Srisarin

azepine00

western options are actually better (good crepes, ok egg options, reasonable selection of cheeses, excellent bakery, lots of fruits, good coffee)

relative to resort buffets it is very good and considering the culinary hopelesness that place becomes in the afternoons/evenings it is worth spending $...

Panache

Yes, the breakfast was the best meal by far, in spite of the "college cafeteria" atmosphere and waiting 20 minutes for a coffee as they insist on making it with the espresso machine and the poor guys are overworked. At least one got full enough to skip lunch. Scrambled eggs/omelets were made from egg beaters (I saw the cook dump a carton into a bucket next to the griddle and pouring from it when I asked for an omelet). You would think they could afford the fresh eggs....

What was a real bummer was that in addition to the mediocre and overpriced resort restaurants, all island restaurants we tried were no better than your average vietnamese/asian takeout at any US strip mall, and perhaps worse (lots of rice/noodles and little veggies/meat).

5DMarkIIguy

icebox425

An issue they will continue to battle is attracting and retaining quality staff. Being in a particularly remote area on a small island, there's not much for staff to do in their spare time (this frustration was expressed by a number of staff).

I believe there are also restrictions on hiring foreign staff.

milgom

Easy, Salinda hotel on Phu Quoc (so same island). The breakfast is much much better, they served a noodle soup that didn't taste like the Pho we'd eaten in Hanoi but something that's similar to hokkien men and was delicious (my wife who is from Malaysia loved it). There's a bit less variety but still plenty of fruits but what everything they serve is much better quality.
And their staff is really well trained.

JW Marriott wins with the environment, the beach is amazing, the view from the rooms is lovely, We loved the architecture of the resort but in term of staff training and breakfast quality it's exceedingly mediocre. And it can't just be an issue of hiring because other hotels on the island are much better.
And again on points, it's an amazing redemption. I just think that if they sell rooms for 400 usd+/night, they need to improve things a lot.

We actually liked Red Rum in the evening, the fresh seafood is good and was well cooked both times we went there. The bread is great. We paid about 1.6 million each night so it's a bit expensive compared to other places on the island but it's still ok.

estnet

Well my experiences were quite different than yours - both at the big night market and the local restaurants where I had really tasty food (including seafood) at incredibly low prices (and I live in an area with lots of excellent VN restaurants). I even had a roasted quail from a street stand for 2k dong that was incredible. Of course the local places are LOCAL places, which means small chairs, no tablecloths, etc.

milgom

Yes, there's tasty food on the island.

In the Ham Ninh village, there's a pier with floating restaurants, if you go almost to the end on the left, there's a small shack where they sell fresh live seafood that they prepare the way you ask them to. It's really delicious and quite cheap. We at for around 350,000 both times (2 crabs, some mantis prawns, some shellfish). It's a local place with small chairs etc... but the cooking area is kept clean.

On Long Beach, the Pepper Tree restaurant in La Veranda is a good fine dining option. It's pricy (except if you have accor plus) but the food is good with good quality ingredients and the dishes are original. In term of food, we were really impressed with all the offerings in La Veranda.

We tried Cami which has a high rating on tripadvisor but left after eating some fried squids, they were not bad but not good either so we didn't want to chance it with other dishes.

Salinda's hotel offering are good too but not on the level of La Veranda.

Panache

After getting sick more than once at "very local" restaurants worldwide, I tend to shy away from establishments that are just shacks on the side of the road where dishes are rinsed in buckets unless I speak the language and I can ask/read what is cooked thoroughly. Not speaking Vietnamese did not help of course, and translated menus were terrible (at one place some fish was translated into "such stop"). So all the high rated, mid-range places on Tripadvisor we tried (Cami, Linda), and even a quite "local" place in Duong Dong town that was not on TA was pretty disappointing, especially once one factors in the ~1 hour round trip taxi ride.

Wish I had known better places in An Thoi but nothing came up on TA and concierge desk did not make any references to there being anything there so I did not go explore much there.

pdxdtm

Thanks to everybody for posting their comments and feedback on this place. After originally planning to spend 5 days in and around HCMC a friend suggested that would be too much and recommended we get out of town. Was able to use a Free night cert and 25000 points to book two nights here.

Will definitely post post some thoughts and comments when I get back next week. Appreciated reading everyone’s recommendations so far.

Srisarin

Srisarin

1st Year Anniversary (25 Jan) Promo thru 25 Nov

25% discount with Rate Code ZJL

includes breakfast for 2 adults and children under 12

SingaporeJunkie

I really hate these types of comments. I'm sure you didn't mean anything by it but for some people, especially after experiencing the craziness of Hanoi and HCMC, 2 nights in a beach paradise are more than adequate. Gives someone at least 1 full day to get some sun, some rest, chill in the ocean. Not everyone has the time, or the interest, to spend tons of time at the beach.

I just spent 3 nights here, 2 full days, and I had a blast. This was an amazing use of 75k points. I'm really surprised at some of the negativity in the last few pages. I've done a lot of room service and each meal has been delicious except they forgot my beers one night. The room is amazing, nice view, probably the best shower I have ever had at any hotel/resort I've stayed.

Jimgotkp

Here right now and just for some feedback:
1. No suite upgrade as a Platinum as the hotel was pretty much sold out over the weekend (possibly due to a wedding on Saturday night). There seems to be a lot of availability right now but after making a request, they told me nothing is available and instead will put me on a waiting list.
2. The breakfast spread is great! I really enjoyed the spread at the IC Danang but this place has more variety and is still good quality.
3. Red Rum was disappointing. I had a grilled red snapper which was good. However, the deep fried baby octopus was horrible. When the manager asked if everything was okay, we mentioned the octopus wasn't great (very tough and oily). She seemed upset after hearing this and the service level just went downhill from there. Also, do NOT get the pina coladas during HH since they were AWFUL.
4. Room service is pretty good. I wish there was an additional F&B outlet (not fine dining/bakery) when the seafood buffet is happening at Tempus Fugit. With Red Rum being whatever, it would be nice to have an extra restaurant to choose from other than room service.
5. The cooking class (Vietnamese food) was pretty fun as we made spring rolls and Vietnamese pancakes. Just did the "pastry class" which was disappointing as we only made a passionfruit creme brulee and finished within 30 mins instead of an hour. Not sure if I would consider a creme brulee as a pastry...
6. 20% Platinum discount still applies at all F&B outlets (excluding room service, happy hour, and the seafood buffet every Saturday night). If you want a discount at the seafood buffet, you need to be a Club Marriott member.
7. I thought the service at the Front Desk and Bell Desk was lacking as the check-in process wasn't great and there was no bellmen to welcome us/assist with bags. For some reason, I have the worst luck with bellmen...

nikkoap92

Anyone experienced bad food from the hotel, please post them on Tripadvisor. This is the best way helping this beautiful hotel to improve its F&B. I couldn't do it because I do meet the managers occasionally and I don't want to upset them. The resort is beautiful but I feel the F&B takes every down, except for the breakfast which is at acceptable quality.

I'm one of the first guests there and I already stayed a couple of times, but the food couldn't be better. Last year I had my birthday party there and the bill was over $2000 but they were all awful, BBQ meats were raw, fish was tasteless, etc, but i couldn't leave negative feedback to them because I see they were all too passion for their jobs and they all tried pretty hard for my stay already.