Review: Dining At Hotel Cala Di Volpe

Call me crazy but 100 euros actually seems like a very fair price considering they had what looks like langoustines on offer. And that truffle pizza alone would be ~$30 USD in LA.

Surprisingly, their champagne prices are also quite reasonable.

Can't figure out how you aren't like 500 lb. You sit on airplanes just about 24/7. Eat like this. I just looked those photos and I gained 10lb

Would citi prestige concierge give the 4th night free at this resort with this half board rate)? Wonderful review. Mouthwatering!

How WAS the avocado though? I was impressed that the Andaz Tokyo had avocado but it was horrible

10 euro cokes.

Yeeeeeeah.

@Francisco - If the hotel offers a room only rate, then no they will not offer 4th night free on the half board rate from my experience.

That lunch buffet is worth 100 euro. I'm not saying I would or could do that every day on vacation, but I would do it once on the trip. Everything looks to be of very good quality. Even the crust on the pizza looks right, and a typical tourist trap would botch the pizza, even in Italy. That breakfast looks incredible - I barely even eat breakfast, but I'd have a good time with that.

The only criticism I'll offer (of the restaurant, not of Ben) is that other than some nice looking seafood, there didn't seem to be too much traditional Sardinian food on offer. That's a shame given the location and apparent food costs that management is willing to shoulder, as it's some of the most under-exposed food of all of the great things you find to eat in Southern Europe. The menus read more like what foreigners expect to eat in Italy (and as an Italian, I might suggest any time I see a Russian or German print menu, I can expect this), ignoring the regional nature of Italian food (or to state it another way, there isn't a such thing as Italian food). I'm not ragging on Russians or Germans, it's just how some tourist restaurants market toward those demographics.

That said, they took that and did something very high quality with it and I would totally eat all of it. The lunch price I thought was fair for what they were doing.

I would bet that if that same buffet was $35 you would have found it mediocre. But still 100eur is wayy to much. I have eaten at better buffets in Abu Dhabi for like a quarter of that cost, no joke

It really looks delicious, but if the ingredients are really high quality (as in, you didn't perceive them to be really good because of the price tag), the 100 euro doesn't seem that crazy for a buffet AND made to order food. 200 definitely is too much though.
However, and slightly unrelated, I have to concur with another comment above: how do you stay fit, given that you don't look particularly out of shape but you spend most of your life sitting in planes or at desks writing reviews, and gobbling outrageous amounts of (not super healthy) food ? This is a real question, I am wondering if you have a routine to keep it under control, or if you work out at the hotel gyms, etc... because for me if I travel even 2 weeks I WILL get back with extra pounds for sure :).

Makes me appreciate all those 5 EUR lunches with beer I ate in Slovakia. I can splurge on the high quality food meals I make for myself at home.

This is quite nitpicky, but I feel the plating is a bit lousy, especially with the steak and fries. Looks a little too golden corral.

@lucky did either breakfast lunch or dinner include alcohol?

1. I must say breakfast was disappointing the only hot item was eggs? No sausages, no bacon... meh from your past posts and my own experience some hotels in asia have better breakfast than that.

2. Lunch is a diff story...because you have those made to order dishes that is basically one whole fish.. a whole fish that size..I cant really see but at a place to this sort would probably run you more than 50 Euros... steak would be about the same... I think they assume everyone would have the steak and fish so it is priced accordingly. Whether this makes sense or is just maliciously expensive is if they include alcohol.

3. What about dinner is it also buffet style in the sense that you get a whole fish to share amongst you and you can have multiple orders or everything or you get to pick one each?

Looks good, yet again any good trattoria is Porto Cervo can cook that for 1/3 the price you paid - but I recognize the challenges of travelin to a place you are not familiar with.

Looks fantastic. You really have to work hard to go wrong when eating in Italy.

Looks like a standard five star hotel buffet in Asia - which you could easily get from about 50€ ( and often for less than that with credit card offers... )

Seems interesting that the lunch menu was in English and Russian, while the dinner menu was in English and German.

Perhaps lunches draw more Russian guests, whilst the dinners appeal more to German guests?

Curious...

Lunch buffet looks fine and all, but the server holding the platter of fish is "best in show"

Good spread but hardly "over the top". Plenty of places in Europe where you can get a better feast for far less. You need to get out of the big chain hotels more. There's a lot the world has to offer that you seem to be missing out on.

That is the kind of price these private island resort charge in the Tuamotu Atolls of French Polynesia , as everything is imported, and of far worse quality. On a different note, I think what Cala di Volpe is charging is way overpriced even by Italian standard, I would expect that price tag in Cannes or St Tropez or Capri, but not Sardinia. We got back from visited 3 different Greek islands two weeks ago and the food quality & buffet selection were all excellent for the half board plan which also includes local wines. They were a lot better than what I see in these pictures.

Question! Did you at any time see or hear any children staying in the hotel?

For such a fancy pants resort they do seem to have what appears to be cheap tiling, in both the public areas, as well as the guest room. Maybe they dont photo well.

A high-quality tourist trap is always better than a low-quality one, but it's still a tourist trap.

I wonder how many people eating there were Italians...

Expensive but they at least go to the effort of a very comprehensively provisioned buffet offering, and the same at dinner it would appear. Have to laugh at comments about much cheaper options at the same quality being available in Asia – absolutely true, but not of much use when you are in Sardinia of an evening.

What I think is fair is the point that potentially more interesting dining experiences are likely to have been available outside of the resort, but I know you have already stated you didn’t hire a car and sometimes there is a pleasure of just running with what a hotel offers, costs be damned!

And I think this is a good overall Trip Report by the way, even if the hotels are at a price point that many/most blog readers would not be willing or able to pay (and equally there may well be a sizable minority in the readership that do travel like this).

The setting, the occasion, the company (maybe even the high price tag?) will make it seem tastier and more special than it really is.
Frankly I believe my Intercon breakfast today was just as good: but hardly memorable because there was nothing special about the day.

I spied the jar of Nutella in one of the pictures, I'd have wanted to grab that and a spoon and be left alone for a while............