The Cafe One superior service expectations are seriously lacking. I don't think of the Sheraton as ultra-luxury, but I hold it in a higher regard than the Ramada Inn or something.
Cafe One was my breakfast experience after a night of heavy tequila drinking and not wanting to leave the hotel complex for food.
We should have ventured out of the Sheraton complex.
We waited to be seated by a fun life-sized horse lamp for a good 25 minutes, in which a timid server named Alina would say "one minute" and then leave for ten minutes. Granted, the place appeared busy when we arrived, it was hard pressed for me to find an issue of seating us when most of the patrons were eating the buffett.
Annoyingly, when we noticed a seat for a table of four became available (for our group of 4), it appears a gentleman had reserved the table and was ushered passed us and drank orange juice and read his newspaper all by his lonesome at the first available four seat table when there were two-seat tables readily available. Alina, as oblivious as possible, eventually realized she could push two two-seater tables together and did so eventually.
Once we arrived and were seated, we started off with coffee. The menu states a delicious Starbucks roast and I happen to be sitting at a table with three well-seasoned Starbucks employees from Seattle. The four of us (because I'm a professional Sbux drinker) tried to pinpoint which coffee blend Cafe One was bragging about. Decidedly mixed, we concurred the weak coffee must have been the underpopular Starbucks "House" blend or perhaps an extra special blend of weak beans just for hotel franchises, if it were Starbucks coffee at all.
Our hearty server, the best part of our experience, was a boisterous Scot named Tammy. Tammy gave us exceptional service and apologized profusely for not being prompt nor readily available to help us. We ordered our meals, and I don't remember what everyone got but I remember everyone thought my meal looked the best. I ordered a mascarpone peach waffle meal with bacon, and it was good. Everyone else ordered egg scrambles and such, which they thought were okay.
The strange part was receiving two of our four plates, and then Tammy disappearing for a full SIX minutes without providing the other two tables. We only received the other two plates after my husband ventured back into the chef's area (while simultaneously, all four of us watched in horror as Alina pulled slices of bread off the buffett for OUR table's remaining food plates) and demanded the food and to speak to a service manager.
We were informed that there were no managers on duty, and the table made snarky comments about how that was obvious.
We were compensated by receiving 50% off on our order, which brought it down to a reasonable $50ish for the four of us. The service, the food, nor the ambiance would've warranted a $100 meal for 4 people.
There's too much good in Vancouver to see this lame experience.
We won't be back, we won't miss it, but Tammy the Scot was a hoot. read more