[ JKT to KOR / Pandemic]4.Quarantine in JKT(3)

*** Your memories make your destiny ***

 

[03.Dec.21~21.Dec.21] #4. Quarantine in JKT(3) The Sultan Hotel

We checked the room condtion in the last section.

This section will introduce "The food" during quarantine.

 

We are going to be very frank about the food provided during our quarantine.

We do not mean to seem too negative or discrediting the hotel in any way.

However, according to our standard, the food is just so terrible.

Mind you, we are not a picky eater. We can almost eat anything, although we have quite high standard regarding the taste of the food. We believe that the material used for the meals are fresh and of good quality.

The problem lies on the preparation of the food. The kitchen seemed overwhelmed handle three meals a day for lots of guests on quarantine.

 

1. Overview

The room & the food are the two most substantial matters to evaluate the whole experience.

We had explained quite a bit about both. Since they didn’t send anyone to clean the room (as stated in the quarantine procedure), we didn’t really interact with the hotel staffs.

Whenever we called to ask for amenities, response varied from 10 minutes to 1 hour.

 

Overall, the summary of our visit is as below:

• Room: 9/10

• Facilities: 9/10

• Location: 10/10

• Services: 7/10

• Food: 3/10

• Value for money: 5/10

 

(better priced compare to peers, but still not worth it considering the food, which is very essential during our long stay!)

 

2. Menu

When we first received the menu, we were very excited to try each one of them.

The selection is basically divided into western food and Asian food.

The hotel provided different menus for 7 days and 3 meals a day (42 options).

The names and the descriptions of each meal are fancy. See below example:

1) Breakfast

-. Continental Breakfast: Smoked beef sandwich, beef & chicken sausage, croissant, butter

-. German Breakfast: Mixed omelette served with beef & chicken sausage, croissant, butter

-. American Breakfast: Omelette, beed & chicken sausage, hashbrown, croissant, butter

2) Lunch

-. Poulet et Champignon: Roast chicken breast with mushroom sauce, sauteed mixed vegetables, and fresh sliced fruit

-. Beef Borguignon: Beef served with sauteed carrot & cauliflower, and fresh sliced fruit

-. Fish Gratin: Fish served with lyonnaise potato, sauteed mixed vegetables, creamy capers sauce, and sliced fruit

3) Dinner

-. Spaghetti A La Misto di Mare: Spaghetti with mixed seafood in podomoro sauce and strawberry pudding

-. Hainan Chicken: Steam chicken with ginger, leek served with steamed rice, and pandan swiss roll.

-. Chicken Milanese: Breaded chicken with roasted potato, and chocolate sacher.

 

3. Meal Condition

The below picture was taken on the very first morning of our 10 days and 9 nights stay. The meal was actually quite nice, especially the greens and potato salad. However, we did not receive the omelette and beef and chicken sausage as promised in the menu earlier. We called the hotel staff to complain about it. They ended up delivering the omelette (but not the beef & chicken sausage) 45 minutes after we were done with everything else. 

First day breakfast - German Breakfast

Things are going downhill after the first meal.

Most of the meals are not appealing, and we normally couldn’t eat it unless accompanied by instant noodle.

According to the wife, there are some delicious meals provided sporadically, but for the husband, everything is almost inedible.

Breaded Chicken (pink and glossy chicken meat in wet & soggy coating)

Teriyaki Chicken (the meat is still pink, with a streak of reddish tissue) in a watery gravy

We were served half cooked chicken twice (one of them is still red with blood, and texture is still glossy and soft).

We also got some very smelly fish, we couldn’t bear keeping the bento box for more than 10 minutes in the room. The Continental, German, and American breakfast are actually the same meals in different names. In the last 4 days of our stay, we didn’t even bother to check out the food served.

We only ate the breakfast accompanied by instant noodles. We then ordered some food from outside (via food delivery services) in a large amount, so we were quite full when the night came about. We also stuffed ourselves with many instant coffees and snacks sent by our family. All of these experiences are very disappointing, especially when we paid exorbitant price to stay in this 5-star hotel!

 

 

 

4. Picture of foods

 

1) Continental / German / American Breakfast

-. consisted of room-temperature omellete, beef & chicken sausage, hashbrown, and canned beans, served with juice, sliced fruit,

-. served with juice, sliced fruit, and sometimes yoghurt / croissant with butter

 

2) Some of "Okay meals" according to the wife

 

 

 

-. Chocolate Sacher (actually tastes like old brownies sold in your nearest hypermart)

3) ETC

-. During the first days, we filed a complaint to the hotel staffs about the condition of the meals served. The response was nice, and they tried to send meal replacement. They either recooked the meat or changed the meals into a completely different set.

--> Such as it is, we grow tired of the food, and didn’t even bother to complain anymore. We could buy food from outside, so things were still tolerable.

-. Amidst the hustle bustle of the kitchen, they tried to make up for the terrible food. For example, they prepared some sunny side eggs especially for us and offered to change the meals into the ones better suit to our liking. On Christmas Eve, they sent a cake with a Christmas-themed decoration.

In short, they got "A" for effort, but "F" for the actual meals.

Sunny side eggs & chocolate puddings, given as a token of apology

Complimentary blueberry cheesecake & gingerbread to celebrate Xmas