The Park Hotel, Visakhapatnam

The Park Hotel has a pool side open air restaurant called Aqua that mainly serves barbeques and kebabs, an indoor multi-cuisine restaurant called Vista and a South-Indian restaurant called Bamboo Bay.

Usually on Sundays, you can spend the entire day at Aqua from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, for just Rs. 999 plus taxes, where you can have unlimited drinks (both alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages), vegetarian and non-vegetarian kebabs and barbeques and a buffet spread. You also get treated to a small head massage or enjoy a dip in the pool.

Even though the ambience was amazing; somehow the food did not seem to be up to the mark, as you keep running to the rest room. So, it’s worth a visit once, but I would like to stay away from the Aqua Brunch as it is called at the Park for a while.

On the other hand, Vista has a buffet spread, that costs about Rs. 500/- inclusive of taxes. The good or bad mood of the chef seems to reflect in the buffet spread. There are days I wish I had simply gone for the ala carte in stead of trying out the buffet yet again.

But there are days, the buffet is really good. Ala carte is better here, if you instinctively don’t like the buffet menu. That’s what I plan to stick by, though the ala carte choices are very limited, I think it’s safer that way.

But if you are planning on ala carte, I recommend – Grilled Rosemary Cottage Cheese, Rosemary and Chili Lamb or Pepper Lemon Grass Beef – they are delicious.  The service is however very slow, somehow they seem to be taking ages to bring your cheque.

I have seen several diners (especially locals), boss their way around when they come with their families for lunch/ dinner. Maybe that is why the staff is happier while attending to foreign tourists, than the local tourists/ locals from town.

I recall an incident, where a friend of mine wanted to feed her 5 month old baby. We went up to the restaurant manager asking him whether there was any such arrangement for a baby room. His reply was, “Sorry Ma’am, all the rooms are full.” I don’t know whether the staff is trained properly at the Park Hotel, Vizag. We weren’t asking for a room, we asked if The Park had a baby room. With no help from the restaurant manager, my friend had to go to the ladies rest room to feed her child and join us back for dinner.

In the hospitality industry, it is crucial that the staff be absolutely courteous and help a client, especially if it is a genuine requirement. Sadly, this point is hugely missed at the Park Hotel, Visakhapatnam.