Critic's Review
When Diamondrock Hospitality took over they Westin, they kicked out long-time tenant Shula's on the Beach and installed their own restaurant, naming it American Vintage. Other than the signs and menu, there's nothing different here from the outdated Shula's.
It's your typical, ineptly marketed hotel restaurant,with not even a menu on their website; they still list Andres Teran as their executive chef; he left to man the kitchen at Margaritaville in March. Who knows who's cooking now; not that an ex Morton's Chef knows how to do more than flip a $50 steak.
On a sunny Saturday morning I decided to have breakfast at the beach. It was 77 degrees when I made the decision at 9am. Finding a place to go wasn't as easy at is should be. I've had some really bad breakfasts at the beach. While Spazio and Cafe Del Mar offer nice views, they also offer lousy breakfasts. Forget Rock Bar. I thought about H20, for a minute, but I hate sitting in their makeshift patio that's just a bunch of tables on the sidewalk. Nothing in Beach Place. I've had zero interest in going to American Vintage; and their lack of a menu to see how much they were gouging gave me pause. But I figured I had few other choices.
From the street, nothing has changed. They've just slapped a sign on the awning.
I got a metered spot on the side road right around the corner. They offer $9 valet parking to restaurant guests; not really a great deal. The temperature was up to 83, and as I walked over I wondered if eating outside was going to be comfortable. Maybe 85 in a 1/2 hour.
I walked up the steps to the patio and they had a menu on a stand; a dinner menu at 10:15am. Way to lure people in. I stood there for a few minutes with my big camera; restaurant employees flew by without 1 offering me assistance. The patio was pretty full, and I didn't want to sit in the sun; normally it's the way to go. I took a picture on my way out.
I found a breakfast menu on a table and looked at that as I waited; $14 for bacon and eggs. ugh. Pretty typical for a hotel restaurant. After a couple of minutes I remembered that the hostess stand is inside at the hotel entrance to the restaurant. So I walked through the restaurant. It was nice and cool inside, and there were some other people, so I decided I'd sit inside. As I got to the stand, I noticed that there was an omelet station set up, as well as a fairly large buffet. I didn't see a buffet on the menu.
I got a seat by the window in the front of the restaurant, and re-examined the menu to find out how much the buffet cost. The buffet definitely wasn't on the menu. There also was no server around.
As it turns out there was 1 women handling the entire inside of the restaurant, which is ridiculous. She eventually made here way over, and I asked about the buffet. $21 and it includes juice and coffee. Doing some quick math, $14 plus coffee would be $18 for their lowest end offering, so I figured I'd load up on calories for the day, and opted for the buffet. She promised to bring me coffee.
I headed over to the buffet and asked the omelet dude to make me "2 over-easy", as he had a pile of real eggs along with the yellow omelet potion. Most people were loading up on fruit; I don't mix fruit with protein, but they did have some nice danish, and lots of add-ins for the available oatmeal.
There was only 1 4 slot toaster, which was the big bottleneck in the place. People would put bread in and then go back to their table; they need another toaster. They had the standard scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon and sausage. Nothing ground breaking. They were almost out of everything; not good for 10:30 when they serve until 11:30. On my way back to my table I picked up my eggs, which the cooker dude had burned in his too hot frying pan. He'd also broken a yolk, which is just fantastic.
I'd been gone for maybe 10 minutes, and I still hadn't gotten any coffee. I had to hold my cup up to get some attention. I figured I'd given her enough time so being obnoxious was warranted.
Putting it all together, it looked sort of like a regular breakfast. The english muffin was a nice change from toast, and I usually don't go for the $4 glass of OJ. The sausage was cold, but the potatoes were better than expected.
I was enjoying the air conditioning, and I had a view of the beach, sort of. I kept waiting for the bus to move, but it was parked there for most of my time here.
I went back for seconds, this time opt'ing for an omelet. As I walked by the omelet dude I point at ham, onions and mushrooms and head into the buffet room. To my delight, everything had been replenished. Hot sausages and bacon, and peppers and onions with the hot potatoes.
I got back and my stuff was frying in oil; usually you don't cook ham and mushrooms in oil, but they do here. There were a couple guys at the bar; not sure why anyone would want to see there for breakfast.
When he poured the eggs into the pan I thought he'd never stop pouring; this dude had no concept of proportionality. I don't really want 6 eggs in an omelet.
Kind of a mess. It's too bad these places charge $21 for a buffet and they can't hire someone who knows how to cook, or at least someone who takes more care. You wouldn't get something like this out of the kitchen, so why can't the guy outside make a decent omelet? This was a cruise ship omelet. Maybe slightly better than the hacks they have at HomeTown Buffet.
So this was taking longer than expected, and I'd only put 58 minutes in the meter and it was getting close to being up. Of course I had no chance of getting my check. The table next to me kept getting more people; some big party that was coming down 2 at a time. And another table of 5 sat down that totally slammed the 1 waitress.
I hit the men's room and as I passed indicated to my server that I wanted my check. It took her another 5 minutes to actually get to me. I feared that I was going to get a $20 parking ticket as I was now 10 minutes expired. Luckily there was no ticket when I got back to the car.
Conclusion
As a restaurant, you'd never know that Shula's left, at least for breakfast. Service is slow and horrific, and I seriously doubt that they've hired anything but the cheapest available people for the kitchen. I wouldn't spend their prices for dinner; I have no confidence that it's worth anything close to what they're charging.
They have a buffet during the week without the omelet station; I'm not sure if it costs the same. Considering that the guy is cooking eggs with a pan on a high flame, I'm not sure it's really that much of a plus.
If I was staying at the hotel, there certainly is no reason to leave the hotel for breakfast. You're not going to do better than this. One strategy might be to pay the $21 and stuff your face for breakfast so you can skip the bad $17 sandwiches at the beach restaurants.