turn over when you're finished. Quite common in Japanese hotels, these were from this morning's breakfast.

 

[serfty]

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I like these placards to place on your table and turn over when you're finished. Quite common in Japanese hotels, these were from this morning's breakfast.

Yes, thay have been in use at the Haneda property.

 

[VPS]

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I like these placards to place on your table and turn over when you're finished. Quite common in Japanese hotels, these were from this morning's breakfast.

They should be everywhere

 

[kerfuffle]

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I like these placards to place on your table and turn over when you're finished. Quite common in Japanese hotels, these were from this morning's breakfast.

They had a similar thing at IC Singapore Bugis (rip); thought it was a stroke of genius (as someone who often has hotel breakfast solo and finds their cutlery missing when they return to the table).

 

[dajop]

The clearing table thing doesn't only happen at breakfasts!

I was in Marrakech last month, went to a rooftop cafe, sat down, ordered my drink and some food. After my drink arrived I took a sip, got up and went a whole 3-4 metres to the edge of the rooftop to take some photos of the city looking out towards the snowcapped Atlas Mountains.

By the time I'd take a couple of photos, I turned around to find the waiter clearing my table, removing the cutlery and (almost full) drink, even before the food arrived! And this wasn't a buffet.

 

[anat0l]

The thing is, once you start travelling quite a bit, hotel buffets all start to look much the same. One thing that the Western world has definitely exported to all corners of the globe is the standard hot Western breakfast of eggs, bacon/ham/sausages and toast.

We've all seen it... so if that's the best you can do... booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring! (And then you want to charge an exhorbitance for it)

But anyway,

Likes

• Decent selection of local breakfast foods (and not just hackneyed packaged things, e.g. cupcakes)
• Hot food stations: most of the time, they have something good or at least semi-fresh to fresh to offer, especially things like bowls of noodle soup
• Airport hotels (or any for that matter) that start breakfast before 0600
• Hotels that offer breakfast beyond 0930
• Hotels that offer you a decent breakfast bag or pack if you need to leave early in the morning (early flight or tour) at no extra charge
• Barista-style coffee (made by a human barista, not a coffee machine), especially at no extra charge. Quite rare outside Australia (let alone in Australia), so often I just concede this, but if it is available, that's fantastic.

Dislikes

• Any items that look and/or taste like it has so much preservative in it that it could be stock for a war bunker... back in the mid 1900s.
• Small main plates: maybe appropriate if it were a high tea, but not suitable for breakfast
• Juices that are either some cheap concentrate or something that resembles Tang; seriously, for the calibre of the hotel and the prices they charged, freshly squeezed or the best cold pressed bottled juice that you can source is the only acceptable option.
• Fruit selection that is just melons, or slices of oranges that are dried up and taste like straw
• Buffet items being very slow to be replaced
• Very "token" or poor dishes to try to appease a particular cultural or nationality group. For example, offering fried rice as the only dish on the buffet that caters for Asian tourists is just a bit ridiculous (especially when said fried rice is also poor quality). Similarly, offering rice congee that has been super watered down and with little to no accompaniments is peak stupidity.
• Eggs to order that take 10 minutes to get to you. I sympathise when rush hour is on, but that's still a long time between placing an order and waiting patiently with all your accompaniments getting cold, just waiting for the eggs.

Not the hotel's fault, but guests who don't use, can't use or misuse the serving implements (e.g. pick up with their fingers, mix serving spoons or tongs between dishes).

I'm a bit torn about those rotating belt toasters. Hotels can't set the toasting level too high on them because that's just a fire alarm risk waiting to happen (especially when idiots want to toast croissants). But it's annoying to send the bread through them more than once. Slice toasters probably would do a better (and more efficient) job - probably uses less energy, too.

It's extremely rare to find any hotel where the standard buffet breakfast price is anywhere near value for money, even if you were starving. Then again, the way I see it, in Australia, going to a cafe will set you back at least $15 to get a decent breakfast (that barely pays for toast and a coffee), so if the buffet cost (especially discounted) isn't too far off that, I might think about it, though mind in many places around the world, a very good breakfast can be got for less than AUD 15, let alone what the hotel buffet price is.

I'm mainly talking about large chain hotels. For smaller chain hotels or private/boutique hotels, which may have very small buffets, I'd usually cut them a break, so long as there's enough edible food. I'm thinking some small chain hotels in Japan where breakfast might be rice, a couple of hot dishes, one kind of cut fruit, miso soup, maybe one kind of hot pastry/danish etc., nowhere near the 20+ dishes on a major chain's breakfast buffet.

 

[exceladdict]

Likes

• crunchy hash browns
• Sufficient seating in appropriate set outs e.g. no giant tables taken up by single occupants
• A selection of Non dairy milks
• As many have said, barista coffee with no surcharge

Dislikes

• Queues
• 300 eur/night hotels with IKEA food hall breakfast vibes in the breakfast lobby
• Unnecessary music
• Unfriendly greeters - a first smile of the day goes a long way when the body clock is in goodness knows what time zone and there's a long day ahead

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Like:

When hotels let you choose breakfast for specific days during the booking process. It’s not ‘all or nothing’. Even at 5 star hotels the buffet is fantastic the first day, of less interest the second, and a bit boring by the third!

When OTAs adjust the breakfast-inclusive rate for solo travellers (Agoda!)

Interesting locations… on or close to the beach at a resort, or overlooking landmarks. Eating breakfast in Tangiers while looking at ‘what’s up’ in Spain just a few miles away

When the restaurant lets you come down for fresh milk to take back to your room for that early morning tea of coffee, before the meal proper.

Dislike:

Cold food (that’s supposed to be hot).

Empty serving dishes.

Queues at hot food stations.

Small plastic single serves of jam and butter.

 

[significance]

Like:

• A la carte option
• Boiling water taps for tea (not hot water from coffee machines or storage vessels)
• Mugs or teapots instead of tiny cups
• Hand sanitiser
• Options that include fresh vegetables
• 6am start (I’m often up by 5 and sometimes need to be out the door by 7 or 7:30)
• Omelette station
• Outdoor tables, if the weather allows

Dislike:

• Crowded, echoey breakfast rooms
• Soggy bacon and greasy scrambled eggs

 

[aussiejohn]

Likes:

A reasonable buffet with reasonable prices

Dislikes:
Bainmarie tasteless and rubber scrambled egg
No other choice of eggs, e.g. fried
Overcooked bacon, I like mine still soft, not raw, but not overcooked. I can live with turkey bacon, but prefer the genuine article
Cordial masquerading as juice, amazing how many people don't know the difference
Tiny little juice glasses that require several trips back to get more
Jam in dishes that everyone has stuck their butteryand breadcrumbed knife into - and yes I know little pre-pack jams and spreads are not environmentally friendly, but for health reasons, that's another story
Staff who are too slow to replenish the buffet regularly or to clear tables
Single people who hog all the tables and bring their computers etc and set up shop while the queue waiting for a table gets longer and longer
Kids running around where people are trying to walk back to their table
Adults putting their fingers in the food and not using tongs

Edit - I forgot the hotel conveyor toasters - they just drive me insane

There's more but that's enough to be going on with.

And a story to end with. I was staying a couple of days at a hotel in London, one of those old houses in Paddington that had been converted to a hotel. Not cheap, but clean and comfortable. Small breakfast room in the basement with Polish staff who had almost no English. But that wasn't an issue for me. There was an American guy there for a couple of days, and he would go to the bainmarie with the fried eggs, and proceed to cut all the whites off the eggs and pile them on his plate, leaving the yolks. When I spoke to him, he just said, too bad, they will bring more out. The only consolation was that I got freshly fried eggs a bit later.

 

[sudoer]

Likes:

- An emphasis on local cuisine - extra points for a rotating selection each day (Mercure Naha rotates between taco rice, Okinawa soba, kakuni, etc)
- Made to order egg options more than just poached/fried/scrambled (omelettes, benedict, etc)
- Good quality and preferably locally baked sourdough, baguette, English muffins etc. 'Tip top' style white bread can get in the bin.
- Free alcohol! Sofitel Wellington has a Mimosa station, Mercure Naha has self serve awamori, etc.
- DIY hot waffle makers (common at Hiltons) are a nice treat, and really good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream
- On that note, ice cream! Affogato can make the most undrinkable coffee quite pleasant
- Priority lane for status guests at hotels which take tour groups
- Multiple venue options (Swissotel/Fairmont Singapore has at least two venues + exec lounge, keeps it interesting on a longer stay)

Dislikes:

- Conveyor belt pancake machine
- Complete absence of a salad bar
- Rubbish coffee
- Poorly laid out buffets with traffic bottle necks

 

[Tacce73]

Likes:
Local dishes, if I'm in Asia or Pacific or wherever, I want to try what the locals have. Movenpick KLIA very good example, one of the best breakfast buffets I've had.
Fruit in seperate dishes
Enough staff to clear up tables When patrons have left.
Friendly staff, a smile goes a long way.
Good Question Green Tea with Jasmine if possible - don't drink coffee
A tea pot for my morning tea.
Later finish for breakfast - I'm on holiday I don't want to get up early.
Newspaper - yes an actual printed newspaper not the PressReader that hotels now love.

Dislikes
Mixed up cut fruit - I don't want my fruit tasting like something else + I can't eat Rockmelon/Cantaloupe and that's the fav. fruit of any fruit salad.
Small cups for my morning tea
No egg station to order poached eggs
Not knowing how to cook a poached egg
PressReader for newspaper
Toasters that require 2 or 3 passes to get a slight "toast"
Over packed restaurant point incase Hilton KL Sentral. OMG I'm amazed I didn't wear countless breakfasts

Jeepers, I sound entitled, eck .......

 

[Chief Wiggum]

Like: omlette station with custom-to-order omlettes

Dislike: when they hide the bacon or keep it behind the counter and you have to "beg" for a few strips.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

View attachment 496980View attachment 496981

I like these placards to place on your table and turn over when you're finished. Quite common in Japanese hotels, these were from this morning's breakfast.

Those are the very best(est) things that Japan has ever done.
Was latetish for breakfast, it seems that hotels do not like us to put what we plan to eat on the table, and then fill up, ... the table that is.
Mine got cleared 3 times before I even started, and the breakast wasnt cheap, or included in the hotel room night either.
Best tip is to go to the concierge, tell them how many in party, then go and get the first serve, eat and finish that first serve, so the table can be cleared, and then go for seconds.
Dont do as I did, ie, to get maybe 3 serves, to save time, and put it on the table, because even before you have started, they table service people will clear away your unstarted untouched uneaten food.
I made it clear to one that I didnt/handt started and the table had been cleared, he just pointed to the other table clearer.
2nd time, I did it, thought they understood, it happened again.
So, get eggs, coffee, bread, pasteries, cereal, (what you can carry with 2 hands), start and finish that one set, then go for 2nd seconds.