I find the reviews written by other people very helpful. Of course there are cultural differences. For example, most Europeans would not be as up-in-arms over the lack of an en-suite bathroom as I am. On the other hand, if a Brit reports that the room is "small", you can bet it is miniscule. No one in Europe would even mention that a place didn't have an elevator. It's not expected there. Although it becomes important when you have multiple large bags and a heart condition. Just like I discount or ignore some comments based on the reviewers country of origin, I know (because my step daughter told me) people in other parts of the world do the same - (Oh, American - they think everything is too small!)
The owner or manager of the hotel is always allowed to respond to the review. Many do. I had one response to a review where the owner was clearly quite upset. I had described the breakfast as "adequate". She informed me that everyone else who stayed there had rated her breakfast as "very good" or "excellent". Quite frankly, I thought "adequate" was generous. It was a full-English breakfast. There are a number of possible components - cereal, juice, fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, tomato, baked beans and toast. Sometimes these offerings are extended to include yogurt, kippers, black pudding and/or potatoes.
In this particular instance, I know there was cereal, even though I didn't have any, there was an assortment of single-serving boxes. Boxes are adequate. If you want to impress me, show me your homemade granola. There was a choice of orange juice and cranberry juice. I like them mixed together and was pleased to have both of them. But you've got to have more than two juice selections if you want a rating higher than adequate. The fruit consisted of grapefruit sections - from a can or jar - not fresh. I don't think this is the best selection to serve for breakfast because grapefruit interacts with statin drugs which are used to treat high cholesterol and so many people take them these days. Also, fruit from cans or jars does not rate anything higher than "adequate". If you want to be very good or excellent, show me fresh fruit. The eggs are fried. "Over-easy, over-medium and "sunnyside up" do not exist for most English cooks. I don't eat eggs, so I don't care. Mark eats them however they come out, so he doesn't care either. But if you want me to rate it higher than adequate, ask Mark how he'd like his eggs prepared and then prepare them that way. Let's talk about bacon. I love bacon. The stuff they call bacon in other parts of the world is not what I love. It isn't crispy. It doesn't have the same taste. It sort of resembles Canadian bacon, but not really. I eat it, but it's not the same and I'm always happy to get home to "real" bacon. Sausage varies. Everywhere. I'm not that keen on sausage, so I skip it. Mark likes it and he said it was okay. Not "Wow, this is the best sausage I ever had. You should try it!" but okay. Sounds adequate to me. Then there are mushrooms. I like mushrooms. I like them best sauteed with garlic but that's inappropriate for breakfast. For breakfast they're usually somewhat bland. Every now and then some place will serve up a different type of mushroom other than the standard white, and they can be quite tasty. Sometimes canned mushrooms are used and those are the worst. These were standard white. Bland. Adequate. I'm happier when my tomatoes are uncooked, but I don't like to make a fuss asking people to prepare things differently. (Honestly, I don't!) I eat them however they come out. Sometimes they've just barely kissed the skillet and other times they're well browned. Cover them in salt and pepper and they're fine. Fine. Not excellent. Just fine. Then there's the baked beans. If you are in England, they have to be Heinz baked beans. Those other brands have too much flavor. The baked beans are actually pretty good filler and if you put enough salt and pepper on them, they have a bit of taste to them. But seriously, can you describe ANY food that you get out of a can as "very good" or "excellent"? I just can't. Then there's toast. It might be very good or excellent if you started with a multi-grain bread. But most places don't. It's white or wheat. Although if you say you want wheat toast you will get a blank stare. The proper term is "brown" - it's white or brown. And if you want a very good or excellent rating you'll serve the toast with butter and homemade jam - not the stuff that comes in little single-serving plastic containers. Those are adequate.
As for the extras, yogurt is always a welcome option. But unless you're serving a locally-sourced organic brand, don't expect me to rate it as anything more than adequate. I'm not sure whether yogurt was available at the place in question or not. If it was, it was a regular ho-hum grocery store brand. If it was anything else, I'd have remembered. Kippers are typically only available at the seaside. I personally don't like them. Mark does and he would rate any breakfast that offered them a notch above adequate. However, he wasn't rating, I was and they didn't have them anyway. Black pudding (aka blood sausage) is another one of those things that I would not eat. And once again, Mark likes it. But it wasn't offered here. (Just as well, if you ask me.)
I do like it when there are potatoes included. I like real potatoes. What we typically call country potatoes. But like here in the US, it could be real potatoes or those pre-formed triangles erroneously called hash browns on both sides of the Atlantic. But there were no potatoes being offered. Too bad. Real potatoes could have bumped up that rating.
The breakfast was certainly not deserving of anything higher than adequate. Although to be nice, I did write back and tell her not to take offense at my "adequate" rating because I find most English breakfasts to be adequate unless they are burnt. And that's the truth.
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