Room Service!
If you are staying in a hotel alone, then the evening meal is a bit of a bind. You can go down to the restaurant with a book (if you go without one, then you'll have to stare at the wall or other diners while the kitchen does its thing - and that's just creepy). Or you can have room service.
On a recent trip, having omitted to bring a book, I had to opt for room service. Let's be clear here: we aren't talking caviar, canapés, and champagne for two. What we have is a meal on a tray to be eaten by a lone bloke sat on the end of the bed, watching evening TV in his underwear. Pretentious dining is not where it's at. Sandwiches, burgers, and pies are good; elaborate presentation, confits, jus, ciabatta, balsamic, and fennel are not so good.
When it comes to desert you have to consider that whatever it is will have been stood at room temperature for the time it takes to eat the main. It follows, then, that ice cream isn't that good an option.
Serving ice cream with every single one of your room service deserts is, frankly, rather dumb. Serving said desert with ice cream on a flat slab of reconstituted slate, rather than in a bowl, does rather take the biscuit. Housekeeping: I'm sure the kitchen can advise on how to remove balsamic vinegar and pistachio ice cream from the bedspread.
And yes, Holiday Inn Reading, I'm looking at you.
To be fair when I ordered they did offer to make a separate trip to the room to bring desert, but see underpants above.
On a recent trip, having omitted to bring a book, I had to opt for room service. Let's be clear here: we aren't talking caviar, canapés, and champagne for two. What we have is a meal on a tray to be eaten by a lone bloke sat on the end of the bed, watching evening TV in his underwear. Pretentious dining is not where it's at. Sandwiches, burgers, and pies are good; elaborate presentation, confits, jus, ciabatta, balsamic, and fennel are not so good.
When it comes to desert you have to consider that whatever it is will have been stood at room temperature for the time it takes to eat the main. It follows, then, that ice cream isn't that good an option.
Serving ice cream with every single one of your room service deserts is, frankly, rather dumb. Serving said desert with ice cream on a flat slab of reconstituted slate, rather than in a bowl, does rather take the biscuit. Housekeeping: I'm sure the kitchen can advise on how to remove balsamic vinegar and pistachio ice cream from the bedspread.
And yes, Holiday Inn Reading, I'm looking at you.
To be fair when I ordered they did offer to make a separate trip to the room to bring desert, but see underpants above.