Pandenus — Restaurant in Milan

This is a story of expectations.

We arrived and proceeded to the side door as the written instructions directed. It was a dark hallway that leads to an apartment block. It wasn’t obvious where or what to do so we called the hotel. We were told to go to the restaurant and that our room was ready. We go enter the restaurant next door and the staff seemed a little confused. They didn’t know who we were and seemed a bit surprised that we wanted to leave our luggage there once we found out our room was indeed not ready. Not exactly the welcome you would expect from a hotel.

Herein lies the core of the issue. This is a modest 4 room hotel above a gastropub. The grounds are run by the restaurant staff who’d primary focus is keeping the pub going and less concerned with the hotel portion of the property.

Lets start with the good. The room is big, king size bed, clean with a retro modern funk feel. The bathroom is very large with a clawfoot tub, shower and lots of space. The Wifi is strong and fast. House keeping was excellent and not part of the pub below. We had someone explain how the faucets worked, side entrances incase we came home after the pub closed which we never managed to figure out.

There was supposed to be a hotel concierge but we don’t know who that was or how to contact them. Breakfast is included up to a certain price point which we did not know about until we exceeded it. We were pretty exhausted the first night so we looked for the restaurant menu online. The site is not mobile friendly and once we found the menu we went downstairs to discover it wasn’t accurate at all and they has a much smaller limited selection that was not on the online menu. This is why I call it a gastro pub, most people are there to drink with friends with a few food side items. This was not a dining destination. What we ordered was good.

The mini bar is approaching Vegas levels of pricing and was by far the most expensive of any place we stayed this trip. I cant imagine they sell many bottles of 100euro+ sparkling that’s warm. Water was free so that was a plus.

We were ‘evicted’ from our room for 6 hours one day as they had scheduled a pest control service to come in. The explanation was difficult to understand due to the language barrier. For a restaurant I can understand if they don’t have any English speakers on hand but a hotel should have one. We had another miscommunication during breakfast in which we accidently ordered to much. Their grilled ham and cheese sandwich is excellent by the way. This put us over the breakfast limit we didn’t know about. We left for the day and headed to lake como since we had to be gone for quite a while. House keeping managed to store all of our stuff and put it all back by the time we returned. As we returned a bar tender barked at us like we were trying to sneak by with out paying a bill. We were pretty tired having caught the last ferry on Lake como just in time to take the late train back. We were pretty pist on how we were treated by the bartender as we discovered about the breakfast limit. Cant you just add it to the bill? You know where we are staying. Did you have to be so rude about it? Again, the place is run by restaurant staff and not hotel staff. We were not comped for the inconvenience of the room

As we packed up our luggage we inquired about a cab. The restaurant staff said we would walk around the block and we would find some there. Again, totally normal for a restaurant but not for a hotel. The last thing we want to do is drag 50 kilos of suitcases with their tiny wheels across the rough and uneven paving stones half a block. This felt more like an upgraded AirBnB and a lot less like an...

Locanda Pandenus is four room hotel on Via Mercato in a quiet district of Brera. There’s a bank across, a pharmacy and grocery nearby. There are small shops, furniture showrooms, salumerias, restaurants, bars, and coffee places around it apart from Pandenus where superbly made baked goods, sandwiches and coffee are made. ||Checking in can be a bit tricky. You either call the listed number of the hotel (I think the owner picks us and then usually calls the Pandenus staff to attend to you) or ask the staff at Pandenus that you will be checking in. ||There are two ways to access the rooms, either through the restaurant (Pandenus) or a wood paneled side gate which leads you to an apartment building courtyard where the elevator is. ||You will be handed a set of keys - a tap card (access door through Pandenus which closes at 01:00am), a night key to access the side gate, a key for the elevator, a key for the living room and finally the key to the door - Whew 😀||But once inside, you will be grateful and honored to have stayed at this understated and elegant property. ||The rooms are tastefully decorated and actually look better than the photos in their website. The beds and pillows are so comfortable and the linens and towels fresh and crisp. WiFi, an excellent mini bar, Bluetooth audio speakers. The room interiors and furnishings are very updated and current. Vanessa from housekeeping did a great job keeping the rooms clean and tidy. Mirko likewise did a great job checking us in. ||Breakfast means going to the Pandenus counter and choosing what’s on display. You order your coffee, juice, and water and just show yourself to a table like what most Italians do. ||If you’re looking for a hotel with a local neighborhood feel with a very understated and refined crowd, this has got...

See title. Hotel Chief, Vanessa, is a treasure. She did everything she could to see that we had a good experience at her hotel. She went out of her way, not once but repeatedly to help us out and make her hotel proud. She deserves a better hotel to represent. Its not bad, but has several drawbacks. First, the room is a very nice size, shower excellent (after you get hot water... see below), clean and comfortable. The mattress is first rate. Double glazed windows keep the noise out, and again, the location in Milan is very good. The property is good, but sits above an average bar/cafe and has a bizarre entrance. You have to see one of restaurant staff for access to a hidden back stairway, or go through a weird little alley with imposing wooden door and iron gateway to a secret handshake elevator. Either way, not pleasant. ||The first night there when we needed a shower we discovered... no hot water. Several hours and a lot of phone calls later the issue was resolved, but damn, no hot water? And our room was not alone, the other guests also complained.||Need secure storage? Well, hope you have a room that does have an in-room safe. We did not. We went out to dinner in an unknown part of town wearing a small fortune in jewelry because we didn't want to leave it in the room.||Want a drink from the minibar? Go for it... for BIG bucks, like $150 Japanese Scotch or $130 champagne. Breakfast? OK, you get a monetary allowance for breakfast in the cafe downstairs... about half of what you will spend. Coffee? .. a thimblefull of acrid, vile espresso, no abatanado. Rolls that were left over from the food fight the night before.||Overall, some people will really like this place, but I am not...