About twice a month my work requires me to travel abroad for a couple of days. Naturally I get to stay in a variety of hotels. Whatever the official star rating of the hotel, somehow the quality of the breakfast does not seem to factor. But it should. A good breakfast provides a quality start to the day which is vital when you'll be spending the day in meetings or at a trade show. So I've decided to make reviewing of the breakfast offerings at the hotels I'm staying at a regular feature of this blog.
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First up is the 4* Hesperia Hotel, just outside Victoria Station in London, where I stayed for one night this last week.
The hotel offers a Full-English breakfast buffet, a small selection of cold cuts and cheeses, fresh fruits and a cereal bar. There is a decent selection of breads and you will be served fresh toast on request. And every table features a nice set of miniature Tiptree jams. In addition to the buffet there are a few items that are available to order, like fried eggs, omelettes and such.
As for beverages there is the usual filter coffee and tea. You can order cappuccino or espresso, but the one I had was substandard. So you're much better off sticking to the standard filter version, which was pretty decent. There is orange and grapefruit juice available from large self-serving jugs and at least they don't claim to be freshly squeezed...because they're not.
As for the quality of the food, well, it's ok. Better than a lot of hotels I stayed at before but not where a proper breakfast should be. I had a helping of scrambled eggs, hash browns, baked beans, fried mushrooms and tomatoes. The eggs were surprisingly light and fluffy. The baked beans were... Heinz. So WYSIWYG. No surprises there. The hash browns were were soft in the middle and had a nice crust on the outside, but so obviously from frozen food central. The mushrooms were bland and rubbery but the tomatoes seemed fresh fried. There was even a hint of dried oregano sprinkled on top.
I finished the breakfast with a bowl of mixed cereals of which there are about 8 different Kelloggs brands to choose from. So cereal heaven but muesli hell. There was only one type of granola available and a very unappealing selection of dried fruits. And I couldn't find any yogurts but I also didn't bother asking if they had any at all.
All in all the breakfast experience was slightly above average from what I've come across in London hotels I've previously stayed at. But average has so far been not been a very high standard in my opinion. Most definitely not in line with the respective hotel's official star rating. But then I'm also very picking when it comes to what I'm having for breakfast.
So. Based on the breakfast I would rate the Hesperia hotel: *** (3 stars)
Some impressions I captured with my Blackberry camera, so please excuse the quality of the pictures (I wanted to take more but my battery ran out):
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First up is the 4* Hesperia Hotel, just outside Victoria Station in London, where I stayed for one night this last week.
The hotel offers a Full-English breakfast buffet, a small selection of cold cuts and cheeses, fresh fruits and a cereal bar. There is a decent selection of breads and you will be served fresh toast on request. And every table features a nice set of miniature Tiptree jams. In addition to the buffet there are a few items that are available to order, like fried eggs, omelettes and such.
As for beverages there is the usual filter coffee and tea. You can order cappuccino or espresso, but the one I had was substandard. So you're much better off sticking to the standard filter version, which was pretty decent. There is orange and grapefruit juice available from large self-serving jugs and at least they don't claim to be freshly squeezed...because they're not.
As for the quality of the food, well, it's ok. Better than a lot of hotels I stayed at before but not where a proper breakfast should be. I had a helping of scrambled eggs, hash browns, baked beans, fried mushrooms and tomatoes. The eggs were surprisingly light and fluffy. The baked beans were... Heinz. So WYSIWYG. No surprises there. The hash browns were were soft in the middle and had a nice crust on the outside, but so obviously from frozen food central. The mushrooms were bland and rubbery but the tomatoes seemed fresh fried. There was even a hint of dried oregano sprinkled on top.
I finished the breakfast with a bowl of mixed cereals of which there are about 8 different Kelloggs brands to choose from. So cereal heaven but muesli hell. There was only one type of granola available and a very unappealing selection of dried fruits. And I couldn't find any yogurts but I also didn't bother asking if they had any at all.
All in all the breakfast experience was slightly above average from what I've come across in London hotels I've previously stayed at. But average has so far been not been a very high standard in my opinion. Most definitely not in line with the respective hotel's official star rating. But then I'm also very picking when it comes to what I'm having for breakfast.
So. Based on the breakfast I would rate the Hesperia hotel: *** (3 stars)
Some impressions I captured with my Blackberry camera, so please excuse the quality of the pictures (I wanted to take more but my battery ran out):
