Royal Hotel Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 18 October 2025

At first glance, this would seem to be another of those excellent Southeast Asian hotel breakfasts. Unfortunately, the first glance is not confirmed by the second glance. Yes, there is a reasonable variety of local and foreign food. But, then disappointment sets in. The bread is uninspiring. The tea is not only bags only, but pre-brewed Liptons! (And I’m not sure if it was black tea either, there was some kind of strange fruity taste to it.) There is one type of cheese, unidentified and cut into unappetising, fairly thick, squares. The fresh fruit choice was nothing much. In fairness, the scrambled eggs (prepared at the egg bar, not ready-made) were very good, although the bacon was not great. I could go on, but why bother. Suffice it to say that this could have been an excellent breakfast, that at best it was average, and that because the hotel otherwise was very nice, I will be generous and give it 5/10.