Eating at the Sofitel continues…………….
Arrival Day - July 7, 2017
The Sofitel truly is a family friendly place. Big enough to spread out and buffer the noise while comfortable enough to blend in.
I love this video. It showcases the hotel with emphasis on the family atmosphere and highlights a lot of what we just walked through here.
This one’s for the kids too. Have Fun!
Dinner at the hotel.
Where and what to eat when not on the ship was a recurring theme throughout the entire 2 wk vacation. Especially since most of those meals were on the fly.
And when you have 2 men in your 3 person travel party, food becomes an essential part of the trip.
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Arrival day would be no exception.
It was after 9:30pm. The night was coming to an end - fast! JQ and Iron Man were starting to hit a wall. They needed to eat something – anything before they crashed.
Nobody felt like walking back to terminal 5 to check out the food situation, so we opted to dine at the hotel.
But first, we had to stop by the transportation desk to figure out the best way to get into London by 5am tomorrow.
One of the positives about large international hotels like the Sofitel are the variety of dining options. Whether it be a club lounge, or a quick bite at the bar, or sitting down at a restaurant or just ordering room service – they’ve got you covered.
Here’s the list of choices presented when we checked in.
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Our pick? Enter Vivre
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Great casual place. They've got something for everyone - starters - kids menu - homemade rustic pizza - lite & full course meals - and they seat til 10:30pm. perfect!
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I forgot to photograph the menu. So I'll walk you through as best I can.
We decided on dinner. This was a delicious meal.
Fresh bread service to start.
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Classic Caesar Salad - with anchovies, crispy parma ham, croutons and parmesan cheese
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They had a
gnocchi special on the menu, tossed in a blush sauce with fresh basil.
Sadly, this was our miss of the night. It turned out to be pre-made and not the best choice at this restaurant. (too bad)
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The grills and curry dishes were recommended as house specialties and very popular.
Sounds good. We’ll try one of each.
Spicy Thai Green Curry - served with spiced coconut rice, prawn crackers
your choice of: Vegetable _ Chicken _ Seafood
Iron Man chose the seafood
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Grills "All our steaks are from Dedham Vale in Suffolk."
Char-grilled Rib Eye Steak (10 oz) - with watercress, melted cherry tomatoes & pont neuf potatoes
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Excellent Recommendations!
Total cost for this meal was £90**
I have nothing to compare this to since this was our only dinner in England.
(If anyone would like to share their London food experiences – please do! I’d love to hear how everyone else fared.)
**The £90 included either a 12 or 15% VAT automatically added in. (can't remember)
What’s this??
We asked for an explanation because we couldn’t figure out if this was the gratuity or some other tax?
The response wasn’t very clear. We were told that the VAT was a service fee at the restaurant but not the same as a gratuity. (Sounds like a tip to me).
Something along the lines of the funds are paid for all the services of the restaurant and they could take it off the bill if we wanted. (meaning what? that we weren’t willing to pay for service?)
It was late. We were confused. We didn’t want to do the wrong thing but we had no idea what the right thing to do was. So we decided to leave the VAT on the bill and add in a gratuity to gross it up to 20%.
After reading this article – I now understand exactly what they were saying.
https://www.tripsavvy.com/when-is-tipping-expected-1662410
(apparently it is customary not to add extra to the bill when a VAT tax is already being charged, unless your server did something extraordinary)
I guess we now need to understand the definition of “extraordinary” when it comes to dining out in London.
London travel tip #3: Understand the VAT tax refund before you shop in the UK.
(much more on this later)
But you can start here:
http://www.heathrow.com/airport-guide/terminal-facilities-and-services/vat-refunds
This applies to shops in England, Ireland, Scotland and any Disney purchases on the ship.
There is a complicated refund process at the airport to contend with as one of ways to get your money back. (not sure about France)
Also, you
MUST ask for a VAT refund form from EACH VENDOR AT THE POINT OF SALE if that purchase exceeds a certain amount. You need this in order to submit a valid claim for refund for that particular receipt.
Be diligent & learn before you go. (Hopefully, between everyone here, we can spell out a lot more details on this topic)
Do not make the same mistakes we did.
We didn’t find out about this until we were on the ship and unfortunately lost the ability to claim any refund at Stonehenge.
Next up: A walk among the stones.