Originally Posted by
ps9a
We didn't go to the happy hours, and we skipped a few meals along the way-- French toast, burger (minus the dijonnaise, which my first burger was swimming in), and shrimp lettuce cups were my favorites. Anyway, we weren't headed there for a culinary adventure, so that didn't really upset us... I'd suspect most people head to Big Sur for the hiking/coastline/views, and Ventana is well situated for all of that.
I also stayed on points over the weekend, in a standard room. I think the food was slightly worse than our first visit last year, but still above average.
Dinner:
Octopus bad first time we ordered it, good the second time we ordered it
Bruschetta great
Bass meh
Chicken great (it's fried chicken, surprise!)
Short Rib bad
Arctic Char great
Spaghetti not my taste
Sundae great
Brulee meh
Breakfast
pastry basket bad
avocado toast great
chicken hash meh
ventana breakfast meh
Lunch
beet dip great
shrimp tacos bad
burger meh (sad, because last year's burger was AMAZING)
tostada meh
cookies great (no charge for milk...)
charcuterie good
We enjoyed our stay. The hard product and customer service is great and I feel churlish complaining about any mediocre meals at the 30k points/night rate. We continue to enjoy the Big Sur area, and experienced low crowds perhaps due to the pandemic, the month, the rain, the Hwy 1 closure, and just dumb luck. When we visited the ranger station at Pfieffer Big Sur, the gentleman said he had helped just 50 people today, compared to peak season of 2,000 people walking through those doors during the summer. But that was on Saturday, which experienced some rain earlier in the day, and was WAY less busy than Sunday, which was both the day of our departure and Valentine's Day.