Originally Posted by
Kacee
The steak was very good, I had it both nights. My gf had the salmon both nights and thought it good but nothing special. The two issues I had with dinner were limited choices and some weird combinations/execution. Beyond the steak, and to a lesser degree, the salmon, none of the mains were appealing to me. For appetizers, the green gazpacho was excellent, but the charred baby gems was a deeply flawed conception, poorly executed. The halibut ceviche tasted fishy. On the poolside menu, the quesadilla was pretty good, but the green pea and edamame hummus was just awful. Breakfast was solid, no complaints there (except for under roasted coffee beans, but that's a personal taste issue)...
Our main issue with the food, like you, is the lack of choice. We are vegetarian/vegan, so we have an even more limited selection to choose from, and we were repeating dishes the second day/night (for breakfast, lunch and dinner). I like their breakfast menu better than dinner, and lunch was the worst. Interestingly, the only item I liked for lunch was the edamame hummus. The room service menus are also limited, and for dinner, you cannot order from the Sur House dinner menu.
Much has been mentioned on here about their mocktails being chargeable (but inconsistently so), and the last comment upthread sounded like it is in fact chargeable, because it requires someone (i.e. the bartender) to make the drink, unless front desk removes the charge as a courtesy. I was thinking some more about this, and the only logical conclusion I could come up with is that the mocktails are chargeable because the bartenders have to make them, and the bartenders must have some sort of contractual agreement with the hotel regarding gratuities. Maybe they depend on the additional 22% gratuities imposed on non-inclusive items such as alcohol because they are not part of the pool of staff who shares in the daily $90 gratuity surcharge (waived on award stays). Anyway, that's my guess.