Continental breakfast?

[Desiderata]

I recently had a long awaited short break in a quiet country hotel . Nice peaceful time in a beautiful setting. The sole wasp in the jam for me was that there was only a continental breakfast option. I had a chat with the manager, assuming this was a Covid related thing as they were a bit short staffed and some of their services were limited. No! , It had started because of that, but as guests were still booking and it was substantially cheaper and less wasteful, they'd decided to make it a permanent policy.
A deal breaker for me, although I breakfast fairly frugally at home, one of the biggies about a trip away is a gigantic fry up in the morning. I won't be going back there for that reason and I (very politely) told him that and he just shrugged in a "fair enough" sort of way. Apparently most guests don't really care.
Do you?

[Type R Tom]

That would be an issue for me to, especially if you could see the cost of it separately to the room. As someone who doesn't stay in hotels that often, a full English was part of the treat of staying away and would fill me up for a day of sight seeing (other than a bit of cake maybe) for the day. It's one of the reasons I don't really like staying in hotels in Europe when the only thing warm generally is a hard boiled egg or maybe some porridge.

That being said, I have noticed in Europe, the more you pay for a room the more likely you are to get a number of warm choices. Over here it should be English or nothing, I'd be getting up and looking for a spoons, harvester, table table etc. for a breakfast!

[HTP99]

With you OP, staying in the UK in a hotel, it's all about the full English, preferably an all you can eat buffet type, as has already been mentioned it also sets you up for the day too so usually you can go without lunch, maybe just have a top up of a coffee and cake somewhere, I too would have been very disappointed and likely not stay there again.

[bunchofkeys]

I've watched enough Four In A Bed episodes to know that the OP is correct, and i also agree.
Continental breakfast on the side as an offering, but a Full English when requested.

[Jamescrs]

I stay in hotels fairly regularly (outside of Covid) and I wouldn't be impressed with a continental only breakfast option. It has always struck me as the hotel looking to do things on the cheap.

If a travel lodge can do a cooked breakfast buffet I don't think there's any excuse for other places not to.

[RizzoTheRat]

Depends what they class as a continental breakfast, here on the continent it includes bread, croissants, multiple type of cheese and meat, possibly fish, boiled or scrambled egg (or an omelet), croissants, jam, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate spread, yoghurt, fruit, pancakes, pastries, cake, coffee and fruit juice. Sadly far too many places in the UK think it's a croissant and a cup of coffee.

Then again I did find somewhere doing a full English breakfast pancake the other day


But I agree, staying in a UK hotel is a god excuse for a full fry up in my opinion.

[Wadeski]

In line with the above poster, if the continental breakfast is actually good - fresh breads, ideally fresh croissants, real butter and cheeses, some quality charcuterie - it can be great.

but too often in England its just stale baguette, packets of mass produced butter, and fake jam to be cheap.

Edited by Wadeski on Monday 2nd August 18:40

[pequod]

Agree with both posters above, the British attempt at 'continental' breakfast is woeful.

Breakfast in a decent hotel in Europe usually include all of the above and is a delight!

Soggy croissants with a pot of jam and a small pat of butter does not a continental breakfast make, or is worth the price being charged.

Such a shame...

[Red9zero]

RizzoTheRat said:

Depends what they class as a continental breakfast, here on the continent it includes bread, croissants, multiple type of cheese and meat, possibly fish, boiled or scrambled egg (or an omelet), croissants, jam, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate spread, yoghurt, fruit, pancakes, pastries, cake, coffee and fruit juice. Sadly far too many places in the UK think it's a croissant and a cup of coffee.

Then again I did find somewhere doing a full English breakfast pancake the other day


But I agree, staying in a UK hotel is a god excuse for a full fry up in my opinion.

We stayed in a hotel in Germany a few years back, and added to the delights you mentioned were small bags of Haribo sweets. I was very happy

[loggo]

When I was traveling with my job I depended on a full English as I would grab a sandwich for lunch and not eat otherwise until dinner.
Anywhere that didn't was never revisited.

That said some hotels made a complete balls of it. Tinned mushrooms warmed through two hours earlier swimming in water. Scrambled eggs in a bucket refilled every 30 min or so. Trimmed tomatoes.

Hard to eat.

Only visited those once as well

[condor]

I wouldn't choose to stay more than a night in a hotel or B&B that only offered a continental style breakfast. I have stayed room only and driven to a cafe for a fry up breakfast instead. Most times the location is more important than the breakfast offering.
I prefer to stay at a place where a choice of cooked breakfast is available.

[PF62]

Desiderata said:

Apparently most guests don't really care.

Probably correct.

For some people on business then a large cooked breakfast is what they want so they can go without lunch (although whenever I encountered such people running meetings - "can we carry on straight through" - it would be "no we can't, we are breaking for lunch", to which they would huff and puff).

For some middle aged 'pregnant' men then consuming a huge volume of fatty food at breakfast is some sort of badge of pride.

However, as that hotelier has found, an awful lot of people these days would far prefer something other than the traditional cooked breakfast - provided it is a decent offering.

If it is a decent offering then it probably isn't any cheaper in ingredients cost, but is likely to be far cheaper in labour to prepare and far simpler and more reliable to deliver.

[anonymous-user]

pequod said:

Agree with both posters above, the British attempt at 'continental' breakfast is woeful.

Breakfast in a decent hotel in Europe usually include all of the above and is a delight!

Soggy croissants with a pot of jam and a small pat of butter does not a continental breakfast make, or is worth the price being charged.

Such a shame...

Plus the coffee is infinitely better on the continent ( although tea is normally poor).

[toon10]

I spend a lot of time in Europe and the breakfast situation is less than ideal. It's usually a continental breakfast, cold meats and cheese and a failed attempt at an English breakfast. I don't mind a lunchtime sandwich with cold meats and cheese but for breakfast. Madness. If I were staying in the UK and I couldn't get a proper cooked breakfast I'd be pretty unhappy.

[FredAstaire]

when i stay at a hotel i like to have the full english AND a couple of pastries.

[RobB_]

The best place for this info is TripAdvisor, not in a spiteful way but just to review they've switched to that sort of breakfast. Some people might not care but for those who do then they can give it a miss - everyone wins.

[Catz]

If it’s a decent Continental breakfast with croissants, fresh bread and speciality rolls, spreads, continental meat selection, cheeses, various fruit, muesli, cereals, yogurt, fruit juices, pastries etc I prefer that. In fact it’s my idea of a perfect breakfast.

Much lighter for breakfast with the option of taking away some fruit for lunch. Maybe making up a wee sandwich to stow away …
I can only do full breakfasts after 11am, which doesn’t work in hotels or guest houses.

[PH User]

PF62 said:

Desiderata said:

Apparently most guests don't really care.

Probably correct.

For some people on business then a large cooked breakfast is what they want so they can go without lunch (although whenever I encountered such people running meetings - "can we carry on straight through" - it would be "no we can't, we are breaking for lunch", to which they would huff and puff).

For some middle aged 'pregnant' men then consuming a huge volume of fatty food at breakfast is some sort of badge of pride.

However, as that hotelier has found, an awful lot of people these days would far prefer something other than the traditional cooked breakfast - provided it is a decent offering.

If it is a decent offering then it probably isn't any cheaper in ingredients cost, but is likely to be far cheaper in labour to prepare and far simpler and more reliable to deliver.

A better option is to offer both, that way you're not just keeping the few happy.

[Mobile Chicane]

Desiderata said:

I recently had a long awaited short break in a quiet country hotel . Nice peaceful time in a beautiful setting. The sole wasp in the jam for me was that there was only a continental breakfast option. I had a chat with the manager, assuming this was a Covid related thing as they were a bit short staffed and some of their services were limited. No! , It had started because of that, but as guests were still booking and it was substantially cheaper and less wasteful, they'd decided to make it a permanent policy.
A deal breaker for me, although I breakfast fairly frugally at home, one of the biggies about a trip away is a gigantic fry up in the morning. I won't be going back there for that reason and I (very politely) told him that and he just shrugged in a "fair enough" sort of way. Apparently most guests don't really care.
Do you?

I say "bks".

Getting decent chefs to cover the breakfast shift - or indeed any shift - right now is harder than passing a camel through the eye of a needle. Especially in a 'country' setting.

If this was difficult enough pre-Brexit, it's ten times harder now.

[Jag_NE]

I love and prefer a good quality continental but in the U.K. we tend to struggle offering that so I do expect a half decent fry up, which isn’t hard to make or particularly costly.