Is all inclusive food actually good or just cheap and easy?

Buffet food will never be amazing. I'd assume with a 5* there is more than one a la carte restaurant?

The best AI food I've had was a 3* suneo brand hotel.

We have been to two different Ikos hotels and found the food disappointing. Not a bad meal as such, but just lacking the flavours and taste that you want on holiday. Presentation is nice and fancy but I actually want it to taste amazing too! We don't eat out often but when we do, we go to highly rated places in London so I guess we tend to get really good and interesting food when out, for the most part. We actually preferred the buffet at Ikos to the a la carte restaurants; I wish there was a buffet only option at Ikos and then we would eat out at the best local restaurants a few times.

What kind of food do they have? I’ve never been to an all inclusive but was considering it.

Much as I love AI (as per my first comment!), I do agree with those who’ve said that the desserts can be disappointing. Lots of mousses and weird, artificial jelly-fied cake!

Most AI is cheap and cheerful. It's aimed at the British mass market who want to drink and snack a lot.
There are a handful of AI resorts with high quality food - these tend to be the ones with a-la-carte dining rather than buffets. I'm a travel agent and most of my high-end clients would book on a B&B or half board basis (as would I, unless I was in the Maldives or somewhere where you don't have any choice of dining options).
The 5 rating is based on certain amenities and services - there are 5 and premium 5* if you see what I mean.

I’ve only been once on an AI and that was Egypt and the less said the better - have been on 2 excellent full board ones though - one in Puerto pollensa and one in Switzerland ( ski resort- new year) - both of those were very much geared up to Germans/europeans rather than Brits and were excellent good wise - whole cooked sides of salmon, fresh grilled steaks, good prawns , great breads and fresh pasta dishes . The only ones I heard moaning in Puerto pollensa were the British ones with kids as there was very little nuggets and chips type stuff . The German , Scandinavian and French kids were wolfing down the salmon and prawns . One reason I’m not keen on AI is my H in particular is we are fussy about wine and my H doesn’t drink beer and I don’t like cheap spirits or cocktails . and unless you are usually paying big money you are given very generic and the cheapest booze! Now to be honest this will be fine for plenty, as will quite bland buffet food , so I think it really depends on what matters to you . If you are fussy about quality and not big drinkers I struggle to see you get value either inkrss you have kids discounted.

We like the Grecotel hotels ( Greece)

Where are you that 5* AI is bland and not great?

we always and only do 5* AI as I’m not interested in exploring and eating the local food. And I’ve always stayed where there’s different restaurants at the resort, endless food options, every cuisine you could think of.

im really surprised that a 5* place would have mediocre food

AI is great with kids - especially perpetually hungry teens and older kids who want to be independent and not necessarily eat with you . We’ve been to several good places in Greece and Turkey , the veg and salad has been excellent which suits me but DH says the meat and fish isn’t normally of the best quality . If you have fussy kids who only eat pizza or pasta or nuggets - it’s normally there but it’s always the same choices. On balance I’d still go AI though .

The best food we have had is where AI is the only option, like the Maldives or Sharm and they compete fir the same market.
Europe is quite samey I think, catering for the masses rarely pleases anyone and there are loads of good local places to go to.
Saying that it's fab with little kids.

Actually - about to start planning next summers holiday - so those who have stayed somewhere with amazing food, would you mind dropping the hotel name and country?!

I love AI food because I like being able to decide on the combination and portion sizes myself. I think the deserts in AI resorts are usually good quality. There is often more choice than there would be on a menu. I also like having a large window of time to get my food rather than being stuck to a reservation and not having to budget for food when on holiday is a great for me.

It can be handy with children for that reason, or if you have fussy eaters who are happy with some of the plain buffet items.

Also being able to grab a soft drink or ice cream during the day without having to pay extra is so helpful. When we went on a half board holiday we ended up spending so much throughout the day on water, juice and ice creams. It really adds up.

I've tried a lot of AI (it's so useful with kids) and there has been quite a bit of variation though I can always find stuff that I like.

One thing I have found is that in the AI hotels that do a main buffet plus separate themed a la carte restaurants, the buffet is usually a bit poor. I guess because so much effort is going into the a la cartes. The only exception to this was in St Lucia where there were 6 restaurants but the buffet was also excellent with lots of made to order stations. That holiday was £££££ though! (We prefer to eat in the a la cartes as they bring the food to the table but our kids like the buffet so they can see what the food looks like first.)

We stayed in a quite run down resort in Fuerteventura which only had one buffet restaurant but it was absolutely excellent quality. Similar experience in Tunisia and in Zante where the buffet included a bbq/gyros.

They vary. We go to a 4 star one on Tenerife that has fab food. We’ve been to 5 star resorts with worse food.

It varies. Some hotels are brilliant, others are not so good.

We stayed in a brilliant one in Menorca - there was so much choice of fruit, pastries, cereal and juices at breakfast, they had a chef doing cooked eggs/omelettes fresh however you wanted them. Amazing fresh bread selection. Lunch they had someone cooking on a grill, some days there was fish, others chicken/pork/beef, ever-changing salads, plus all the basics of rice, pasta. At dinner time they had similar stuff to lunchtime but with the addition of a pasta station outside with 4-5 different styles of pasta and 6-8 sauces and they did it fresh, plus a pizza oven.

Other places have been much more meh in terms of quality or cooked food although usually the salad/bread is good.

The only thing I find consistently under par is the dessert other than ice cream as it's usually bought in and very artificial.

5 stars also depends who’s rated it, it’s not set across the board. It should be like ships where you have 6/7 star ships.

It’s very much depends. Usually European is as you describe (there’s a lot of nice ones out there, but usually high end).

Long haul though, Maldives, Caribbean, Mauritius are great! Of course depends on your hotel but the vast majority will be better than a typical med resort.

I personally think there needs to be a new class of stars as 5 star varies wildly. I’ve stayed at some exceptional 5 stars usually in Turkey and the food is outstanding and all Al a carte included

same for Mexico and some places in Greece

the rest of Europe I don’t rate their 5 stars as proper 5 star

I’m usually ok as on holidays in the sun I find myself leaning towards salad cold cuts and seafood all of which are pretty standard and not reliant on seasoning

When I do ai I tend to eat out in the evening anyway because generally yes it’s shit.

Id go for either the cooked to order omelette for breakfast or yoghurt and fruit Then a mn tradtional massive salad for lunch, then eat out in the evening.

In Turkey there was great food, a whole buffet bar of fantastic veg and salad…I was one of the few eating that while everyone else headed for beige….

It can be a mixed bag. We stayed somewhere in Majorca where I found the food really good...paella was available every night. Various canapes and starters. There was also lots of grilled meat, salad and chips which is very much what it says on the tin. The desserts always look better than they taste I find! I like the breakfast buffet...every type of bread, fruit, cereal, cheeses, cooked breakfast. It is what it is. Unless you go very very expensive it's not going to be fine dining but it's usually perfectly decent standard type food.

As others have said the quality varrues enormously, but in general I expect it to be on par with a mid-range restaurant rather than high end. Not AI but full board the best food I’ve ever had was Neilson Vounaki - the staff are all long tenured and the buffet was sensational. I’ve got dietary requirements and a fussy child and they were ace.