Breakfast at Tiffany's (the cost, not the place)

#7

Friday morning we were to meet my friend who lives in NY at Grand Central Station at 11:30 am. Since this plan was in place, we thought it might be a good idea (?) to eat b'fast in the hotel restaurant.  The prices didn't seem too high on the room service menu and being able to eat there would mean that no one would have to venture out into the streets and 'find' a place to eat breakfast.  We could sign the ticket to the room and save our cash.  We could go immediately and be there within a 90 second elevator ride. We wouldn't have to get all the way ready (shower, dressed, makeup, etc) and most of all - we wouldn't have to pack up the contents necessary to support 2 children under the age of 4 in NYC for hours.

Sounded like a good plan, right?

Well it sounded like a good plan but our reality was that it was not.

Why I didn't follow my gut and pay attention to the clues, I don't know.

1. The menu in the restaurant was limited.
2. They did have a few things but everything was Ala carte` and the lowest item was $4.95 (for a small cup of OJ).
3. The buffet was $18.95 per person.
4. Every single muffin, croissant, danish was hard as a rock.
5. You couldn't get bacon, sausage or canadian bacon off the menu - only on buffet.
6. Waiter turned his nose up to us when he saw that we had small children.
7. Took same waiter over 10 minutes to bring up juice and our first cup of coffee (they were not that busy).
8. Coffee was so bitter and strong that I couldn't even drink it.
9. We never did get any cream to go in our liquid dirt.
10. There were 3 selections of fruit on the fruit bar and none of them were ripe yet (bananas were green).
11. The expiration dates on the yogurt had passed 3 days previously.
12. They sat us directly beside the kitchen door as well as  the short order station.

One person in our party ordered ala carte' and two of us ate off the buffet.  The kids were free but there was nothing for them to eat so that was hardly a bonus for us.

The eggs were absolutely scrumptious!  They tasted with a hint of cream but I couldn't tell what (if anything) had been added to make them taste so heavenly.  I watched the short order cook and became increasingly impressed with his technique and ability to manage everything that he did.  I grew up in Food&Beverage and did short order for a while and this guy knew his stuff.

Were the eggs worth $19?  I don't think so.

Breakfast cost us $53 and they added the gratuity penalty to the check (Yes, I checked to see if this was done before I added more).  I supposed that they had to do this to cover for the poor service that the wait staff provided; otherwise, they may not have made any tips at all.

Valuable lesson learned.  We joked that we had eaten breakfast at Tiffany's and missed out on the $50 little aqua/white rope handled bag.

Comments

[Anvilcloud]

Oddly enough, we don't usually call it Canadian bacon up here -- usually just back bacon or peameal bacon (but I don't know how to spell it).

[WashLady]

To me, Canadian bacon is thinly sliced ham but a little bit higher quality than regular smoked ham.