LYON - Drove passed it many times but always got put off by heavy traffic, old oil refineries and walls full of graffitis. But... as it happened to be at half way to our main destination, we thought why not??!
We booked a King Royal Suite at Hilton Lyon for one night, sounded fancy eh?!
Don't get too excited though..
The hotel was quite difficult to find, out of the way from the city centre. We arrived at the hotel on Sunday afternoon just before 4 PM, nobody to greet us nor assisted us with the luggage, how strange, we wondered. After hours in the car, totally exhausted, we dragged ourselves to the reception desk, checked us in and finally managed to get the porter out of his hiding quarter.
As we approached the lift, we saw the sign for Blue Elephant - Thai Restaurant, something interesting at last. But, we were out of luck, the restaurant is closed on Sunday and Monday.
Anyways, we have a suite to look forward to, we thought. Feeling like royalty, we approached our King Royal Suite on the executive floor. On the door there was an advert of La Brasserie inviting us to try their French cuisine served all day. Must try!
How disappointing were we to discover a suite with bubbled up carpet fitting that was full of food stains, standard bathroom and an extension room that was meant to be our lounge. Why on earth did they name this room as King Royal Suite as there was nothing royal about it at all??
Overal size of the room was ok. But the furnishing was poor. They provided two flat screen televisions, smaller one in the bedroom and one in the lounge. The one in the lounge was attached to the corner wall with a desk underneath. Unless we have extra long neck or lean our head to 90° to the left all the time, we could not get a full view of the screen from the sofa.
We decided to pop down to the reception desk to confirm if they gave us the right suite, but apparently it was. Too tired to complain, we gave in and tried our luck in the restaurant La Brasserie. Surprise surprise .. the restaurant is closed until 6.30 PM. We asked the restaurant manager of why they informed hotel guests that they open all day if in fact they are not. His answer was, the restaurant is open all day but after lunch time they only serve cold snack such as caesar salad and ham and melon. Who would want to eat cold food in the restaurant surrounded by noise of vacuum cleaner and smell of cleaning solution as they scrubbing the floor during service hour????
If we were not too exhausted that particular day, we would leave the hotel. It was so hopeless to find a standard service, a decent room and food. But, we were pretty much stuck, although the hotel is interconnected to shopping arcade but nothing was open. Extremely annoyed, we went to executive lounge. Or shall we say, it was an unstaffed sitting room with drinks and biscuits which were covered with fruit flies. Few tables were left uncleared. So, God knows how long they have left that drink and food out for. We were hungry indeed, but we did not touch anything that was served. We could not take the risk to be ill too! We almost blew our top, to be honest. It was just a clear insult to any paying customers.
After a long one and half hour wait, the restaurant finally reopened for service. Quick browse on the menu and we ordered our meal. We chose crab and guacamole as starter, also salmon tartar with chopped onion and peppers. When they arrived, they looked rather attractive, but tasteless. Frozen food as usual. And as main course we kept it easy, we ordered baked sea bass with spring potatoes and mediterranean vegetables. Served and filleted on the table, looked very convincing. Tasted ok, the white wine helped. We honestly were too hungry to be fussy. Still had some space for dessert we went for cheese platter and strawberry and pistachio tiramisu. They were average, something that you would expect coming from Sara Lee packets.
Certainly would not come back to stay there again or recommend anybody to stay there. If you have exceptional experience during your stay in Lyon, you are welcomed to share it with us.
Hilton Lyon
Quai Charles de Gaulle 70
+33 4 7817 5252
No comments:
Post a Comment