Esplanade Hotel — Restaurant in Adelaide

Terrible to stay as a guest. Average meals. My husband and I recently had a 3 night stay here. Upon arriving to check in, the car park was not only completely full, but cars were parked illegally, leaving very little room for cars to pass each other. My husband called to ask what we were supposed to do for parking and the woman said to park somewhere else for the time being. That was impossible unless we wanted to walk a kilometer back to the hotel - one that advertises guest parking. We waited with a car waiting behind us, until someone left and we got their park. Checking in was average. Reception had standing room for 2, but the guy behind the counter had to come around to the printer so I left the room as we could not all fit there. Terrible set-up. He wanted us to check in using some form on the phone but that was a mess so they did it the normal way on paper. He took our car registration - they claim they have plate recognition to stop people staying more than the 2 hour period but they don't do anything about those parked illegally so I doubt they keep an eye on anything. He also claimed that the car park was full because of warmer weather, but there are only 32 car parks - they are supposed to be for those dining in the restaurant, those in the sports bar, those in the gaming area, as well as overnight guests. 32 parking spaces are not suitable for all of that, regardless of the weather. The room was a studio double. As we were told at reception, it's just a pub and not the Hilton.... I've been in pubs with better accommodation. The view out of the window was a part of the building. There was one curtain that didn't cover the entire window - the second curtain had been thrown in the very top cupboard. There was a chair on one side of the bed. On the other was an old dressing table missing the mirror. The air con unit was great. The ceiling fan was good. The shower curtain was white and very nice until you looked down to see a line of that yellowy muck along the bottom of it. The shower had the same. Obviously neither had been cleaned for a very long time. The door to the stairs down to the restaurant isn't marked clearly. It just has a "No smoking inside" sign. No exit sign. No stairs sign. Despite the "no smoking" rule, we did encounter quite a strong smell of pipe tobacco while walking to our room during our first night there. Reminded me of my grandpa (no, my grandpa wasn't there!). The tv didn't connect to the hotel guest wifi even though we used the password given to us at reception, so we used mobile hotspot instead. The tv was poorly located, with it being difficult to see during daylight hours due to the sun shining through the crack of the curtain that didn't close properly. Meals in the restaurant were average. Beef schnitzel was actually the worst I've had at a pub. Nothing compared to the Pier at Glenelg or the Mawson Lakes hotel. The waitresses' service could be better. Never have we had a plate tilted and then dropped (yes, literally dropped) in front of us. My meal even moved as she put my plate there. I thought it was going to slide off the plate. The garlic bread was terrible, especially for the price. We ate there once and didn't eat there again at all during our visit. I don't know how this place has such good reviews. I'm guessing people drink too much to notice how poor the place truly is. Overnight stay is only worth it if you don't want to spend any time in the room except to sleep. The room should at least have a decent view but it didn't even have that. The price was cheap but still too much for what's there. For great food, head 20 mins away to the Pier at Glenelg for a much better meal for a better price with better service and better views. Or go a small way up from the Esplanade hotel to the little café 9n Jetty Road that has table service and awesome schnitzels and free table water! Beautiful café and great service at a great price. Honestly, both are 100% better.

Update: no one has contacted me as stated in the response...

Hi I don't usually leave reviews good or bad. But I really feel obliged to after my stay here over the last week. Although I'm giving 4 stars that is simply because the rooms need some renovations and that would been the difference between 4 stars in consideration to a possible 5 star review! Yes the hotel is old and needa some work but I would just like to start off but saying thankyou to the kind lady that went above and beyond to make sure my room was serviced everyday with fresh linen, properly made bed and fresh toiletteries every single morning at the same time. She had a very positive attitude and always had a great big genuine smile on her face which made the not so modern room experience feel alot better😊 Now onto the main reason why this hotel would've got 5 stars, albeit the small things I mentioned. Every single member of staff was extremely professional, and always genuine happy and would help with anyone's request without question. They really care about their jobs and the presentation/cleanliness of the restaurant, bar and hotel. All the staff working in the restaurant and bar were very friendly and welcoming and would even check in with me to make sure my stay was as enjoyable as possible. Now for the icing on the cake. I would Love to give Lucas from the bar/gaming room his own personal review. Not only did he go above and beyond like the other staff, he also took the time out of his day to stop and chat with patrons when time permitted and I had many great conversations with him while I was there, and shared alot stories back and forth with him about life, Including personal life stories not many people would make me feel comfortable sharing but I didn't think twice with Lucas as he gives off a genuine personality and sense of care for others and he also felt compelled to share with me some of his life stories with me as we got to know each other briefly over the last week. Lucas is definetly your most valuable staff member because it wasn't just me that he treated this way, it was every single person that he served no matter what attitude they had towards him or what request they made. He is such a nice bloke and I honestly hope to be a lifelong friend of his because I didn't see him as the bartender, I saw him as my brother after the first night I met him and that doesn't happen often. He is definetly worth his weight in gold, and he is a young man with the right attitude and very well mannered and meeting and chatting with him is honestly the best thing that happened to me while in Adelaide. The poor guy even had to deal with my sob stories about home sickness as I really was missing my fiancee and son back here in Brisbane but he was so quick to ease the stress and sadness and make me feel like part of my family was right there with me. Idk if you do employee of the month but if you do he deserves it every month. He even went as far as drawing me a map of several places I could go visit while in Adelaide and s lost of things to do. Whoever is Lucas's boss, please give my praise to him and I commend you for employing him because I mean it when I say it, HE REALLY WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOOD EXPERIENCE AND A POTENTIALLY BAD EXPERIENCE BJT HE MADE ITS GREAT!. I will definetly be back to stay again in the future and thankyou for everything. P.s the food is bloody incredible and your chef and staff all equally deserve praise as well....

Called in with a group of friends Friday evening for a coffee. Myself and another guest ordered extra hot coffees as neither of us can tolerate warm milk due to a stomach problem. Mine came out first and it was luke warm. I spoke to the young waiter and asked if he could zap it in the microwave for 20secs. He offered to make another coffee for me but I said it wasn’t necessary just to microwave it. He did this and bought my coffee back to me and it was then hot enough. My friend’s coffee arrived and it was also just warm and she asked the same young man to zap hers in the microwave too. You would think this would be the end of the problem as we got our hot coffee so all was well. BUT NO the next minute a very very rude and angry female barista came over to the table and started telling us the the machine was set at 60 degrees and she made our coffees to 70 degrees and they were boiling hot. Now maybe she failed maths at school but 70 degrees is not boiling point. My friend started to explain the problem she had with warm milk and the (I use the term lightly) barista raised her voice and told us that she has been making coffee for 25 years and basically we didn’t know what we were talking about and flounced off. Now at no time did we cause a ruckus over the coffee we simply asked for it to be microwaved so we could have a hot coffee like we ordered. I have worked in an industry that dealt with people on a one to one basis daily for over thirty years and if one of my staff behaved in that manner she would be looking for another job. She had no business approaching our table and speaking to us that way. I did speak to a young manager about this and he apologised however she should have been asked to apologise to us for her unnecessary outburst. Myself and friends will probably not return to this hotel when staff behave in this manner to customers. I will say that the male waiters were lovely and polite as was the manager we spoke to. Too bad about the rude self opinionated barista. Maybe some anger management courses and custom service...