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When i see or hear the above in a hotel I am staying in with meals included, I feel a sense of dread. When I am able, I avoid them. We are currently on a luxury tour of Sri Lanka. First night, highly rated 4 star with a really mediocre dinner buffet, slightly better breakfast. Second night, another highly rated 4 star hotel, slightly better dinner and breakfast but still pretty mediocre. Third night, 5 star hotel. Really nice hotel but yet another ‘International buffet’. Definitely better but still, can you really call yourself a 5 star hotel if you deliver an ‘International buffet’ for HB/FB/AI customers?
Apologies, meant to add this to daily chat.I think you have articulated very well why I desperately avoid eating dinner in hotel restaurants when travelling. Local character and specialities are what I seek.
This is the problem with many HB etc packages.
Who in the world wants to eat at a buffet ?!
Walking around picking up random pieces of food. Totally unsociable – just spending minutes with your dining companions before doing another tour of the dried out offerings.I have nothing against hotel restaurants, if they provide menus !
Yes, but this way you eat as much “value” as you can!
This is the problem with many HB etc packages.
Who in the world wants to eat at a buffet ?!
Walking around picking up random pieces of food. Totally unsociable – just spending minutes with your dining companions before doing another tour of the dried out offerings.I have nothing against hotel restaurants, if they provide menus !
Going out is usually a far more attractive proposition than eating in hotels. As for these buffets and what hotels think constitutes ‘international’ food, no thanks.
This is the problem with many HB etc packages.
Who in the world wants to eat at a buffet ?!
Walking around picking up random pieces of food. Totally unsociable – just spending minutes with your dining companions before doing another tour of the dried out offerings.I have nothing against hotel restaurants, if they provide menus !
Going out is usually a far more attractive proposition than eating in hotels. As for these buffets and what hotels think constitutes ‘international’ food, no thanks.
I’d say as a proposition, a typical 5 star hotel restaurant will usually be a much better meal than a random restaurant in any city.
What grinds my gears is people slowly walking around videoing buffets. Stop it.
What grinds my gears is people slowly walking around videoing buffets. Stop it.
Just cheer yourself up by imagining the poor, poor person they are going to show that video to….. There’s always someone worse off than you !
I’d say as a proposition, a typical 5 star hotel restaurant will usually be a much better meal than a random restaurant in any city.
Ah well, the key is not to pick a ‘random’ restaurant. That doesn’t mean finding one that’s necessarily remotely expensive but one that’s right. I’m OK at that but fortunately my wife is brilliant at finding great places! Her abhorrence of most five star hotel dining rooms (and baulking at the cost) plus sense of adventure acts as a great incentive.
Ah well, the key is not to pick a ‘random’ restaurant. That doesn’t mean finding one that’s necessarily remotely expensive but one that’s right. I’m OK at that but fortunately my wife is brilliant at finding great places! Her abhorrence of most five star hotel dining rooms (and baulking at the cost) plus sense of adventure acts as a great incentive.
Exactly. Fresh fish from a local restaurant in Lisbon was infinitely better than anything I found around the business district where I was staying.
Any particular restaurant you would recommend in Lisbon @MGW?
What grinds my gears is people slowly walking around videoing buffets. Stop it.
I just feel sad that so many people now choose to experience the world through their phone screen.
I take scenic train trips often, and since the past 10 years or so I see more and people spending the whole ride recording the view out of one window and never actually using their own eyes to look at anything. And it’s not like they have the newest and best device either, most of these trips already have hundreds of videos on youtube of varying quality.
I’d say as a proposition, a typical 5 star hotel restaurant will usually be a much better meal than a random restaurant in any city.
The one that I was thinking of was this one: https://solar-da-gula.eatbu.com/?lang=pt (whole Sea Bream with potatoes and vegetables) about a 20 minute walk from where I was staying. There were other nice restaurants in the general waterfront area around Parque das Nações
– Nova Peixaria (cannot recall what we ate but it was good) https://www.novacervejaria.pt/
– Peixara (seafood rice) (the ones on the same drag are worth avoiding)
The best of them all, to which one of my Portuguese friends took me, was a bit further south and I did not recall it but I think it might have been Tacho da Memória – Parque das Naçõe.
There were so many great places to eat in Lisbon but also a great many bang-average places.Any particular restaurant you would recommend in Lisbon @MGW?
Just sent some recommendations but as I included weblinks it seems to have gone for checking and approval. Hopefully it will show up later.
Any particular restaurant you would recommend in Lisbon @MGW?
Just sent some recommendations but as I included weblinks it seems to have gone for checking and approval. Hopefully it will show up later.
Thanks very much @MGW, we’re going in September so I have some time to do my research. This will be a good start.
Any particular restaurant you would recommend in Lisbon @MGW?
Senhor Peixe at the Parque das Nacoes. Not cheap but many fish you probably haven’t seen before. You choose the fish from the counter that you want them to cook. We had Turbot once and a giant Golden Bream (Dorada) the last time
Senhor Peixe at the Parque das Nacoes
IIRC, this restaurant was closed for the holidays when I was there in August (as was a surprising number of others) so do not include this in my rather dismissive statement about the other restuarants on this drag – many were OK just not great.
I’d say as a proposition, a typical 5 star hotel restaurant will usually be a much better meal than a random restaurant in any city.
I’d disagree. Well, if you mean a random 5* hotel’s restaurant vs a “random” restaurant picked with even the most basic research (and by the most basic I only mean, picking a restaurant at a comparable price point, a quick look at mass review sites and avoiding the very obvious tourist traps; more effort would yield even better results).
The independent restaurant exists only because it is able to attract people there by its food offering (if it couldn’t it would close). The hotel restaurant often relies on a “captive” audience to fill its tables (and often inflates the price to reflecct this too).
You might say they are not captive, but…. my parents are classic examples of why this occurrs – they will ALWAYS eat at a hotel’s own restaurant. They will do this even if they already know it is mediocre and there is a better and cheaper alternative literally across the street. There are many people like this. Yes, of course it drives me nuts 😀
I’d say as a proposition, a typical 5 star hotel restaurant will usually be a much better meal than a random restaurant in any city.
Yes, of course it drives me nuts 😀
Of course it does; you’re a bl@@dy squirrel!
I do agree with your wider point.I’d say as a proposition, a typical 5 star hotel restaurant will usually be a much better meal than a random restaurant in any city.
I’d disagree. Well, if you mean a random 5* hotel’s restaurant vs a “random” restaurant picked with even the most basic research (and by the most basic I only mean, picking a restaurant at a comparable price point, a quick look at mass review sites and avoiding the very obvious tourist traps; more effort would yield even better results).
The independent restaurant exists only because it is able to attract people there by its food offering (if it couldn’t it would close). The hotel restaurant often relies on a “captive” audience to fill its tables (and often inflates the price to reflecct this too).
You might say they are not captive, but…. my parents are classic examples of why this occurrs – they will ALWAYS eat at a hotel’s own restaurant. They will do this even if they already know it is mediocre and there is a better and cheaper alternative literally across the street. There are many people like this. Yes, of course it drives me nuts 😀
I appreciate there are many superb independents. And in the UK I almost only eat at them (you always need a good Nobu or LPM from time to time after all).
And many dreadful indies thrive for no reason I can think of….. so it being open isnt a guarantee of anything !!
It is JDBs insistence that any and all expensive hotel restaurants must be the devil that I find tiresome. There are many excellent ones, with great food and service.
It seems I am truly on the wrong forum. I share a lot of the same interests currently, exploring the unexplored. But come on. Generic hotel restaurants with their “please all palates” fare and sousvide prep over “anything” “the city” has to offer? This truly makes my heart cry a bit…
There have been perfectly fine restaurants that run as a profitable standalone business, sure. But for the same value you might find a truly special Michelin or Bib Gourmand run by a passionate couple aiming to excel. And to be fair I’d pass on that most of the time and much rather go for a truly local experience if it is an exotic locale.
@StanTheMan – you have totally misquoted me. I did not say, let alone “insist” that “that any and all expensive hotel restaurants must be the devil” which you found “tiresome”. What I actually said, as can be read above, is :- “Going out is usually a far more attractive proposition than eating in hotels”. Is that really so controversial or untrue?
@titaniumostrich – there’s generic hotel restaurants – agreed no thanks. But worse is generic hotel lounges – if one is in an exciting city like Paris, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, New York etc. who wants to sit in a dreary hotel lounge?In Asia, ‘international food’ is a term for supposedly western food that very few locals would touch.
It’s like having sausages or bacon in a hotel in India. No local visitor or tourist would touch it, not just for religious reasons, but that food is wheeled out only for innocent western tourists who cannot live without eating familiar food even for a day. One of my coworkers was disgusted to learn the veggies in the salad may not be fresh or even cleaned well as not many eat salads at hotels in the subcontinent. Same elsewhere in Asia – try to find something you like in local food. Order freshly cooked hot food wherever possible in the subcontinent.
We eventually found an International Buffet in a Hotel that we liked. The Radisson Blu in Galle. Fresh, hot, quality local dishes alongside good quality International food like a freshly cooked custom pasta station. The desserts were divine! I am sure eating out could have been better but it was all included in the deal. A nice hotel too. Currently in the Taj, Bangalore Airport. Pretty nice too for an airport hotel.
There is another side. While I completely agree with all the comments about inter. buffet being lowest common denominator fare, when I am working on a site for a couple of weeks, usually dining alone, often I just want a quick and easy meal in and out of the restaurant without rigmarole. Buffet achieves that goal perfectly!
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