Jonathan S.
Yelp
This place is a missing the loving touch of an owner/innkeeper and the flair and flavor of an accomplished chef (on those days when they actually serve food here, which is only Wed-Sun). Its now part of a 20 something unit chain from vat to Texas and it shows. Such great history list in translation.
The staff tries very hard and is well intended, but young. We did not get any housekeeping after the first night, which was a big disappointment... coming back to a dirty place.
For dinner, the main restaurant menu is unavailable. There is a Tavern dinner menu which was poor (selection and quality).
The restaurant was also woefully understaffed, so despite the galant efforts of the long-standing waiter Bob, he just couldn't humanly keep up.
Then, there's the food. They have a dish called shrimp cioppino which was a mistake to order. The shrimp was supposed to be jumbo grilled shrimp and it was medium size boiled shrimp which were undercooked and probably contributed to an upset stomach... Overall, it was flavorless. The burgers were flavorful but the bottom buns were mush, literally. Maybe they sat too long. The fries were overcooked. Also, ketchup is served in tiny ramekins which are much too small, but with the short staff it's hard to get appropriate refills. Also they had a beer and burger promo for $20 but you have to get only certain beer... We were not informed of this promo despite ordering burgers and beer... Had we been informed, we would have switched beers to conform with the promo... Small item but when things go wrong this kind of stuff tends to happen and leaves people feeling disappointed.
In the morning for breakfast we ordered pancakes and they were over-cooked to the point of being burned... We exchanged one of the most overcooked pancake orders for a fresh batch and those were also overcooked. The bacon while quite tasty was also char burned to an excessive degree. These items should have never made it out of the kitchen, never made it past the chef or past the waitress. In addition, it would've been nice if there was some fruit for the pancakes, like blueberries or strawberries or bananas, etc. but no fruit in stock. Also the oj served at breakfast is Tropicana equivalent, which is fine for a Holiday Inn or a Sheraton, but not an upscale boutique inn trying to appeal to foodies. At a minimum should be equivalent to Whole Foods bulk packaged Florida OJ. Lastly, the breakfast has a $16 up charge for Eggs Benedict... Really, maybe $16 could be the price of Eggs Benedict to an outside guest, but not the up charge to an Inn patron that already is getting free breakfast. And, also breakfast took much too long and the place wasn't very busy...But we were anxious to go skiing and were frustrated with the delay in the food arriving to our table.
The restaurant was also unable to have in stock the following basic menu items: no chili, no soup of the day, and no Caesar salad (no salad at all). They certainly could have gone a half mile down the road to Dutton Berry Farm and easily stocked up on provisions such as salad and heirloom tomatoes and probably ingredients for chili and soup... but the point is that if they missed a food delivery, there were high quality supply options very close by, if there was only someone with the wherewithall to do something about it, which is where the lack of an innkeeper and true chef really makes a difference.
Not having breakfast or dinner available for 2 out of 7 nights is a big faux pas as well. It also would have been nice to have had someone offer to help us w our luggage upon check in, let alone show us to the room, and how things like the fireplaces work, but I think the theme here is "ask and they will try to accommodate" but otherwise don't expect them to volunteer. Indeed, the staff tries very hard to accommodate and they are all very nice... So kudos in that department.
