Shangri-La hotel — Hotel in Nanjing City

This is a review regarding my family experience at the Shangri-La Nanjing Cafe Xuan Christmas Eve Buffet Dinner. ||||I’m going to start of by saying I have the upmost respect for Shangri-La Hotel & Resorts for its reputation and demonstration of exceptional Asian hotel hospitality. As for how I perceive my Cafe Xuan experience on Christmas Eve 2021, I can’t say that I absolutely hated it, but it’s more or less a cause of concern for the hotel F&B management on the food safety front. ||||I had many great Shangri-La meal experiences. Two of which were at the Yi Cafe in Shanghai Pudong’s Shangri-La hotel. The brand’s dinner buffet was very impressive to the point that we decided to go to this hotel in Nanjing, instead of the hotel we actually stayed at (InterContinental Nanjing) to have the dinner in the Cafe Xuan. ||||I made a reservation literally the morning of the earliest possible day to book the Christmas Eve buffet table via the Shangri-La website. I was literally the first one to book this buffet, as my confirmation number was literally #00001. We were disappointed by how the cafe did not give us a good table, despite being the first ones to reserve. Our table was in the far corner seeing nothing but a construction site. Furthermore, the table was far away from the raffle draw. We couldn’t even hear any raffle numbers being called out from the speaker at the stage. I had to stand near the stage whilst people were passing by with food at sudden directions, as I stared at my family’s raffle tickets and tried to see if we won anything. It was certainly a dangerous thing to do. I do have to compliment the hotel for coming up with great raffle rewards. One example with the two nights at Shanghai Pudong’s Shangri-La with Disneyland tickets was certainly tempting. ||||Food was certainly a very controversial and difficult concept to comment on in this review. I’m going to start off by saying that the level of selections was absolutely world-class. The massive problem I have was how the food was made, executed and presented to us at the table, along with some perhaps problematic service issues. ||||Hotel dinner buffets of course aren’t going to be reasonably priced, but it is imperative that hotel delivers according to how they priced buffets. Buffets will never be perfect, but I expect the defined price to be justified to the product. 688 RMB at an original price with us using a 100 RMB discount from the DaZhongDianPing (大众点评)APP is quite high but understandable for a Christmas buffet. If everything was done correctly, I would have said it was well worth it. Unfortunately for the following cases, it was not even worth the time being there.||||One of main highlights advertised on the photographs of 大众点评was the roast section. For this case, we are talking about the Christmas Roast Turkey, Christmas Ham and Steak and other items that I guess would normally be there. Everything was presented on a large warm plate separate this the photo shown in the review. Everything was then precut, and then transported to that platter you see in the photo. That is cross contamination right there, a major health and safety risk that is basic across many restaurants. I would not serve anyone with dietary preferences like that. There’s a mix between turkey, pork and beef all on one plate together. I would have had someone man the carving station and fresh carve everything. That way, it would have been more cleaner and safer. Furthermore, the pre-cut turkey I had without any traditional gravy (big disappointment), was luke warm and dry upon immediate consumption. ||||Luke warm or not warm enough food was a common occurrence in our experience at Cafe Xuan. One prime example was elements of the a la carte service, in which select items were distributed by the serving staff. The Cantonese Buddha Over The Wall Soup was served barely warm. It was tasty though, but I would have wanted it warmer. Unfortunately, that was the same for the Lobster Bisque served with a pastry cap on top. The soup’s temperature upon eating was simply way too low for proper eating temperature. ||||Some dishes took too long to serve, and the result of getting it was simply not worth the time taken. Waiting roughly 45 minutes for a defrosted, small, yet too low temperature Boston lobster with cheese was not worth the wait. The lobster was simply tasteless and rubbery. The pan seared Fois Gras was also a somewhat of an disaster. Upon being served, the fois gras was pink in the inside and under-seasoned. It was like eating raw fat with a bunch of strawberry sauce overwhelming the horrible texture. Fois gras is supposed to be cooked all the way through and well-seasoned, to get that charred melty goose liver flavor that is commonly done in other places. Luckily, a waiter managed to get my fois gras replaced. I’m glad that they were facilitating. In fact, all the hard working serving staffs have done a professional job.||||Before I continue with my next case that has played a significant role in the purpose of me writing this review, I would like to ask for the special attention of the following managers:||||General Manager Steven Zhang||Director of Sales and Marketing Christine Cao||The Unnamed Head of the F&B Department of Shangri-La Nanjing ||The Restaurant Manager of Cafe Xuan||||Mr. Zhang, Ms. Cao and the rest of those mentioned, this is one complaint that shall not under any circumstances be taken lightly at all. I am APPALLED by what has transpired by this incident. The buffet was serving a special that was carted out that evening which was the Spanish Paella. Upon tasting it, THERE WAS STILL RAW WHITE WINE IN THE PAELLA. THE ENTIRE SPOONFUL THAT I TOOK A BITE OUT OF THAT SMALL BOWL TASTED OF RAW WHITE WINE. The wine’s alcohol NEVER burned off. You HAD MULTIPLE CHEFS SERVE THAT PAELLA TO ROUGHLY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN! It just shows you how NEGLECTFUL the kitchen was. I can tell that behind those kitchen doors, NOBODY TASTE TESTED the Paella BEFORE SERVING. I want TOP MANAGEMENT to READ THIS, AND READ THIS CAREFULLY: YOU SERVED CHILDREN RAW ALCOHOL! DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW DANGEROUS THAT WAS??? We’re talking about CHILDREN who were probably not even TEN, being served unchecked paella with RAW ALCOHOL. The kitchen was SOLEY RESPONSIBLE for this UNACCEPTABLE MISTAKE. To literally prove my point, we had to ask the Cantonese speaking chef from Guangxi to put that bowl of Paella in the MICROWAVE, to burn the rest of the alcohol down. The kitchen and hotel management needs to WAKE UP. This is the second ranked hotel on TripAdvisor in Nanjing, IT DOES NOT reflect the safety and standards this hotel has as of Christmas Eve. What a SHAMEFUL way to ask parents for bring revenue into this hotel! By risking small children from eating unsafe foods with raw alcohol in them. If I was to choose between eating in InterContinental Nanjing for Christmas Eve dinner as I did in 2020, and Shangri-La’s Cafe Xuan this year, IT IS OBVIOUS that I would have chosen InterContinental!!! ||||Overall, to the parents looking to have buffet dinner here… DON’T GO HERE! That is unless you want to taste test dishes before serving to children, BECAUSE THE KITCHEN WOULDN’T! It is NOT WORTH 688RMB, yet alone the DISCOUNT price of 588RMB. Management shall be held responsible TO THE LAST YUAN OF REVENUE we pay them! What a HORRIBLE WAY to spend Christmas Eve! I spent time online, and my family spent money booking this dinner. It all went down like a NIGHTMARE on Christmas Eve… I hope management takes this review SERIOUSLY. It has left another BAD IMPRESSION for me on the entire...

Location: The location of the hotel is mostly quiet. We appreciated the close proximity to the subway station as well as Xuanwu Lake. Taking transport to visit downtown areas was also easy. We would recommend this hotel to people who are wanting a quiet location.

Staff: We felt the staff of this hotel were genuinely kind and wanted to be of assistance. However, most staff could not converse in English with ease. Asking simple questions/requests was OK though.

Horizon Lounge: This is a nice space with views of the lake. the staff were courteous. However the food and cocktail options were very poor. We recommend people visit the lounge to enjoy the view. We do not recommend the food and drinks in this club lounge.

Food: We found that the food at the breakfast buffet on 2nd floor, as well as horizon club room on the 40th floor, was always cold. This was a huge issue for us. Also, we found the Western options to be limited and tasteless. For example, I asked for an omelette but it was undercooked, so I gave up on eating western food and ate mainly fruit and drank coffee. From our perspective, we would describe the buffet breakfast menu at Nanjing Shangri-La Hotel as a budget Chinese-food menu. The food in the Horizon Lounge was also a dismal experience. We make this judgement by comparing it to other Shangri-La Hotels restaurants we have visited. We would not recommend eating at this hotel.

Hotel structure: While the hotel was only built in 2014, it has not been maintained well. We noticed multiple defects that had not been repaired. We recommend the hotel invest in up-keeping the physical appearance of the hotel.

Room: The room furnishings were old, stained, and frayed. The glass windows were dirty and didn't not allow us to enjoy the view. The mirrors and surfaces had not been cleaned well and we could see smudge marks from the previous room occupants. There was also hair on the floor that would get tangled in our feet when we didn't use the slippers. It was a gross experience! We strongly recommend that the hotel 1) refurbish the rooms and 2) train house keeping on how to ensure the rooms are hygienically clean immediately.

Bathroom: We were very disappointed with the bathroom. For example, in our bathroom (#3711), the bathtub top had been broken in two different locations and was poorly fixed with cheap plaster. Also, the panel on the side of the bathtub appeared to be loose/broken. In the shower, the shower fixture has been connected in a way that does not allow for the shower to spray forward unless the shower head was slightly unscrewed/loosened. Further, water would leak from the shower onto the floor outside every-time we took a shower, even though the door was fully closed. Also, for some unknown reason, there was a cheap plastic stool in the shower. What was that for? Despite staying in the suite, the shower was TINY! Barely 1m x 1m. The face mirror on the left side was loose/broken. For a suite, we were HUGELY disappointed with the bathroom experience. The purpose of our visit and selecting a suite was to relax. We were not able to relax! We don't recommend people to select a suite at Shangri-La Nanjing.

Fitness: The fitness area had a good choice of equipment. The dry-sauna room was heated-well with a nice pine smell. However, the change room smelt like vomit! The steam-sauna was broken! In fact, it appeared to have mold growing inside it! There were only three hot reclining chairs, which were occupied by people using their mobile phones while people were walking around naked. We felt our privacy was at risk because people could be recording. We recommend Shangri-La hotel prohibit the use of mobile phones in change-rooms.

Overall: We booked Shangri-La Hotel - Nanjing because it is supposed to be a luxury hotel and we wanted to relax during Christmas. Our experience was negative. We regret booking this hotel. Accordingly, our impression of the Shangri-La brand has been negatively impacted by this experience. We are not sure if we will continue to stay at Shangri-La hotels in the...

The start was a nightmare due to having to wait for 3 hours to check in and with kids that just wanted to relax and go for a swim they where upset. Once the duty manager got involved both our family and our friends got a free room upgrade which was great and one of the largest suites we’ve stayed in. Horizon lounge was good and a great breakfast selection and had a few western style foods like bacon and sausages which the kids enjoyed. One major thing that let the horizon experience down was the staff service and lack of interest with dirty plates piling up at tables and on the last day we found out their was a breakfast menu which you could have selected from. Plus there were Asian children running around the lounge and jumping over the seating areas where people where eating and making so much noise and the staff did say sorry that how some children behave here in China. The swimming pool was also great and our children and friends really enjoyed having a splash and relaxing and was not busy just a few swimming lessons going on and you get told to move by staff not great when your a guest wanting to enjoy your time away from home. One the first day we tried to get food in the restaurants and the buffet style restaurant was hired out for a private 100 day baby event and the Chinese restaurant had a 75 minute wait and the last restaurant menu didn’t look that great and not many people eating which it a good sign that the food is not up to par which we have learnt since living in Shanghai for many years so when the staff said about the children’s behavior in the horizon lounge we understood but still you’ve paid for nice time away and parents can’t control their children because their Ayi’s not in the lounge. Overall experience was good but not up to the normal standards of Shangri-La as our friends told us as they have stayed in many Shangri-La over the years and also stayed in this one when it first opened. What would take this hotel up to the Shangri-La normal standard. Firstly more staff to work in horizon lounge and clear plates and glasses quickly also the language barrier could have been a problem if we didn’t speak Chinese so could be a problem for other western families. Website should advertise is the is events being held at the hotel also information send via email to guests before they arrive so they have an understanding of what is going on and the opportunity to either accept or even cancel the book at that time. As every meal we had after our first day experience was out of the hotel and in another one. With our friends they also ask about the hotels and places we travel as my wife is a teacher and I’m in business we have said there needs to be changes to the hotel as it’s a great shame this hotel fell way below the normal...