Blue Haven Hotel - Review Page 3

Restaurant

The Blue Haven has a single main restaurant, Shutters on the Bay, located in an attractive restored colonial-style villa. The restaurant is open to non-residents, but is located slightly away from the main buildings and next to the main car park, so that guests retain their privacy.

Breakfast is served buffet-style, as customary. Needless to say, there is great emphasis on the abundant tasty local fruit and this provides a wonderful supplement to the fried breakfast so enjoyed by the less health-conscious (or, as I prefer to think, by those of us who believe that anything and everything can be enjoyed in moderation).

Guests can also enjoy breakfast in their room or private balcony, while enjoying the wonderful views. An additional service charge applies to room-service (7am to 10pm), as normal.

The Blue Haven Hotel has a chequered history and reputation on the catering side. When it first opened the hotel had a European chef and established an excellent reputation. In fact some press reports claimed it to be the best restaurant on the island. However, shortly before our 2003 visit we began to hear reports that the catering had deteriorated. The chef had left and the kitchens were in the hands of a less experienced junior. Our 2003 review summed up our feelings: “well cooked, well presented and very, very tasty but not exceptional.”

During the past year or so, reports have continued to deteriorate and even friends on the island who firmly support the Blue Haven and believe it to be the best luxury hotel on the island have strongly criticised the catering, whilst continuing to sing the praises of the hotel in general.

We therefore arrived at the Blue Haven with trepidation. We are looking for hotels to recommend, not warn against. However our reviews – and this site – are only valid whilst our reports are truthful and we can only report what we experience. We have a lot of respect for Karl and Marilyn’s achievements, ably supported by General Manager Anderson McPhee, so were not looking forward to the possibility that our review would have to slate the hotel’s catering.

Convinced that we were going to be disappointed, we took the easy way out and booked dinner elsewhere for three of our five nights. Big mistake! Even after the first evening we realised that the information we had been given was out of date. Anderson introduced us to the new chef and Food & Beverage Manager and told us about the many changes he had made at the hotel over the previous few months. After that first evening we cancelled our other reservations and dined at the hotel every evening. We spoke to as many guests as possible. Consensus was unanimous.

Contrary to expectation, I have to say that during the five days we spent at the Blue Haven Hotel this year we enjoyed the best catering we have experienced on the island. Anywhere! Any time! Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all truly excellent. To understand what an endorsement this is, readers should check our ‘2007 Trip Report’ in our Tobago ‘Food & Drink’ discussion forum. After each annual trip to Tobago we pen a report about our visit and our impressions of the island. The biggest disappointment of our 2007 trip was the rising price and falling standards of dining out. Our experience at the hotel was like finding an oasis in the middle of the desert. Well done Blue Haven Hotel!

The general culinary theme of Shutters on the Bay is a lovely fusion of international cuisine with West Indian ingredients and spices. Tobagonian cuisine is invariably much more interesting than that of most Caribbean islands. Trinidad’s ethnic mix has produced a wonderful mixture of cooking styles and flavours and this has inevitably been adopted in Tobago. The Blue Haven seems to have captured the best elements in a blend and format that should appeal to visitors not necessarily used to the normally highly spiced foods of the region.

The menu choice was normally limited to just three main course dishes and being a fussy sod, this at first dismayed me when nothing took my immediate fancy. However, forced to make a choice, I was more than pleasantly surprised with the results. By the end of our stay we agreed that we had enjoyed all meals far more than at any other hotel on Tobago – and we’ve stayed at every decent hotel on the island.

Guests at the hotel have a choice of various meal plans, including All Inclusive. I hasten to add that the Blue Haven is not an All Inclusive hotel and should not be thought of as such. The convenience and cost-effectiveness of AI is beyond argument, but in our experience it can, and invariably often does, lead to a lowering of standards (in both hotel and clientele). Hotels that combine the option with conventional meal plans seem to avoid the worst excesses, probably because they must maintain standards if they are to persuade non-AI guests to use the dining facilities. This is very much the case at the Blue Haven.

Main Bar & Beach Bar

The hotel has a single lounge and terrace bar, located off the main lobby. It has a very traditional feel and is attractively furnished with rattan furniture and wonderful views over the bay, sea and grounds. The lounge bar serves light snacks and afternoon tea and is open throughout the day.

The No Problem bar is located on Bacolet Beach. The wooden building blends wonderfully with the coconut palms bordering the beach and enhances, rather than diminishes, the rustic nature of the beautiful setting.

No Problem serves light luncheons and snacks from a relatively limited, but enticing menu. We were delighted with everything we tried. The beach bar is open to non-residents.

In our last report, we complained that the only problem with the beach bar was that it was very small and only offered five or six tables. I am delighted to say that in the last year or so the beach bar has been razed to the ground and rebuilt. Seating capacity has more than doubled. Mind you, we still found it necessary to get there early if we wanted to eat in shade. However, it is nice to see that the bar/restaurant is so much busier than it was four years ago and this is surely proof of how much better the catering is now.

NEXT PAGE: Staff

         

Review Page Links:   Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5

Return to the search listing page

    

The buttons above present articles sequentially, in the order shown in the menu bar
at the top of the page. You are currently on the Property Review page in the Accommodation menu.