hotel saskatchewan dining room

mother's day brunch. what a delightfully delicious surprise! the atmosphere was grand and elegant. the maitre d, and serving staff were very friendly and accommodating while remaining professional. the food! my goodness! the food was all fantastic. several selections instead of the traditional scrambled eggs and bacon. eggs benedict was absolutely the best i've ever eaten. right up there was also the tender herb smothered chicken. and the shrimp bisque with green apple and lemon grass. outstanding. they have the beat creme caramel i've had the pleasure of eating and i consider myself a creme carmel connoisseur. also enjoyable was the light and fluffy lemon poppy seed cheesecake. again, great service, pleasant staff, and wonderfully tasting food.

i've been impressed every time i've been. lunch buffet is excellent with lots of choices.

special dinner event: the food was absolutely fantastic.

one of my favourites.

one word to describe my experience with dining and staying at this hotel would be disappointing. it wasn't for the lack of atmosphere, but rather the service staff that really made the experience unusually awful.

as me and my partner checked out of our hotel, we decided to try out the hotel restaurant before we went on with our journey. the restaurant was about 1/2 empty, and appeared to be fully staffed. we were shown our seats fairly quickly and ordered our drinks in a timely manner. our waiter left a dirty rag that he had used to wipe down the table after he spilt the coffee he was serving, which isn't a big deal. the issue here was that he forgot about it for half an hour.

the food at this restaurant is reasonably good. my eggs benedict had a very rich hollandaise and had the perfect yoke. in all, i don't have any complaints with regards to the food.

however, after finishing our meal, it took approximately 30 mins for someone to notice that we were done and another 30 mins to get our bill. when i spoke to a waitress with regards to getting our bill and the wait, she made a pretty rude comment under her breath and was very dismissixe with no apologies regarding our situation. i apologize if customers are the bain of her existence, but i'm sure she has better prospects in life as a middle aged server.

i'm not one to yell or be confrontational with situations like this. someone more arrogant may have dressed this lady down and would've gotten a manager involved. luckily neither happened, and she still has a job at this establishment.

my wife and i decided to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary by having brunch at the hotel saskatchewan this morning.  this is the first time we have had brunch there since the renovation.  i have heard mixed reviews of the reno so i will start there.  i really like it.  the tables and chairs are very comfortable.  the room is still very classy and elegant.  my only criticism is the laminate floor.  i think tile or wood would be more befitting.  onto the food.... it was as good as ever.  perfect eggs benedict, tasty sausages, a carving station, omelettes to order and so on.  the best thing that i ate were the steamed muscles served cold on the half shell.  they were meaty, tender and served with the perfect cocktail sauce.  another highlight was at desert.  saskatoon berry tarts topped with a shortbread crumble.  i had to have 2.  my only complaint is in reference to some of our fellow diners.  some were dressed like they were going to the beach rather than the nicest hotel brunch in the province.  i would like to see an enforced dress code.  however the over all experience was top notch and i am looking forward to the next time i can indulge in such a great brunch.

beautiful atmosphere, but underwhelmed by the food. perhaps we chose the wrong dishes, but i can tell you the lobster brie sandwich is terrible. it was slathered in a ketchupy sauce and raw onions. ketchup and onions simply does not go with lobster or brie. it was reminiscent of bad meatloaf. the steak tartare was decent. some bites were good, some great, and then you'd get a bite of heavy seasoning leaving you grasping for every water glass at the table.

i've been here on two separate occasions, once for brunch and once for dinner. both of the meals we had here were delicious. i loved the variety of dishes the had, and everything seemed very fresh. the dessert table definitely had us going up for seconds!

the food was excellent. the service was excellent. the hotel sask dining room has to be the fine dining spot in regina. the ambiance and decor has no match in regina. i just hope the new owners dont wreck this fine dining spot.

are the new owners ruining the hotels reputation?. i am a regular patron and have always had a high opinion of the hotel, the staff and the food service. in many ways this historic hotel is the reputational anchor for high class hospitality in the city and province.
do the new owners appreciate that.?do they wish to maintain it's high standards? are they attempting to squeeze maximum revenues from operations by reducing the quality of service? is skimping on supplies and labor and staff time a way to please the shareholders and irritate regular guests? according to some it would seem so.

is the province's premiere hotel now being run by a bunch of skin flints wanting to squeeze every buck out of operations by reducing the quality of service, food, cleanliness and housekeeping so they can please the shareholders? how does it maintain it's standards if the staff are demoralized and frustrated by cutbacks?


-----25 mar, 2014-----

consistently first class.. my first choice for brunch, lunch and happy hour since the early seventies. food and service has always been top notch, the long term staff are the best in the city, the dining areas are aesthetically beautiful, and the value for money is very reasonable.
the hotel has always treated their staff well and it shows in terms of how they treat their patrons.

very disappointed in the lunch buffet we had today. their website said they were serving a turkey dinner buffet. i called last night to inquire and front desk also said so, so we reserved a table. the food tasted terrible and everything was lukewarm and dried out. there was no sour cream for the perogies and the cabbage rolls were made with beef that tasted like it came from taco time. way over priced for what we received. we basically paid for the ambiance of the beautiful hotel. we will never return to this establishment again!

reputation would lead one to expect better. upon arrival we were greeted by staff, we were on time for our reservation, we gave the staff our info and then the restaurant phone rang, we were ignored for another minute, a second staff came to assist us but was rudely interrupted by the first girl when she hung up the phone. we were further ignored until the second staff person just walked away then the first girl looked at is again and said "reservation?"
once seated the service wasn't awesome and the food was fairly unspectacular. what was spectacular however was the bill, two adults, one 6 year old and one three year old... $108
ouch!
i do not recommend hotel saskatchewan radisson for brunch.

may be $$, but worth it and you won't be disappointed. i highly recommend this place if you are looking for a good place to have brunch/breakfast. there is a good variety of hot food, dessert, soup, salad, fresh juice, to choose from, personalized omelettes made on site. service is excellent. place/brunch is excellent for special occasions (thanksgiving, easter, mother's day, christmas) but reservations are highly recommended.

sunday brunch is awesome. salads, soup, pasta, rice potato, several meats, vegetarian and gluten free options, 20 + kinds of dessert, breakfast items, lunch items you name it

coffee and juice service is promt and polite

i managed to avoid the salad table and hit the hot items first, breakfast, then lunch then dessert !

yum

expensive for what you get. four of us were there for supper friday night. mediocre service, no salad, no dessert, and extra cost for the potatoes. only a total of three over-priced glasses of wine and the bill (with tip) was a little over $200.
also portions were quite small.

went for the christmas buffet this year. we used to go fairly regularly but were disappointed a few years ago and hadn't been back. i read the more positive reviews and add seen the press about the new chef so we decided to try again.

i have to say it was one of the best ones i have been to in years.

the antipasto was very tasty as were the other salads. even my incredibly fussy daughter enjoyed the roasted pumpkin soup.

the prime rib was excellent and the turkey was nice and juicy. the cabbage rolls tasted like home and the vegetables were hot and well cooked.

the dessert selection had a good variety and everyone enjoyed the christmas pudding.

i definitely feel i can add this back in to our christmas traditions.

best in many ways but not truly outstanding. i agree with another reviewer who wrote that hotel saskatchewan offers the best sunday brunch in town. it also probably offers the best special occasion (i.e., christmas dinner, mother's day, easter) buffet dining in town. that said, all other brunch buffets that i have visited in the city have been extremely disappointing and so the bar is not set very high for being the best. this review pertains mostly to the special occasion dining and their sunday brunch (it's been a while since i've been there for dinner but i have seen the dinner menu which did not strike me as particularly innovative although i heard that their chef is good).

the environment is elegant and clean. service often leaves a lot too be desired on special occasions (but is usually very good during regular sunday brunch). that is, on special occasions, they get busy and service can be sloppy at times with food items running out. one year, i had turkey there that was still bloody. another year, they lost my credit card (they located it eventually but they were looking for it for a while). some of the buffet food items are good (e.g., there is nice shrimp) and the range of options is satisfactory but many of the items are quite ordinary (both in execution and in type; perogies, cabbage rolls---i guess this is what many people want but i would expect more from a four diamond hotel). their desserts and breads (while plentiful and with good variety) leave a lot to be desired, in my opinion.
hotel saskatchewan is also one of the few places in town where high tea service is offered on weekends (technically, afternoon tea is considered low tea in britain but this is another story for another time). i have been there for high tea a few times (requires advance reservations) and have quite enjoyed it. one thing that i did not like was that their high tea trays were already on the table and covered with plastic wrap when we arrived. there was a recent article on the newspaper that they were improving their high tea service and so i hope that the plastic wrap issue has been resolved. regardless and despite some of my negative comments, i always enjoy hotel sask dining; its probably the beautiful environment and elegance rather than the food itself but the food is, generally, good enough.