"Quite frankly the hotel, Labranda Ephesus Princess, was far from being the standard that was described.
The restaurant and bar facilities fell far below our expectations. The "hot" food was at best lukewarm, at times we left full plates as food was cold and went to the buffet to find something else, invariably a salad or having to dig deep into the "hot" food tins to find something warm. We did speak to reception about this, pointing out that there were notices telling guests not to close the lids over the food warmers. We were told that the signs meant that the covers should not be pressed closed, but that is not what the signs said (see picture).
Some dishes that were available in the evening appeared on the buffet the following lunchtime on the two occasions we used the Ephesus restaurant at lunchtime. This would seem to indicate that some dishes were being reheated. Alarmingly one was a chicken in cream sauce.
There were no fresh juices, nor were there juices from concentrate, only squashes or cordials. Not great for breakfast or for cocktails.
The Italian a la carte was one of the worst meals we had, very rushed, certainly not living up to its name "Romantica". Starters were OK, but our mains arrived before we had finished starters. Pasta arrabiata was comparable to a vindaloo, roast chicken was overcooked, difficult to cut through and chew with stone cold vegetables, as if it had been dished up prior to our arrival. No sooner had we pushed our plates aside and the Tiramisu dessert was in front of us. Well we think they had substituted the mascarpone with shaving foam, the first spoonful touched our lips and was immediately put down and we left. We spoke to guest services the next day and were offered a second a la carte experience at the Turkish restaurant. Hopefully in Turkey they would not mess up Turkish cuisine. The meal there was the best we had, indeed it was delicious from start to finish - tasty starters, well prepared and cooked chicken skewers and a baklava that was far superior to that served at the buffet. The only place that we felt a gratuity was earned. Unrushed friendly service and a chef who truly appreciated our favourable reactions to his cooking. It was a pity that this quality was not replicated in other areas.
I imagine that the poor standard of the food in general was a reason for the hotel not to discourage a tout from Murphy's restaurant, in Kusadasi, around the pools and beach. We would have gone there, but having an airborne shellfish allergy made such a visit ill advised. The tout, Michael, understood my allergies and warned us against most local restaurant because of their seafood specialities. Thankfully, much to the dismay of some other guests, there was very little shellfish on offer in the buffet, just the occasional prawn salad. I doubt if the hotel staff would have understood the requirements in respect of allergies, having seen the pistachio ice cream contaminating the vanilla due to using the same scoop without rinsing. There was no food labelling mentioning nuts or other allergens. There were vegetable dishes which contained meat, notably at breakfast the "omelette with vegetable" was liberally laced with diced sausage.
The bar service was hit and miss, at two different bars we were served pina coladas made with vodka! An after dinner digestif hazelnut liqueur in a shot glass was served in a salt rimmed glass with a slice of lemon, as if it was a tequila shot! Cocktail shakers were rarely used, cocktails were generally mixed in the glass. Conclusion: inexperienced untrained staff.
The beach bar had limited drinks options. Their lunch afternoon food service was generally OK, but after 4 days it became monotonous so we braved "feeding time at the zoo" that was the Ephesus buffet restaurant.
The corridor to our room (1401) was disgustingly filthy (see picture), it was quite depressing really. We also had to negotiate a steep slope as our room was at the far end, which my wife found difficult, but she coped with my assistance. We had upgraded to a superior deluxe room in the main building to avoid the slopes to and from the less expensive bungalows. The room was above the pool bar area so it was noisy until midnight and turned, with the likes of karaoke, so we couldn't settle down to sleep until then, only to be woken at 6am by the sound of chopping from the kitchen immediately below our room, as well as the moving of furniture. We considered requesting a different room, but met the occupant of 1402 which was his third room, so we decided to make the most of the poor situation rather than have the hassle of having to pack and move to something with potentially different issues.
We like to sleep with a window open for fresh air, but the noise made that difficult, so we opted to use the air conditioning and put up with the fan noise. The room did not cool down much, so when we mentioned this we were told that it only worked from 6pm to midnight. So we had endured the noise of the a/c after midnight unnecessarily for one night. Some other guests we spoke to had been to had been told the a/c worked from 10 pm til 3 am, so the staff were obviously unsure of what the timings were.
Even the lifts had no a/c much of the time, so very stuffy when crowded. Indeed, from past experiences hotel lobbies are usually cool, but here there was no place to escape the heat, unless there was the occasional sea breeze on a terrace.
Maid service consisted of just pulling the duvets up, replenishing the paper cups and toilet paper. The toilet pan was not cleaned at all during our stay.
The beach area was generally quiet, away from the loud sometimes inappropriate (drill rap? bad language) music around the main pool, but access to the sea was perilous so we did not attempt it. Three of the four access steps were broken and taped up (see picture). Their state of disrepair did not appear to be a recent issue, particularly as it affected three of the four. The only usable steps were at the far end of the beach area, which was generally crowded. We chose not to walk the length of the beach to gain access to the sea, particularly given the sea urchin warning signs. We were surprised that a blue flag was being flown, although the flag was faded, so probably earned several years ago.
This is the first tourist hotel that we have stayed at which allowed guests to bring dogs. Dogs were even allowed to be off their leads according to a member of the animation team, who told us he could not ask the owners to put dog on a lead.
Our balcony, which was much smaller than others, lacked a coffee table. It took four days of asking before one finally arrived, despite assurances each day that we would receive one.
Whilst waiting for the return transfer outside at the front of the hotel, which was pleasantly cool compared to the stuffy lobby, we found ourselves being sprayed with pesticides from a tractor at 20:40h. Why was this not done at a time when it was less likely for guests to be using the area?
The hotel promotes green credentials. That is a joke. No glasses for water in bedroom or bathroom, only paper cups in the rooms. We used 6 to 8 every day for our own teas and water, except on the day that the stock was not replenished so we had to re-use them. Very limited used of reusable plastic ware in pool and beach bar, one time use tumblers seemed preferable and easier for them. Even the lobby bar tried to serve a pina colada in a plastic tumbler on our first night because they did not have large enough glasses, except those for beer, which they deigned to use for our cocktails. At the end of our stay I did notice there were larger glass tumblers available."
