Breakfast at Courtyard by Marriott Kyoto Shijo Karasuma Hotel: Semi-Buffet Style With Limited Options
The breakfast at Courtyard by Marriott Kyoto Shijo Karasuma Hotel was of the semi-buffet style and was served inside one of the restaurants.
I went to Le Bon Vivre, where breakfast was served every morning. There were already a few people seated inside.
There were instructions at the front which explained what a guest was to do when they came to have breakfast (just like the detailed instructions they have in their gym and laundry).
For a hotel buffet, there were a limited number of dishes served. The hot dishes and bakery items were served at the table while the cold selection could be picked up from the buffet counters. And you could ask the staff for second helpings!
On one table were the juice and the water. There was also a bottle of cold milk.
I saw tomato juice, orange juice and apple juice. Rows of clean glasses sat beside the juice containers and there were packets of tea, coffee and creamer on one side.
Guests could make hot or cold drinks to their own liking.
A huge bowl of salad had tons of lettuce and other salad greens. The guests could serve themselves with a pair of tongs.
There was a variety of vegetables like carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and red and orange bell peppers. I could add whatever vegetables I liked to my salad greens.
And for my pick of dressings, there was Thousand Island, French dressing and Grain Mustard Vinaigrette. If I wanted, I could use simple olive oil, black pepper and rock salt to season my salad.
The cold meats section had two different kinds of ham as well as smoked salmon.
The cheese section also had a variety of choices. Something that I had never seen at a hotel buffet before was the orange cream cheese filling. There was also Camembert and slices of Cheddar.
Fresh fruits like kiwi and pineapple had been peeled and cut into small pieces. It would be a refreshing bite between all the other heavy dishes.
The other sliced fruit included persimmon, grapefruit, oranges and bananas. I had never seen unpeeled bananas cut in such a manner!
Dried pineapple and cranberries were some other options. And there were three different kinds of jam, like blueberry, strawberry and marmalade. They had plastic cups of yogurt, along with honey.
There were options for sweetened and unsweetened yogurt.
Guests could serve themselves bowls of cereal from the cereal dispensers. It was kept at the breakfast bar and the servers were ready to make all kinds of drinks with all kinds of syrups at the order of the guests.
From the hot foods section, I ordered a little bit of everything. They brought me a plate of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns and ratatouille gratin.
The bakery served up croissants, baguettes, muffins and slices of toast with pats of butter on the side. The croissants were flaky and the toast was a perfect golden brown in color.
I sat at a small table for two under a red wall. The wall was filled with photographs of Kyoto. There were photos both big and small and it made for a very attractive looking space.
