This restaurant, along with the entire property, was far below expectations. Having stayed & dined at several Mandarin Orientals, I expect exceptional dining experiences in world class properties. The restaurant, Spices, looked nice at first glance. We were in the area hiking to the castle & were pleasantly surprised that we were able to dine her for lunch as we were dress very casually (in sweats). After being seated, we quickly realized we were the only table in the entire restaurant at prime lunch hours. Our waiter was friendly enough & attentive. The restaurant/ hotel also has free wifi which is nice. Our drinks were fine also. Everything else is really far below average.
To start with the food... There did not appear to be any Vietnamese dishes on the menu but they advertise having them. We ordered the crab cakes, the shrimp pad Thai & the coriander naan. Crab cakes are typically made with lump white grab meat & are very moist / juicy due to the nature of the meat. These were not... It was like minced meat (potentially not crab) that had been dehydrated and then fried (tasted microwaved). Pad Thai is hard to screw up- I make it all the time & it comes up much better than this. Again, everything was dry as if it had been dehydrated & then microwaved - particularly the "prawns" & the tofu. These were not really prawns... Probably shrimp ordered frozen from China. Just terrible ! & the pad Thai had no flavor. The naan was served in an inappropriately large portion & had zero flavor of coriander & was so DRY ! It's as if the entire meal was microwaved.
The property itself is always far below expectations of a Mandarin.. Not much of a lobby or spa. Location was not ideal. And even the bathrooms were not nice. I thought all mandarin carry Molton brown in the bathrooms (public included), this one does not. It's like a Mandarin Oriental Express or Mandarin Oriental Light or Mandarin Outlet. They really need to improve this property.
Now for the worst... This was my only meal I had at this point of the day & hours later, I was in the hotel trying to get ready for dinner at Cotto Crudo... When I became violently ill. Clearly was from the food. My boyfriend was sick as well. Luckily he is a physician and brought zofran with us on the trip..: otherwise it would have completely ruined our evening. Hugely disappointed in our experience & disgusted that they served food of such a low quality that it is not safe for their customers. Now I understand why the restaurant was completely empty ! read more