Experts explain why large hotels serve poor breakfasts: “Coffee...? More like burnt, bitter black ink, undrinkable”

A great breakfast can get your day started on the right foot and when staying at a hotel influence your perception not just of the establishment but the place you are visiting as well. However, food critics have found that some hotels, even luxurious ones, are serving “soulless” fare in the mornings.

They talk of “undrinkable” coffee, “tasteless” omelets that are “rubbery, dry, and fibrous like a scouring pad,” industrial low-quality bread, and “endless buffets where everything tastes the same.” For food critic José Carlos Capel, it’s not just that the quality is poor, “what’s really bad is when they charge you and don’t offer anything in return,” he told Cadena SER.

Why do hotels serve poor breakfasts?

Capel, who is the president of Madrid Fusión, shared that the main reason hotels provide guests with subpar breakfasts is economics. Víctor Caride, Director of Food and Beverage at the Royal Hideaway Corales Resort on the Canary Island of Tenerife explains that “breakfast represents a small percentage of the total price and can be seen as a chance to increase profit margins.”

Caride argues though that for his establishment, which has one of the most praised hotel breakfasts in Spain, it is seen as “an investment in reputation that reinforces our commitment to gastronomy.”

“Sometimes hotels prioritize quantity over quality. There’s everything, but it’s soulless,” commented Adrienne Chaballe, host of ‘De tapas por España’ (Tapas Around Spain) on channel La 2.

Caride notes that one of the reasons behind poor quality breakfast is standardization that has been favored for a long time. This translates to machine coffee, reheated items, and no sense of identity.

Paying more doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed an exceptional breakfast

Capel as well says that “the owner’s sensitivity also plays a role, because some luxury hotels serve terrible coffee and pastries.”

“What I ask of a hotel is the holy trinity of a continental breakfast: coffee, a croissant, and orange juice,” he explained. “But if the coffee’s bad, the croissant isn’t made with butter, and the juice comes from a carton, we’re off to a bad start.”

The food critic was especially harsh with Spain’s national hotel chain Paradores calling its breakfast food offerings a “national emergency,” after an experience at the Parador de Lleida.

“Bad, dry cold cuts and ham; pastries, except for one or two items, absolutely mediocre, third-division quality,” he wrote in his scathing review of the 19-euro ($22) breakfast.

“Why did I ever order a Spanish omelet? Rubbery, dry, and fibrous like a scouring pad, tasteless. Reheated from the day before—or several days before. I sent it back. Useless. The French omelet they brought instead looked nice but had some suspicious black bits I didn’t like. I left that one too,” he added. “Coffee…? More like black ink—burnt, bitter, undrinkable. Total disaster,” he added.

He called on the Secretary of State for Tourism to take action, that such low-quality fare is harming the country’s image.

Capel has had terrible experiences in the rest of Europe as well, some of which “border on disaster.” He singled out the luxury Le Meurice Hotel in Paris where a continental breakfast costs €59 (around $69). While he commended famous chef Cédric Grolet’s excellent pastries, “everything else is neglected.”

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