People drool over this hotel on Instagram and it comes up well in photos. But the aesthetics only go so far and to be honest what they offer for the price is quite disappointing. When we arrived at reception we were ushered to the desk on the right, whereas checkin is on the left. It took ages for anyone to even come and talk to us to explain what was going on, and when they did it was just to give us a wifi code to download the Stella Island app. We didn’t know why they were stalling and if it was because our room wasn’t ready, they could have just told us. All you want to do when you get to the hotel is check in, not be messed around. There was a lot of schmoozing and we were thinking can we get on with it. After a big spiel about booking restaurants we asked if we can check in. Oh no, had to wait longer and then be escorted to the desk on the other side of reception. What a palaver! I’m a seasoned traveller and have been to many hotels with exceptional food and Stella Island just doesn’t cut it. The food was not up to standard. The fish restaurant, Oceania’s offerings were inedible. The one thing we wanted, the lobster linguine, obviously the dish everyone wants, had run out by 8.30pm and we were told that if you wanted that, you had to reserve that prior to going to the restaurant as we were sitting at the restaurant. Thanks for the heads up… Then they “found” me one after I kicked up a fuss and it was inedible. It literally tasted like sewage. My friend’s meal, the seabass, was swamped in a gelatinous black spinach sauce which ruined the fish underneath. We ended up walking out after the servers kept ignoring us, starving. The breakfast buffet, was very lacking and small. Hardly any fruit. Not even any watermelon. Just oranges, grapefruit and some pineapple occasionally. The scrambled egg was vile. It looked so appealing but even dished up fresh, tasted of bitter burnt cinders. It was unfathomable how it tasted like this without looking burnt! I thought this was a one off so tried it the next day, but exactly the same thing happened. By looking around and seeing the left overs on other people’s plates, I was not the only one experiencing this! The scrambled egg chef needs to sort themselves out. The omelettes were also very poor, burnt to a crisp in over excessive flaming oil. Cremated by a very grumpy older female omelette chef who’s probably been there since the hotel’s inception. Lunch at the buffet was equally lacking with few choices and I mainly opted for chips/potato wedges or pasta on rotation. And not a blob of hummus in sight! This is a Greek hotel! Even on Greek Night, no hummus! I couldn’t believe it. After the appalling fish restaurant we opted for the steak restaurant, La Parilla. We started off on the wrong foot, literally, when the restaurant manager asked me if I could go and change my shoes as they “weren’t appropriate”. And customers had complained about people’s footwear previously so now they have a shoe policy. I
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