Oak5828
Couples · November 20256/10
Summary of some pros and cons of this hotel: GREAT employees who are welcoming, friendly, and knowledgeable; great location; deteriorating physical property; yummy desserts and appetizers; breakfast b...Summary of some pros and cons of this hotel: GREAT employees who are welcoming, friendly, and knowledgeable; great location; deteriorating physical property; yummy desserts and appetizers; breakfast buffet not great; dinner entrees hit-and-miss.
Starting with the best part about this hotel, aside from the advantages of its great location -- every employee (except one who seemed to be struggling to work in a restaurant environment) was a GREAT representative for this hotel and helped make this stay a good one for us. Without these excellent employees, this hotel would probably be a no-thank-you for us until and if they manage to improve the food experience and the deferred maintenance. With these great employees, we feel we would definitely come back again even despite the problems with the food and the declining physical condition of the property.
Some of the stand-out employees who provided great customer service are:
Andrew T. (front desk);
Megan (front desk);
Monic (front desk);
Carlos (server at Torreyana);
Javier (executive steward at Torreyana);
Randi (server at Torreyana)
We also had good experiences at the gift shop, but did not get the employees' names. We did not use the bell desk or housekeeping or concierge during our stay, so can't particularly comment on those employees. I will say, though, that our room was clean, so Louisa with housekeeping definitely left us a nice room.
On the less-than-good side about this hotel, the food is hit-and-miss, the breakfast buffet has gone downhill, and the general condition of the property is showing signs that maintenance and renovations have been delayed too long. There were fixtures in our room that were literally rusty; the bathroom air conditioning vent seemed to be inoperative and moisture built up badly during a shower; the upholstery on the furniture was truly threadbare in obvious places; and the rest of the property is showing deterioration with worn carpeting; pavement coming apart with big chunks missing even at the grand front entrance; paint deteriorating in many many locations; stains and yucky spills and uncollected trash and dirty dishes on the concrete of patio/deck areas; broken and unsightly planters; parts of the landscaping unmaintained; etc. Seems like they are not budgeting for good maintenance and are likely short on staff, either intentionally or not, but the shortage of effort and maintenance definitely shows.
Some of the good stuff: Upon check-in for a multi-night stay, we (2 Hilton Diamond members, but no longer traveling as frequently as we used to), were greeted at the front desk by Andrew T. who was very cordial and very helpful. It was the beginning of check-in time and apparently not all the rooms were cleaned yet. He nicely offered us an upgrade to a "better view" room, but it would have been a room with two queen beds rather than the king bed we had reserved. We were grateful for the offer, but were more interested in having a king bed and a quiet room. Importantly, at our last stay at this hotel, we did not enjoy the loud music and loud people in the pool area which our room had looked out upon, so we were definitely hoping for a quieter experience this time so that we could relax instead of being bombarded by noise. We asked for an area of the hotel which we thought would be quieter and Andrew advised us that he could put us where we requested but he did not recommend it because the view was obstructed and other guests did not prefer it. We asked if we could give it a try and he was glad to give us the option. As it turned out, we really enjoyed the room with the "obstructed" view because it was a quiet area. I made sure to mention to Andrew later that we really appreciated the choice of rooms and that he had genuinely helped us toward having an enjoyable stay. Andrew really made a great impression on us with his helpful and considerate attitude.
A little later, we dropped by the restaurant, Torreyana, to make reservations for an early dinner. As we were waiting near the host desk, Carlos, our favorite server from our previous stay, who was in the back of the restaurant at the time, actually recognized us from quite a distance and immediately came over to take care of us with a great welcoming smile and eagerness to assist us. Our only other stay at this hotel was over 4 months ago, so we weren't expecting Carlos to recognize us, but he absolutely did. Carlos is awesome with customer service, a really friendly and calm person, a very knowledgeable and skilled server, and I would definitely recommend that management here do what they can to reward him for his excellent representation of the hotel and restaurant. Carlos has certainly earned his status as our favorite server here.
On the other hand, our actual dinner food experiences at Torreyana have been very hit-and-miss and never has our entire meal been completely good. Not the fault of the servers, that's for sure. The previous time we were there, of the four different dinner entrees we had tried -- salmon, beef, chicken, and an entree salad -- only the salmon and beef were good, unfortunately the chicken was overcooked and tough and the salad was joke-sized for an entree and not as tasty as would be expected. This time around, four months later, the chicken was well-prepared and tasty (with outstanding server Carlos obviously putting in a word about our previous negative chicken experience), but the new cut of beef (change of menu) was tough and not a good experience. The beef was well-prepared, but the meat was not a good cut. As a counterbalance, the appetizer that Carlos recommended on our first stay, the Papas Bravas, continues to be really yummy and we would be willing to stop by just for that appetizer. However, we were honestly not willing to have another dinner here after the first one of this stay because their limited menu and inconsistent quality is just not worth the disappointment and the cost ($$$). Instead, we did come by for late dessert after getting a tasty dinner elsewhere out on the town and honestly, the Torreyana desserts are great, though sadly almost no gluten-free options except gelato. For our after-dinner desserts and drink experiences, both Randi and Carlos were our servers on different nights and we were happy to be there with their excellent service.
Unfortunately, I have to report that the breakfast experience at Torreyana has gone downhill significantly. When we were here 4 months ago, the breakfast buffet was great -- delicious and great variety (though no cook-to-order omelettes on the buffet or anything special like that, if that was a hope), however, getting drinks or any help at the table was not great then or now. On this stay, we were looking forward to the breakfast, because the buffet itself was excellent last time. Not this time. The size of the buffet has been cut down dramatically and is missing some things you would expect, like typical bread products, but also a number of other things that they had last time were no longer offered at all. As a small isolated example, last time I really enjoyed the gluten-free bagel, what a great treat, but no such gluten-free things this time. There were other common and some special things that were on the buffet 4 months ago that were also missing now. Worst, though, was that the scrambled eggs were not even close to hot. They were basically room temperature. Really not good. As a result, that was our last breakfast here due to the selection, food quality/temperature and the general lack of service. Yes, I know they were busy and breakfast is almost always a demanding meal service for hotel restaurants. Their breakfast time at Torreyana has been busy on every occasion we have been there, so certainly this is something that can be planned for, right?
I have to mention, though, that Javier T., Executive Steward, was relegated to doing hosting duties at breakfast and it seemed that the restaurant was probably short on servers too. He was so apologetic when one of us had to get up after a long wait and let him know that we had not seen a server and still had nothing to drink with our breakfast. He personally took care of us and got drinks for us with a smile and a can-do attitude and continued to make up for whomever had fumbled. We even found out much later that the one "server" we had seen near our table and who had ignored us during that breakfast was considered to be the "manager" that morning. Curiously, she had bypassed us repeatedly even though we still had menus on the table and no drinks. It's possible that this employee might be a bit out of her element in the restaurant business or maybe it's even more likely that somebody in upper management did not schedule enough servers that day and the remaining employees were expected to "do more with less" once again, but it is disappointing for a server to hurriedly and repeatedly bypass a guest table that has breakfast buffet plates being eaten from, still has menus on it, and also no drinks.
These restaurant issues are problems with clear solutions, but we aren't willing to be victims to this situation while this location figures out how to do breakfast, especially with room temperature eggs on the buffet. No thank you. Big thanks to Javier T. for saving the day and providing service with a smile despite the pressure. We were shocked to see Javier again very late that night, still at work when we came for desserts and drinks! He was working very long hours and still being a great representative for the hotel. Way to go, Javier.
Our other interactions with friendly and helpful employees were at the front desk; when we had a simple question during our stay, Megan was a refreshingly friendly presence who was happy to assist us and helped us feel glad to have chosen Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines for our stay. And later, when we checked out, Monic similarly was a great customer service representative with a great attitude and made the process easy and pleasant.
In short, the fantastic employees who are consistently doing their best to provide a good experience for the guests are the sole reason that we will be coming back. However, we sure do hope that the hotel starts putting in the effort to improve the restaurant issues and the property maintenance.Show More
