Booked in advance for a birthday lunch in “La Spiaggia” (the fine dining restaurant is not open and the “table for two” not available on our desired date).
It was a rainy day and so were moved to the indoor dining restaurant. Only semi-buffet available.
The reception cleverly sat us to the middle table where we were all surrounded by families with many kids. Asked how much the lunch cost (no price written down; it seems this restaurant is mainly for stay-in guests with full board), he was not so sure and just said 90 Swiss Francs (we were charged 70 something SF per head at the end for no reason). Asked we could order a la carte, he carelessly replied ‘you could choose your main’ (I guess ‘choosing your main’ and ‘ordering a-la-carte’ are quite different concepts. Perhaps to him are the same?)
I then had a quick look at the buffet session and figured out, normally I wouldn’t prefer to dine here, let alone I have to pay or not. But hell the rain was getting hard and didn’t wanna make a fuzz, we chose our mains and ordered glass of red each. We went to the buffet counter and after we were back to the table, voila, two glasses of red wine sitting on our table. That’s what a call the new 5-star hotel standard. They don’t want to disturb your dining experience, so they just put them on while you are away. Very thoughtful indeed.
For the main, the fish we ordered was quite (ok, ‘quite’ maybe too much an understatement) slimy and fishy. It was on a Monday, even the fish came in Friday, it shouldn’t be that fishy. I guess it should have been beyond that. Oh did I mention the bread was COLD, and the butter was ICE cold? I am not demanding bread served warm or Luke warm, but at least have some mercy to the baker and not serve them straight from the fridge ok? To put the ice cold butter on the bread, we needed to literally scrap out a thin layer on top of it, layer by layer, as there was no way you could dip into it.
After the meal we were waiting for something for the birthday arrangement. 15 mins passed, nothing happening, and we just concluded we were fools. A plate with “happy birthday to XX”, which was arranged over the reservation email(s) was no where to be seen. We paid and thinking to ourselves, this was exactly the experience which you would like to erase from your life.