Hotel La Jolla, Curio Collection by Hilton

My two friends and I just returned from celebrating a birthday at Sea & Sky restaurant. Our lunch was so fabulous (delicious food, incredible view, and Laila was the loveliest server) that we decided that this is where we will be celebrating all of our birthdays.

I had an incredible lunch! The service was exceptional. My server, Laila, was incredibly sweet and amazing. The quinoa salad with salmon was simply superb. Plus the view of the ocean, just WOW. There were no clouds and the view of La Jolla was very beautiful!!!

Unfortunately, my weekend trip with my family was WROUGHT with issues. I paid for four rooms for my siblings and their children for a little 48 hour weekend "staycation." I am gold status with Hilton btw. One of the two elevators was broken, which was not a huge deal, but just added to the overall experience I am about to share. The air conditioner in my room was broken, so my first night was pretty awful, as itwas humid. Even thought the temperature outside was cool, the moisture was just trapped in my room and it was sweltering. I alerted the front desk the next morning, but was on my way out to enjoy the day with my family. Upon my return, I allowed a maintenance worker in. I waited 15 minutes for him, and then he spent another 20 minutes or so in the room tinkering around with the air conditioner unit, and assured me it was working, and to give it a half hour to cool the room down. I gave it a full hour and it was still not working. The fan blew, just no AC. Having wasted precious daytime hours on my only FULL day at the hotel, I again returned downstairs. The front desk staff was able to change my room, so that took another chunk fo time to pack again and then make the move to another room. Additionally, one of my siblings had a NASTY set of two huge stains on the chair in her room. How housekeeping missed that is beyond me. She took a picture and showed it to he front desk and they agreed it "needed to be steam cleaned." Later that evening, we decided to eat at the on site restaurant. One of my nephews and I headed up first. We were a large group, and they were booked up that night w RSVPs, which was understandable. So we asked if we could sit in the bar and order food there. The seating area in the bar was very sparsely populated. The hostess confirmed we could eat there. The rest of the family showed up about 10 minutes later, after we had ordered drinks. Our server was very nice, nut an HOUR AND A HALF LATER we had ZERO food. I was hangry at this point (and the children beyond exhausted) so I called over the manager for an explanation. he told us there were a few large parties there and the kitchen was way behind. Well, you have an RSVP system, so you should've been prepared. That's your one job. Additionally, he never once came over to offer us an appetizer to hold us over or ANYTHING I had to insist on that an hour and a half in -- once it was too late to go to another restaurant. He also told us the restaurant was responsible for all room service orders as well....so I feel bad for ANYONE in the hotel trying to eat that night. So I insisted on something to hold us over, and he sent out bread, which took another 15 minutes to make. We didn't get out meals until almost 2 hours from when we ordered. The food was fine. My nephews tiny hamburger was WAY undercooked and was bright pink. By this pont the kids were exhausted practically asleep, so they no longer wanted to eat, even though they were starving 2 hours before and should've eaten. We took pictures of that as well. The manager apologized and took 25% off our bill. When we saw the bill, it was only 17% off. He blamed it on "the system" and then went to him computer to figure out how to fix it. Still no bill 10 minutes later. At this point I was BEYOND DONE. I told him we were leaving. The next day when I checked out, I told the front desk that was the worst hotel stay I have ever had. She apologized that they "didn't meet expectations" which is the standard copy and paste response. I just feel that a hotel of this "caliber" should be able to manage a seamless 48 hour weekend stay for their guests, with minimal issues. That was not our experience. The grounds are nice (if not a little dated) and it's walking distance from some shops and restaurants. downtown La Jolla, with the cove and other more famous tourist attractions, is a 30 min walk, which was fine for us, because we already knew and were prepared, but just a heads up. The gym is barely a gym, which again, was fine for us, as that wasn't high on our priority list, but just a heads up. I called Hilton corporate and they gave me 50K points, but that does not cover the bad experience for 8 people, in my opinion. I would not return to this property.

My mom and I enjoyed speaking with Laila, our waitress. She recommended the smash burger. 🍔 It was delicious! Isabella, the Curio manager, greeted us upon arrival. On the day of our departure, she was so helpful in immediately resolving an issue with my bill. Much appreciated! I would come back in a heartbeat based on these 2 interactions alone!! Property is beautiful and quiet. And so close to the water.

Eddie our waiter at the Sea & Sky Restaurant was totally outstanding. His mannerism, professionalism and interaction with us daily was exceptional. He went out of his way to speak about life in general in an upbeat and respectful manner…….