Old World Inn – Napa CA

Arrival and Check in.

His view: The Old world inn is located in Napa CA just off of Soscol ave right past the town center. It’s an older building that has a very typical bed and breakfast feel to it when you walk in the door. I think the building is probably the oldest of the bed and breakfast inn’s that my wife and I have been to, but it’s a nice place. Staff checked us in and the room was cosy with a very comfortable bed.

We arrived in the late afternoon and had the opportunity to take advantage of their wine tasting, which was actually pretty good. The wine we had here was better then the wine we had at dinner so we were happy with that.

Her view: Upon arrival, we were greeted by a young lady staff member. You could tell she was not the innkeeper. She gave us a quick tour and then we went up to our room. The room was small, which I expected since it was the only room type left available that weekend. The bed was a king size and it was comfy cozy.

The bathroom was nice with a large sized shower with a jetted tub. We were supplied sample sized shampoo, conditioner, lotion and bar soap. There was a french lavender scented hand soap pump at the sink which took me to a spa overtime I used it. The one thing that stood out to me was that we had this amazing jetted tub in the room but there was no bath oil, bath salt or bath anything provided. When I asked the staff, they said they had nothing they could provide.

We went down to the cellar where they also serve breakfast to partake in the wine and cheese hour. When we got there, there was no wine in sight, just empty decanters. I got us some crackers and cheese spread, dried cranberries, pickles, and olives. When we saw a staff member, we kindly asked to have the wine replenished. My first impression, they were not on top of things. For the wine hour, there should be multiple bottles or at least more than one decanter of wine for the number of guests staying at the inn. When they finally did refill it, I must say the wine was pretty good. We are red drinkers and we stuck to the red, which was pretty smooth. Wish I remembered to ask what label it was as it was worth buying.

Breakfast

Saturday June 4th 2011

His view: Ok, so breakfast was less then perfect. I want to be fair, but I was just not super impressed. Between the burnt coffee coffee cake AND souffle and the Costco croissant, I just think we expected a little more bang for our buck. The other patrons were nice and the dining area was interesting, but a big part of running a bed and breakfast IS the breakfast, so if you mess that up I’m not sure your going to get a lot of returning visitors. Taking the “breakfast” out of the phrase “bed and breakfast” means I am left with “bed” and I can get a “bed” at a nice hotel.

Her View: Breakfast is served in the cellar room. Several tables are arranged nicely with flutes of orange juice and large coffee cups ready to be filled. This first morning, we had mandarins in a syrupy sauce. It was pretty good. The orange juice was very tasty and so was the coffee. Unfortunately, things quickly went down hill when after finishing our fruit, we were left to wait for several minutes and wonder if any staff member was ever going to feed us the main course. Only when two other couples walked in and sat down, were we “noticed” and food was served. The egg dish, a souffle served in a small ramekin, was tasty but the edges were burnt. The portion was pretty small. I kept wishing I had some salsa to put over it. Accompanying the egg souffle was a large croissant and a square of carrot coffee cake. The croissant was nice and flaky, the coffee cake good in flavor. The negative? My coffee cake was an end piece and the corners and bottom were burnt which gave each bite a slightly bitter taste. All in all, I would rate breakfast as a C-. I have definitely had better fare.

Breakfast – Day 2, June 5th 2011

Her View: This morning the tables were set up similarly to yesterday. Overturned coffee cups sitting nicely in their saucers and a full flute of orange juice sat on the table. A gold charger plate sat on the table with a small cup of strawberry gazpacho sitting atop. The menu stated the main course was french toast and man did the air smell wonderful. The gazpacho was delicious! Everything was off to a good start. When we were handed our main dish, the “french toast” looked something like a sticky bun. Accompanying that was some dried apricots and a small ramekin of syrup with two slices of banana on top. After a full day of wine tasting the day before, I was looking forward to a little bit of protein with my meal, but there was not to be had. The sticky bun souffle had a lot of caramelization going on, so much so that each bite had pieces sticking to my teeth.

I call it a souffle because the center had that texture. I had to take a closer look to make sure that it was actually cooked through. It was very light and airy and unfortunately, not very good. After completing my entire breakfast, I was still pretty hungry. We ended up getting a breakfast taco at the Oxbow Market nearby to supplement our breakfast at the inn. I would have to say that for a bed and breakfast, the Old World Inn served the least favorite breakfasts out of all the inns I have ever stayed at. Day 2′s breakfast started great but ended poorly, so overall I would rate it a C-.

His view: Terrible Breakfast!  F

Check Out:

Her View: After breakfast, we got our items ready for check out. When we went to the front desk, there was no one there. I saw one of the cleaning ladies at a room nearby and asked if staff was available to check us out. She told us just to leave the key on the desk. Normally, at a bed and breakfast, you will meet and converse with the innkeepers throughout your stay. They typically see you off and ask how your stay went. Not here. No one could care less it seemed. In our weekend stay there, we did not once meet the innkeepers. Maybe there are none and it is always run by staff. Who knows. What I do know is that for the money I paid, I doubt I will stay here again.

His view: Felt kinda like an assembly line operation.

Customers in >>> customers out >>>>

Not cool.