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

[roses2]

I'm currently at a 5* all inclusive for a few days in the Mediterranean. It had amazing reviews. But the food is so bland and not good quality and no comparison at all to local restaurants.

This is the second all inclusive I've stayed in and the first was similar. I've decided all inclusive isn't for me.

Why do people rave so much about the great food? Is it just because the food is there and you're not looking at the price tag?

It depends how much you pay! Outstanding does exist at a price tag.

You need to pick wisely. A la cartes and adult only

The quality of it varies massively and generally the more upscale the place the better the food. We use a chain that doesn't have a dinner buffet and the food is better than average.

However, a half decent all inclusive dinner doesn't compare to a half decent dinner in a proper restaurant.

I usually go 5* AI for our main holiday and tend to read a couple of years worth of reviews!

Typically looking for people disappointed by lack of chips, catering to Germans, lack of traditional British pudding (spotted dick anyone?) and that generally appeals to me. I do also get any available upgrades if the hotel have an a la carter option as well for a change of scene.

I also like it when there is a dedicated kids buffet in the hope it saves me tripping over all the rugrats 😂.

We've only done AI at one hotel in Cape Verde and were so blown away by it we went back again with extended family. It wasn't just that it was top quality, but when you think about the logistics of getting food to a third world island miles from anywhere it was mind boggling. The resort had mostly French, Portuguese, and Nordic clientele and they were all absolutely delighted. The Brits moaned like hell - no beige processed food. There was one review in particular that said it all - "there is nothing for the English to eat."

If you can control yourself and choose just stuff that goes together it is often better

I don't agree 😂 I love all the random stuff

You need to pick wisely. A la cartes and adult only

Disagree about fully adult only - it is full of po faced individuals that expect no noise and no fun. However a hotel with an adults only areas are winners imo

@InveterateWineDrinker that is always the best review - nothing for English to eat- then I know I will love it- what was the hotel, we keep thinking about going.

Haha literally just chose an all inclusive on this basis.... some of the TripAdvisor gems included 'lots of weird food choices', 'no omelette bar'(!), 'pretty but no nightlife', 'lots of nature, but unless you want to walk or cycle there's not much to do'......sounds perfect to me!!!

We've just done AI for the first time since 2019, and the food was shocking compared to how it used to be, as was the actual "all inclusiveness" of it.

I think it probably depends a lot on your self control!

I prefer not AI because I don't have enough self control with a buffet.

Restaurants sometimes do have large portions but when that happens, we then just have a smaller second meal.

But we tend to do Airbnb so it's easy enough to assemble a salad for dinner if we have had a big lunch

Great if you have kids that are forever eating!! Personally now that we don't have any at home, we go self catering. Eating out is part of the holiday experience. We go cheap and cheerful accommodation near amenities and usually spend less than an all inclusive.

Not Everyone has the same expectations or wishes. I think when people rave about the food at AI they tend to refer to the quantity of food on offer, and the amount of choice. While I’ve enjoyed the food at some AI’s, it is not the same as choosing from a menu in a high end restaurant. AI is buffet food. It can be great buffet food. But you can’t expect high end restaurant food that’s been cooked especially for you.

It depends what you resorts you choose. There's plenty of really good all inclusive that offer a selection of additional 'a la Carte' restaurants as well as bog standard buffets. We've done several all inclusive but wouldn't choose anywhere that was just buffet. We've found the a la Carte restaurants wherever we've been to be amazing. Steak houses, teppanyaki, Asian fusion etc and you're able to order whatever you like from the menu.

Not all AI is buffet. Plenty of resorts offer a choice of a la Carte restaurants as well.

Duck, it was the Meliá Dunas hotel on Ilha do Sal. We booked direct with Meliá and flew from Lisbon on TAP, but the hotel is virtually a TUI colony. We've only ever troubled ourselves with the buffet, but my PILs went to a couple of the à la carte restaurants and found them to be inferior to the buffet. My PILs went back by themselves earlier this year and said parts of the hotel were looking a bit tired (it was built in 2013 and the pandemic was not kind to it) but they are still planning to go again in future.

Most people can't afford to eat in "High end" restaurants every night... so its likely just other hotels/tourist restaurants in the area.

Not for us even when kids were little. Part of the joy of visiting different parts of the world for us is exploring and finding places to eat locally…don’t see the point of paying to travel overseas and eating nuggets, burgers, western fast food selections etc..don’t even like those kind of things when at home!

a place is never all inclusive and 5 star at the same time. All inclusive = cheap mass tourism, 5 star = exclusive resort

I think it’s convenient and people can eat as much as they want, can see the benefits with kids. But, I’m not going to do that anymore….my youngest is 19… so don’t have to worry about convenience any more! We will just go for villas in the future I think, can still eat relatively cheaply if don’t feel like dining out!

Totally with you though, bland food, not much real variation day to day…end up eating the same thing every night!

Some offer far more than nuggets. You can get local food, some of it quite “interesting” when I accidentally ate a paella that was labelled as just rabbit paella when it also contained tripe. And the grill stations are really good imo. I’ve had some of the best meat and sea food that I’ve ever enjoyed from those.

Also you can eat out too if you like. I always do though last time the hotel buffet was better than the local restaurants that we tried. But obviously I didn’t get to sample every restaurant.

It's always the people who have never actually been that have the strongest opinions about what all AI hotels are like.

The food at an all inclusive in generally pretty naff unless you are in a mega expensive resort, and not just expensive because you are being ripped off due to it being the school holidays. Also 5 doesn’t mean much beyond what is classed as 5 within that country … if it’s a 5* family resort in the middle of the 6 weeks holidays you can be the food won’t be great. We’ve stopped going all inclusive for that reason.

Yeah but half the time the food is those restaurants is available in the buffet anyway, unless it’s one you have to pay extra for.

I found the AI food in Montenegrin hotels to be very good - very much based on local cuisine. However, some other British tourists complained about it.

I have stayed in a few AI hotels, mainly going to the buffet restaurant every night - because we needed no planning, while restaurants needed booking.

The food was surprisingly good! I did research and avoided the ones with photos of buffets that didn't seem appealing, so it wasn't random.

Maybe not Michelin star gourmet - it's a buffet - but with different menus every night, always stations for meat/ fresh fish/ etc, food was cooked perfectly and to your liking, many different salads, choices of seafood, vegs, and choices of themed dishes (I don't know, paella, tajine, beuf bourguignon, spring rolls..)

I have been very pleasantly surprised, and I don't agree that it's necessarily "cheap and easy". What is easy is the choice so everyone can find what they like. There's usually always some pizzas which at worst could feed my child, and what child doesn't like the table of bread and cheese .

It's not cheap of course, but neither are decent restaurants.