55 Santo Tomas - Es Migjorn Gran

We were actually at the poolside bar and my previous review was critical of the vibe . Well , the next time we visited things could not be more different! I wanted to say thanks on behalf of my daughter who has been through a difficult time. The barman was very smiley and attentive, made her a special cocktail, and came back to check she enjoyed it. Excellent!! Much improved and happiness all round! Looking forward to staying next year !

We selected this hotel when our usual hotel in this resort was undergoing refurbishment. It was and excellent opportunity to win our custom. Outwardly, it looks a beautiful place to stay and the whole hotel rated as 4* plus is modern fresh and clean with very nice rooms and facilities. The standard of housekeeping is excellent. However….all is not as you would expect when it comes to the restaurant. The meals and the standard of management and catering staff in the restaurant are without doubt the worst that I have ever encountered. I had read recent reviews from previous guests with regards to the standard of the food and the service in the restaurant and also the positive responses made by the hotel management to these reviews, ensuring the writers that their suggested improvements would be investigated and acted upon. It is obvious that this has not been the case! The restaurant operates one week rotation menu which is far from a 4 star experience and the quality of the food reflects the meagre budget allocated to it. It became obvious that very little food is prepared from scratch in the hotel kitchen and most of it is purchased in ready to cook and serve. With the exception of a short order grill, the food is provided on a self service basis. There are often empty spaces or exhausted positions where the food has not been replenished in a timely manner. The serving counters are supposed to be heated, but either don’t work or are not monitored causing the food to rapidly go cold as was the case with over 90% of the hot, but in reality barely warm food on offer. Even when altered to this, the serving staff paid little attention and showed no concern. Not once over a period of two weeks did I observe the temperature of the (hot) food on offer being checked or monitored. This combined with the wholly inadequate plate warmers meant that I never once had a truly hot meal at any time during my stay. Frustrated by this, despite the lengthy queuing, I decided to explore the offerings of the short order grill. To be fair, the fried eggs and freshly made omelettes made at breakfast were hot and well cooked. Unfortunately, the evening experiences was less so impressive. A fact that I put down to the chef and I use the word “chef” in the loosest of terms having been served marinated chicken raw inside and inedible and then told that it was my fault for not bring it back for further cooking when I discovered the fact! My argument that it should never had been served that way in the first place by anyone that was trained in food preparation and basic hygiene was merely dismissed. The same “ chef “ had also seemingly not been trained in how to cook fish on the grill, cooking the flesh side first and not the skin causing it to curl up into a dish like shape, but was rectified by the “chef” flipping it over and attempting to squash it flat and in the process ruining what started off as a reasonable looking fillet. I could carry on highlighting these observations still further, but by now I hope that you have the picture….stick to salads which I did and so so did most other people judging from the rapid decline in availability from the salad bar and the long waiting periods for items to be replenished. Entering the restaurant both in a morning and evening was pretty standard apart from the queue that formed whilst waiting for the Maitre d to appear at his station. All this time, the hot, but in reality luke warm food was going cold. You were not allowed to enter without giving up you room number and on an evening each person or group were escorted by him in search of a table to be seated at where upon he presented you with a wine list containing a selection well over priced wines and bottles of water at nearly 3 euros per 500ml bottle. He would then dash back to the entrance and engage the same procedure with the next guest or group unless hijacked into clearing tables that had been missed by the waiting staff or engaging in conversation with colleagues. At times, he seemed to be more a Jack of all trades rather than a Maitre d. There seemed to be very little management or supervision of the waiting staff who seemingly had no designated areas of responsibility and confusion seemed to reign, leading to my table being cleared, twice, drinks and all during my stay whilst leaving my table between courses. If possible I would recommend that you leave your table in shifts or face the consequences. On a positive note, there are a couple of microwaves in the dining room that I did witness guests using to reheat their food before attempting to eat it. To sum up …a nice looking hotel with restaurant that resembles a circus that is staffed by clowns.

Having watched the hotel being built at our frequent visits to Santo Tomas ands it potential rating, we had high hopes. Maybe it was due to the end of season blues, but the food was distinctly average and soup apart or fresh grilled slivers of meat called steak apart it was lukewarm at best. The salads were very good, but there are only so many nights in seven you eat tuna salad. I am not a veggie or vegan and I tried just about everything else, but it was poor fare. Fresh salmon grilled was as thick as smoked salmon. One of the chefs kept pouring over rape seed or another tasteless oil on my grilling piece of sole. A delicate fish to cook but it had no taste, well apart from the oil. Seriously on a island wher we have visited regularly as a family and when our children were much younger, it’s the worst hotel for fish and meat offerings ever. And we had been to island nearly 30 times and visited the fish markets. The waiting staff were friendly but their language skills were very poor, certainly English and German were. It’s ok if you aim for purely the domestic market and why not? But call yourself an international hotel with al a’carte dining then as most hotels in Menorca have, staff that get by. My Spanish is ok but I struggled most nights to get a receipt for wine or water. We paid each night but on only three had receipts. Indeed one night we had sat on our table for 30 minutes before the wine list was brought to us. The restaurant wasn’t rammed either. When we checked out we got charged for drinks we did not have. I successfully challenged it and got a refund. We knew the day we checked in there would be problems. As for breakfast? If you could find a chef on station you could get a hot fresh egg grilled. But alas that was not the case. The rest of breakfast lukewarm like dinner. Hence a microwave at each end. The only plus point was the bread. At breakfast and dinner it was superb, but man can’t live on bread alone. Finally and I could go on about touchy-feely waitresses, there are self catering apartments next door. They are very good, but alas it would appear that their restaurant had closed for the season. So loads of families piled in, at first in a separate canteen type restaurant then as the week worn on, into the main restaurant. A dream holiday for them, they got all the facilities at a fraction of the price paid by guests who had suites and swim up rooms. Some had paid a £1000 more for their holidays than we did. A lot of people were gutted having some not all feral kids running around. I know there will be more complaints. They are so disorganised around billing and providing receipts etc, that no wonder we got charged for other peoples drinks. Nice staff but so disorganised. Finally but not quite, at breakfast on our penultimate day, they closed down one of the two toast, coffee and bread stations. This with four weeks of the season left. On our last morning we were left the hotel at 0750hrs. The breakfast staff had been on duty for an hour at least. Did we get hot drinks pastries or toast or fruit before we left? No a bruised apple and banana. A bottle of warm water a minuscule chocolate wafer, topped off with a dried bread cheese and ham sandwich. It was inedible. Indeed the marble slabs outside the hotel were softer in consistency. Quite disgusting. Never have we had such a poor offering leaving hotels on the island with the flight time we had. Lazy and cheapskate. If all the reviews I have read “bigging up” the hotel and restaurant really believe the food is top notch, then you need to try to get out more.

Top quality, Very Nice staff Food served bufet-style but well prepared so there is a huge risk of leaving overeaten from there. Unforgettable experience!

There was lots of choice for breakfast and dinner. Less choice as a veggie but some choices and labelled which was nice. They seat you for dinner and at breakfast you seat yourself. The food was ok. I read lukewarm on another review and I agree not as hot as I would like but I like my food piping! There was the odd issue with flies but on the whole not many compared to some places. Loved the choices of bread at breakfast, juices and lots of choices. I particularly liked the fact that somethings changed daily. Main meals were quite good. And choice was ok. As this is 4star it would be nice to have complementary bottled water at the table for dinner or in the buffet as 1 drink from the bar isn't enough for me i need to drink plenty whilst eating. I paid for my food separately from the hf board and it was £23 euros a time.