hotel saskatchewan dining room

one word to describe my experience withdiningand 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.

the food was excellent. the service was excellent. the hotel saskdiningroom has to be the finediningspot in regina. the ambiance and decor has no match in regina. i just hope the new owners dont wreck this finediningspot.

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, thediningareas 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.

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) buffetdiningin 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 occasiondiningand 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.