The mains were good, the dessert was horrible
I recently had the opportunity to stay at the Oaks on Collins in Melbourne. I spent three nights in a room checking in on a Tuesday and checking out on a Friday. The check in experience was fast and efficient. When I got into my room I was struck by the kitchenette and the en suite. Both were made for giants. The amenities rack in the shower stall was set at about 170 cm (higher than my eye line). The kitchenette had a microwave oven, a dish washer drawer, a refrigerator and an induction hot plate. The fume hood controls were higher than I could reach and the upper cupboards were also beyond my reach (I’m 170 cm tall). There were also no plates or bowls and no pots or pans to cook with 🙂 I’m not sure what I was meant to do if I went out and bought my own food to prepare.
So, I was in Melbourne for three nights and one evening had already been arranged with a dinner associated with the meeting I was participating in. That left me options for breakfast and dinner. Over the years I’ve become less and less interested in hotel breakfasts. I’ve already written about my breakfast experiences at Kenny’s Bakery Cafe which was a superb option for me. For the two spare evenings I elected to have room service, mainly because I had a lot of routine work to get through and it is so much easier to just nest in the hotel room and get through it all.
On the first night I asked for a hamburger and an apple and cinnamon crumble.
This burger was pretty good. It was filling and tasty. The chips were also very good. The burger wasn’t as enjoyable as my recent Brodburger experience but then the context was also very different.
On first inspection, this crumbled didn’t look that appetising when I first saw it. It looked pretty ordinary.
When I tried to eat this it was just horrible. I tried to swallow a few mouthfuls but it was just disgusting. It is very rare for me not to finish a dessert. I think I’ve done it a few times and that’s about it. I would not recommend the apple and cinnamon crumble.
On the final night I’d already eaten quite a lot and I didn’t want anything really big. I also had quite a bit of work to complete. I just had a steak with king prawns and calamari.
This was really nice. The steak was cooked rare. If I had a steak knife the experience would have been more enjoyable, but it was tender enough to cut with the butter knife supplied in the kitchenette.
So on balance, the room service meal experience at the Oaks on Collins was okay. The burger and steak were good. I think the less said about the apple and cinnamon crumble the better.
The checking out experience was fast and efficient and each morning I would get a takeaway flat white coffee from the hotel’s restaurant. The coffee was very good.
How have your room service experiences been? Have you stayed at the Oaks on Collins? Do you eschew room service or embrace it? Please write a comment and let me know.
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All images shot with my Sony α7S with the Sonnar 35 mm f/1.8 prime lens. ©2014 YummyLummy.com
