Dining at the Westin San Diego Bayview

I recently stayed at the Westin in San Diego, downtown.  Note, that there are two Westins in San Diego,  just a few blocks apart from each other, the other one closer to the more vibrant Gaslamp District.  The later is much more highly regarded.  There are slew of other notable Marriott properties nearby too, basically the entire portfolio is well represented.  I had my eye on some of the Autograph or Design Collection properties, but I was traveling for business purposes, and had very strict spend limits, and given crazy high rates ~everywhere right now, the Westin San Diego Downtown was the only Marriott property I could really pick that met those guidelines.

The property is ... dated.  Clearly showing its age, clearly could use a facelift (and will be getting one, next year).   But the staff were lovely, it was clean, and, my needs were all met.  The neighborhood though ... not very nice, and I say this coming from dirty, smelly, fairly unsafe San Francisco.  I can't say I recommend this location, at all.

The location also meant I was a pretty captive audience when it came to meals, there were no places to venture right nearby, and thus, I ended up eating breakfast at the hotel.  Sadly, the breakfast buffet was pretty much the worst I've had in years, anywhere, as even Residence Inn and other lower tier hotels have been considerably better.

Restaurant Setting

The restaurant doesn't even have a name, and is open only for breakfast.  In the evening, they serve some food at the bar, or via Room Service.  I suspect at one point, the restaurant actually operated in the evenings?

Dining Area.

The dining room matches the style of the rest of the hotel.  It is older, but clean.  I think at one time it would have been considered elegant or appealing.

Breakfast Buffet.

The restaurant is open only for breakfast, buffet style.   The entire buffet is laid out along one row.  

Breakfast Buffet

It is on the lower end of average for a US based hotel, and certainly not worth the $25 price.  Unlike most European hotel buffets, there is no charcuterie and cheeses, no muesli.  Definitely no Asian specialties.  Just the basic "American" fixings: bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage.  There are only packaged, flavored yogurts.  No eggs made to order.  

There are a few things not noted anywhere that you *can* order and are included - toast and cereal for example, which is a bit odd that those basics aren't part of the actual buffet.  Coffee, tea, and juice are included, and served by the waitstaff.  Sparkling water is not included. 

I stayed for 4 days, and the buffet never changed at all.

Fruit.

The buffet started off pretty lackluster, as this was the fruit section.  Just cut melon (I'm allergic) and pineapple (I tried it, not very ripe), and whole apples and oranges.  Sigh.  No berries, no interesting fruit of any kind. 

Pastries.

My favorite part of any breakfast buffet is often the baked goods.  Now, they are never that great, but, I loved my baked goods.  I could tell just from inspection however that this lineup was not necessarily going to please me.

Croissants, chocolate croissants, danishes, loaf cake, mini muffins.   Not a bad lineup, but ... these were worse than average hotel pastries.

The first item I grabbed was a chocolate croissant.  It was spongy and the chocolate inside was strangely moist. I couldn't even steal chocolate out to enjoy that! *.

The banana bread was ... well, banana bread. There was no cream cheese available to put on it (my favorite way to eat it), and no toaster, so, yeah.  Just, very banana tasting, with I think 1-2 walnuts in my entire slice. **.

I also tried a mini bran muffin, as I'm someone who actually likes bran muffins.  It was pretty average, and I think if it was warm, with butter and jam, I'd enjoy it. ***.

Overall, much worse than average pastries.

Blueberry Cheese Danish.

I'm not sure why I kept trying baked goods.  Ok, I am sure - I love baked goods, and somehow thought I just needed to discover the hidden gem.  There was no hidden gem.

The pastry layers were soft and not flaky, the filling minimal.  Spongy.  Not good.

**.

Cinnamon Roll.

Last morning. Feeling FOMO.  Grabbed one last pastry ...

Of course it was not better than the others.  Soggy and kinda stale, at least it had decent cinnamon between the layers?

**.

Jam, Syrup, Ketchup, Butter.

There was a reasonable lineup of jam, but, no toast, so this was a bit odd to me.  What did people use the jam on?  I guess they didn't want to deal with a toaster, so no toast, but, then why jam?  And really, what, no toast?  It seems like a breakfast buffet easy staple ...

There was also individual maple syrup (and sugar free syrup), plus hot sauce tiny bottles, and ketchup that was squeezed out into little bowls.  Odd that the others were in individual things, but the ketchup was like that.  Regular butter only.

Oatmeal.

Just like no toast, there was also no regular cereal.  When I asked about cereal, I was told there was oatmeal.  I tried it, but it was not good.  Thick, gloopy, mushy.  

Oatmeal Toppings.

To top the oatmeal, there were chia seeds, coconut flakes, cranberries, brown sugar, walnuts, and granola.  I think this is part of the Westin brand, the healthy toppings.

So, yes, technically, I guess there was cereal (the granola) but there was just a little there, intended as a topping, and no milk.  It was pretty generic, likely Kellogg's, granola.  I liked the walnuts.

Special K, Apple Jacks.

After 3 days, I saw someone else with cereal.  I again asked about cereal, and was told they did have cereal.  I just needed to ask for it.  But it might not be included in the buffet, they weren't sure.  Sigh.  

So, one staff member told me they had none, another said I could have it but might need to pay more than the $25 I was already paying ... by then, I was pretty over everything else, so I said I'd like cereal anyway.  They offered the standard Kellogg's lineup: raisin bran, corn flakes, frosted mini wheats, apple jacks, and special k with red berries.  Milk came on the side and was warm.

Breakfast Potatoes.

The potatoes looked greasy and soggy, I did't try.

Scrambled Eggs (with veg).

The scrambled eggs, available with veggies/cheese or plain, were extremely dried out lumps, kinda floating in liquid.  Super scary looking, yes, worse than average hotel buffet eggs.

French Toast.

I tried the french toast one day - always french toast, I was hoping they'd rotate through several different breakfast carbs like pancakes or waffles too, but alas, the same french toast.  It didn't really seem battered or coated, wasn't spiced.  Just kinda soft soggy bread.  *.

Moving on ...

Pork Sausage Patties / Chicken Sausage Links.

I tried both sausages (with maple syrup, as I like them!).  WOW they were bad. The textures were just all weird. Both were oddly spongy.  And super oily.  NO NO NO.

No stars, really.

Yogurt.

The yogurt was Chobani, greek yogurt, fruit flavors only.  No plain.  Full fat.  I dislike Chobani, so this was a bummer.

Greek Yogurt Parfait.

Ok, there was one other yogurt option, sorta.  Pre-made mini (and I mean mini) parfaits.

Basically a thimble of yogurt, topped with few bits granola, <1 strawberry each, and 2 blueberries.  The yogurt was plain, the granola was the same as with the oatmeal, and literally this was the only berries available.  Boo his.  **.

Breakfast Special: Tostada Chorizo.

I got a bit interested when I saw that there was a special!  Except, it was the same every day.  Not so special, after all.

It was a tostada with chorizo, fried egg, cheese, and salsa.  The egg was actually decently fried (runny yolk!), but I don't really like salsa in the morning.  I ended up having one of these most mornings, just, removing the salsa, and just taking the fried egg, although some mornings it was quite cold (the heat lamp didn't really hold it to temp well).

No made to order eggs.

Breakfast Special: Chorizo Toastada, underside.

Under the egg was greasy chorizo that I didn't care for, and a greasy tortilla.  

At least the egg was good enough, really, the best part of the buffet. *** egg, ** the rest.

Other Dining

The restaurant isn't open at other times of day, but the bar area has an all day dining menu of fairly pricey uninspired cuisine.  Think burgers, basic pasta, steak, etc.  I was only interested in the dessert menu, as, after all, I'm a dessert girl, and it had exactly three items: cheesecake, chocolate cake, ice cream.  That's it.  Still, the day I arrived I really wanted something sweet, and, well, I was there.  I should have known better ...

Chocolate Cake. $12.

This ... was not good chocolate cake.  It didn't have frosting, just a chocolate glaze.  When I have cake, I'm all about the frosting, and this, literally, had none.  So, they lose a point for that.

But ok, what about the cake?  It was extremely dry.  Not very much chocolate flavor.  This is not a rich, moist cake that can stand up without ice cream.  I did like the piece of chocolate on top.

The fruit was fresh and tasty though, definitely the highlight.

**.