Hard Rock Hotel and Casino

Location: Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Phone: (809) 731-0000
Website: www.hardrockhotelpuntacana.com
Price: n/a (part of timeshare)
Credit Cards: All major

Rooms: 9
Service: 9
Value: 9
Amenities: 9

Length of Stay: 7 nights

Last year, I thought Beach Palace in Cancun was the best hotel, but Hard Rock was actually slightly better. The room was probably about the same sq. footage, but had a more original design. Everything was laid out on a diagonal and there was a step down to the jacuzzi and porch. Furniture and bath area were the same high quality that's probably characteristic throughout all Palace Resorts properties.

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There's no contest when it comes to services. I've never had any as good as this hotel. Everyone was super nice. The rooms were kept clean... almost too clean in my opinion. Housekeeping would come by at least 3x a day. I think once is enough! Occasionally a worker would mess up because of language barrier, but I didn't sense any hesitation from a single staff member when I came to helping people out. Everyone was polite and patient. Our tours, spa credits and photographer credits were allocated properly and I didn't feel at any point that we were being ripped off. I had suspected that in Cancun.

This resort is a truly self sufficient ecosystem. There's a comfortable amount of space for the amount of guests staying there. There are enough pools, dining areas and other services to go around. The fitness center is state-of-the-art in contrast to the tiny ones in Cancun. Phone calls to the US are included. Wi-fi has good coverage. It's only lost out in the beach, but that's understandable.

If this is Palace Resort's ultimate accommodation, then I'd rather come back to this one every year rather than go to another destination!

Toro

Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Buffet (breakfast & lunch), Steak (dinner)
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)

Food: 8
Service: 10
Value: n/a
Environment: 10

Frequency: Uncommon

Toro is supposed to be Hard Rock's top restaurant with it being a steakhouse. It probably had the best decor and service compared to all of the others. I gave it rare 10's for both. Other than Zen, it was the only other one that required reservations.

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We first went there as a group on 5/10. Most of us enjoyed the food, but a few who ordered the well done steaks thought it was too dry. That's the main reason I never order well done from a steakhouse. My medium cooked top sirloin turned out just right. For our last dinner of the trip (tonight), Ifore, Jiselle and I came back while the rest of the group took a chance on "Asian Night" at Zen.

The portion sizes varied depending on what was ordered. The beef tenderloin I had the second night was about half the size of the top sirloin. Both were pretty good though. Ifore's rib eye was thin, but juicy. Service and environment were consistently great after 2 nights there. I gave the food an 8 because it wasn't as good as the NY steakhouses, but a step up from diners and non-steakhouse restaurants.

At the end of the last night, it turned out that we made the right choice of eating at Toro. The others didn't enjoy their Chinese meal at Zen, solidifying my rule of no Chinese outside of NY and China!

Cafetto

Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Italian, Cafe
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: n/a
Environment: 9

Frequency: Common

I first tried out Caffeto when the rest of the group went to the timeshare presentation and then recommended it because they had a very good non-buffet breakfast menu. Most of the items were actually healthy too. I got my parents there one morning and the whole group for lunch after our snorkeling tour.

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Though it's a close comparison with Ciao, this would have to be my favorite breakfast restaurant because of the specially cooked eggs. But I didn't feel they had anything as special on their lunch menu. Service here was very good... well staffed for the number of seats and organized system. The place was also comfortable for the small space it had.

Snorkel Paradise

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Romantic Dinner

Some of the credits were allocated to a romantic dinner for the parents, but I joined them for photos... which we had to use up the rest of the spare credits on. While the photography team works hard, the resulting pictures don't look like ones shot by a professional from an SLR (I retouched them before posting to my Mom's Picasa account). And I noticed that they were using a free Kodak image editor to retouch the photos.

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Ciao

Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Buffet, Italian
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: n/a
Environment: 8

Frequency: Common

Ciao was our regular meeting place because most of the time, we didn't have a fixed schedule and just needed to round everyone up to eat. Since it's a buffet, there's no wait time and enough variety that everyone can enjoy their meal. Services all around were great despite the high volume of guests they get each day.

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Breakfast
Though it was always good, I think the breakfast services were the best. The guy at the grill was friendly and efficient. He handled all custom orders with precision. The end product not only tasted great, but looked good enough for a photo ad. I think he should move to NY if he wants to make the big bucks! Oh... he's a Yankees fan too. Outside of the grill, the readymade items consisted of generic breakfast foods (scrambled eggs, French toast, pancakes) as well as Dominican specialties (plantains, fajitas, various sausages).

Lunch
Lunch was the same no matter which buffet place you went to. We tried out Isla and Toro by the beach. The burgers are tiny and dry. The pork chops were great. Pasta was good too. The thing that made Ciao more appealing than the other buffets for lunch was the environment. Even though it was a buffet, the space and cleanliness had a restaurant feel to it.

Dinner
For dinner, Ciao became an Italian restaurant with a menu rather than buffet. The neat thing about the dinner style was the appetizers were still buffet style. So if you wanted to try 2 soups, you can get a little of each and not waste anything. For my entree, I had a mushroom fettuccine. I wanted to test this dish out because Pizzeto reused the buffet mushrooms for their pizza topping. I thought Ciao would too, but to my surprise it was a better mushroom and even the pasta was different than the buffet version.

Moon Rocker Adventures

Our second trip outside of Hard Rock's walls wasn't very far, but it was fun. We signed up for an ATV tour to another Dominican home. I originally thought we'd be driving around on an empty piece of beach, but it was a lot more than I expected. The tours started around the hotel and beach at first. But we eventually left the premise, crossed the highway and went onto real dirt roads. The course included a variety of surfaces that really showed what the vehicle could do.

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This is one tour I'd like to do again on a future return trip. Next time, I would be more prepared though. The ride is extremely dusty. Every piece of clothing will be covered in sand by the end of this. Protective goggles and a nose/mouth guard would be good too.

Pizzeto

Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Pizza, Mediterranean
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: n/a
Environment: 9

Frequency: Uncommon

I have a general travel rule that New Yorkers should not eat Chinese or Italian food if they're visiting a destination that's not named China or Italy because NY is the best in the world outside of the 2 originating countries. I'll make an exception in this case though. We ended up trying out Pizzeto because there were a lot of pizza fans in the group. And naturally vacation brings about a pizza craving.

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Pizzeto wasn't the generic pizzeria I expected in a foreign country. It actually felt like a real Italian place with it's brick oven pizza and other Mediterranean offerings. The pizza itself was comparable to some NY restaurants and blew away anything in my 2 previous cruise vacations. My guess is that the staff was either sent to Italy for training or had an Italian chef flown in. The food also had a good taste partly due to the high quality ingredients of the Dominican Republic, as their milk is all organic and vegetables have minimal to no pesticides.

All restaurants in Hard Rock had good service, but I gave this one slightly lower because their system wasn't as efficient. When seating guests, there would be a line at the entrance and the hostess would slowly walk back and forth, escorting and seating each party one by one. There should be someone always at the front desk and the waiters should escort the parties. Also, a couple of times there was a piece of silverware missing and no one around to help. I had to chase down the guy setting the empty tables. Maybe this place was just short staffed.

The Dominican Experience

Our first tour and first time leaving the resort was called The Dominican Experience. I thought this was the most important tour to use credits on because it's the one that has the most to do with the culture of the country. The others are more recreational and identical to offers in Mexico.

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Related: Bavaro Runners

Ipanema

Location: Hard Rock Hotel, Punta Cana, Dom. Rep.
Cuisine: Brazilian
Prices: n/a (all inclusive)
Credit Cards: n/a (all inclusive)

Food: 8
Service: 10
Value: n/a
Environment: 10

Frequency: Uncommon

Note: This review is based on 2 dinners from 5/7 and 5/8. Photos in the Picasa album are also from 2 separate days.

Saturday, 5/7
For our first visit to this place, yesterday, we weren't that familiar with the routine. I thought it was going to be the same as all of the Brazilian places in NYC where waiters walk around with meat on swords and just keep offering different cuts until you flip the disc on your table to signal them to pause. In Ipanema, it's more like a multi-course meal. You get appetizers at the buffet tables first. Then there's an optional paella dish. After that, the same waiter walks back and forth with different cuts of meat in a fixed order. This time around, everyone ordered a paella dish, which made us full too early. I ended up skipping the last 3 or 4 cuts of meat. I felt the beef and pork cuts were dry. The chicken came out pretty good and the paella was above average, but I've had better.

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Sunday, 5/8
We actually came here 2 days in a row because many others in my group liked it and felt it was a better value for dinner occasions. If I was vacationing alone, this place would have been a one-time visit and have a rating of 7. It turns out that Ipanema is hit or miss, which is why I have the "frequency" stat. That way readers can factor in my experience with each restaurant. For our second visit, every cut of meat the waiter brought by tasted great. If I had come on this day only, the food would've gotten a 9. So I gave it the average of the 2 visits... 8. Today was also Mother's Day, but since we were on vacation, no one really remembered it except me. But I kept it quiet until dinner time. At the right moment, I talked to the waiter privately to see if he could do something for the 3 mothers at the table. Of course I had to explain the holiday to him first! I guess all the other American families forgot about it too. We worked out that the staff would bring out cakes that they normally give to birthday people, but no need to sing.