Submitted by islandgal
On Sunday May 04th my daughter invited my mother, husband and myself to lunch at the prestigious Fairmont Royal Pavilion Hotel on the west coast. We arrived around 12.30 and were seated. The lunch was buffet style so we all went to where the food was laid out . We started with a salad I had potato salad , some cold slaw and some tossed salad. The potato salad was labelled “Idaho potato salad”. I started eating it and found that it was impossible to eat. The potato was crunchy and as a cook I automatically knew that it was undercooked. As far as I know Idaho potatoes are for baking and not boiling. Three of us who took it left it on the plate. We then went to get our main course.
When we got back to our tables our salad plates were still there where we had left them. I quickly cleared the table and placed the plates on a nearby stand. We sat down to eat. There wasn’t much to choose from macaroni pie or rice and peas, stew chicken, shrimp or fish. My husband took the macaroni pie, and some grilled shrimp. I took the rice and peas some vegetables, the grilled shrimp and a piece of fish. My husband couldn’t eat the macaroni pie, it was not good and the shrimp were very soft, overly soft for grilled shrimp with no taste at all. The best thing was the grilled dolphin. The vegetables were almost raw and not cooked crisply and lack flavour. The dessert was disappointing, New York cheesecake and a fingernail sized brownie. I left them both after tasting. I was asked how was the meal going. I told the waitress that the potato salad was not cooked and instead of going to investigate and taking it off the table, the response was ” I will let the chef know”.
She remained on the floor for the duration of the meal seating customers. I saw visitors and locals eating the same fare and wondered what they thought of the food from this “five Star” establishment. My daughter spent around $350.00 that day to some that may not be much money but to me it is. We joked that we should have gone to Martyn’s Ackee tree restaurant or Champers where we would have had a delicious meal at a more reasonable price.
We were in Miami in April and had eaten at the “Olive Garden” a chain restaurant. The food was excellent and the service superb! The cost under $90.00 US for four persons for a three course meal. There was also a special for $10.99 for soup salad main and dessert. We could have ordered refills of the soup or salad at no extra cost but we didn’t. We complimented the waitress for her attentive service and she told us that it was an honour serving us.
As a Barbadian I was insulted by the piss poor quality of the food served at the Fairmont Royal Pavilion. All the talk about local foods in hotel restaurants is pure talk and just that. Where is the creativity, where are the local chefs? Is that all our Hotel School can produce? I won’t be going back there nor will I recommend anyone to go there. This is one of the places where you pay first rate prices for third rate service.
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