Mona Pavilions

This was my 5th time at Mona and 5th stay at the pavilions. Let me start with saying that this is a 5 out of 5 stay but I have chosen a 4 out of 5 to make sure that they fix the "issue".... There is no doubt one notices little cuts here and there. I have stayed enough times to notice a few things have changed (amenities...). There is also no doubt the staff is the best and friendliest in the universe. They are all one more amazing than the other. Also, there is no doubt the food is the big "issue" right now at MONA. For food I mean DINNER, no issue for lunch, as there are plenty of choices on site and they are all good. You used to get room service, blame covid now, the great excuse for everything that does not work these days or when you decide you need to make some cuts, and room service is gone. The Source is shut in the evening (who knows why? every restaurant in Hobart is busy, but the Source is shut). Faro (I had already eaten at Faro twice before, in the pre-covid days, by the way) has now become one of those places where you are not allowed to choose what you want to eat but someone else is: the chef. I do not eat what someone else wants me to eat, sorry. I find it incredibly rude not to offer - an a la carte menu. Also, with an open kitchen nearby in the evening, you could easily organise some kind of room service. Just put three commons sense things on the menu (steak, fish and chips, club sandwich even, sigh....) that everyone would / could eat (I am Italian 100% and GOOD food is a priority here!) and everyone would not have to get an Uber to go to town to have a dinner. Also, you do not spend this kind of $ to stay somewhere and then get told "you are allowed to cook in your room!" really? and I need to go and get stuff from the supermarket? like, I travel with butter, olive oil, salt pepper...? nope, I don't! and I cook in my room if I stay two nights? Or "you can order a takeaway"... really? Faro's (master)chef won't deliver to your room because "the food will be spoilt" (we were told), but it's ok to order a disgusting UBER thing and wait an hour for the food to get rotten in the carton box? And let's not even get to the lack of any suggestions. You should have a list of places to recommend, you should have some options. Haven;t we heard enough Tasmania is a food place? Really? (mind you, we tried to book a few places a good month in advance and everything on Sundays is either shut or fully booked). Then you say "have a pizza" What pizza? An american fake pizza version that an Italian could easily start a war for? Ha! But... thinking maybe the whole dinner experience was a test from Mr Walsh, we headed down to the Granada Tavern (yes, could be a mega instal with real people playing real people and cooking real food, etc...) and the food was actually ok, pub food, insanely affordable and not greasy,,,, so why do I complain? I have discovered that when you stay at a place for $800 a night you can just visit your local tavern and may

I love MONA like crazy. Really love the museum and the art but this is meant to be a review of the hotel portion, so will stick to that. Difficult to find where you check in, but once we did, the experience was sublime. We were greeted at the reception desk by friendly, welcoming people. Our room (Esmond) was gorgeous with interesting art and furniture. Very much appreciated the complimentary bottle of sparkling wine. Delicious! Everything is the highest quality: appliances, electric shades (that work!), heating under the floor, linens. Bathroom has a very cool sink but here is my one quibble. I wish they had frosted the glass to the toilet area. We had a beautiful view from our deck and we felt like we were in nature with all of the trees and bushes surrounding us. After the museum closed we wandered around the quiet grounds and loved sitting and peacefully watching Amarna by James Turrell with just one other couple there. Breakfast the next morning was wonderful. I had cappuccino and poached eggs on spinach over gluten free bread per my request. Husband had a latte, an omelette with truffles and mushrooms plus an order of stewed fruit. All good. It was served in a room with floor to ceiling glass looking out over the bay. The whole time we felt like we were treated like royalty because we were guests of the hotel. I wish I could remember specific names, but truly, all the staff was terrific.

We stayed in the Robin pavilion. Pros: The beautiful views and the spacious pavilion. Cons: Flies hovering everywhere in the pavilion and limited choices for breakfast. Video art feature was also not working in the pavilion.