With so many breakfast options at the Baha Mar resort, we thought we’d share our opinion on what we tried thanks to our Hyatt status.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Thankful in The Bahamas
• WOW: Delta One Lounge LAX is Incredible
• Review: Delta One 767-300ER LAX-JFK
• Review: Delta One Lounge JFK
• Fun in the Sun: A Review of Grand Hyatt Baha Mar
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Breakfast Restaurants (this post)
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Dinner Restaurants
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Activities
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar – Pools and Beach
• Wet and Wild Excitement: Baha Bay Water Park
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar Thanksgiving Activities
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-800 Business Class NAS-PTY
• Review: Copa Club PTY Terminal 2
• Review: Copa Airlines 737-MAX 9 Business Class PTY-LAX

Hyatt Globalist Provides Free Breakfast

As a reminder from the prior post, if you have Globalist status with Hyatt or are going as a Guest of Honor booking an eligible rate, expect to receive a welcome letter when you check in. The letter detailed what restaurants were allowed for complimentary breakfast along with the total costs that would be waived.

• Eligible restaurants: Café Madeleine, Knosh, Palms Café, Regatta Buffet
• Total allowed charges (including 10% VAT and mandatory 15% service charge):
  • One registered adult: $50
  • Two registered adults: $100
  • Two adults, one child: $122.50
  • Two adults, two children: $145

Of the available options, we visited Regatta Buffet, Palms Café, and Café Madeleine.

Kids Aged 5 and Under Dine Free… Sometimes

There is an official website with the terms of the promotion:

• Must be a registered guest
• Children aged 5 and under get a free meal from the kids menu when a full-priced adult entrée is also ordered
• Not every restaurant participates

I’ve found that it is a legitimate promotion and that they didn’t need to see proof of age for the child (no need to walk around with your passports). You also need to specifically ask for it to be free, as otherwise the wait staff might not remove it proactively. However, sometimes the participating restaurants were not participating. As an example, Palms Café was listed as a participating restaurant–but only starting at lunch and not at breakfast.

Regatta

Our first stop was at Regatta, home to a fairly standard buffet offering. The cost for the buffet is $44/adults, $18/child before VAT and required service charge. If you include VAT and service charge, which is how the Globalist breakfast credit is listed as, you’ll pay $55/adult and $22.50/child. Your Globalist breakfast credit here will fully cover child costs but it won’t fully cover adult costs. In my case, I had five-year-old Char with me, helping us stay under the limit. I can’t confirm if they would charge you the incremental $5 for being over for an adult meal.

We got here at 8:15AM the first morning and encountered a 20-person line. Of course, by the time we had finished, the line was out the door. The best time to come here is before 8AM as in my own experience there is no line at that time.

Once inside, the buffet style reminds me a bit of how it works in Las Vegas. You pay for the buffet at the front, then give the receipt to an employee who will attempt to find a seat for you.

There were several different stations throughout the buffet, including multiple American sections, a Bahamian section, an Asian section, and a Mexican section. Don’t waste your time at the Asian section–I found the food bordered on being inedible.

The Mexican section was fine if you’re building your own taco (what else would you eat for breakfast?) but I found the tamales to be incredibly dry.

The fruit was generally refreshing. I saw some people taking the fruit from the display if they ran out of their preferred options in the bowls.

The Bahamian section was comprised of some soups or fish dishes, with Johnny cake tossed in. Just looking at it, I thought it would taste more like cornbread but instead it was more like plain cake and slightly dry. If there’s a common theme we encountered at the buffet, it was that baked goods lacked moisture.

There is a section with fresh juices. You’re supposed to use the stirrers to mix up the pulp with the juice but I found that the concept wasn’t widely understood. If you get juice that is nearly all gone, I found it to be incredibly pulpy.

There’s a griddle section where you can get specialty items like pancakes with the fillings you want or potato latke. I ordered a potato latke and it was a bit overcooked. It seemed like sometimes they left them on the griddle until someone took them instead of moving them to a plate when done.

Perhaps what was most surprising was the extensive display of desserts, ice cream, and popsicles. I never would have imagined needing such a heavy finish to breakfast, but it’s an option. Kids will be drawn to it like a magnet. It seemed like the popsicles were the most popular item to select (not just amongst our children) as the cakes were a bit much.

Overall, it’s just OK. It’s a buffet and quality of the food was just alright. It also felt very crowded here at all times, with long lines for both omelet stations.

Palms Café

As I mentioned earlier, though the restaurant participates in the kids eat free promotion for children 5 and under, it’s not available at breakfast. Thankfully, the cost of food here is far less than at Regatta, so if you’re dining with your Globalist breakfast benefit, it will be pretty easy to stay under the allowance.

The breakfast menu is pretty simple. If you’re trying to do the math on how much is covered by your Globalist breakfast benefit, add 25% to the prices shown here. Frankly, I wish they gave the Globalist allowance pre-VAT and pre-service charge to help keep the numbers straight when ordering breakfast. I’m a mathematician but that doesn’t mean I want to always do math.

The breakfast sandwich was good, but it fell apart very easily. It’s just contained inside a regular hamburger bun and I think some firmer bread would have kept it together a bit better.

The wild berry waffle could have used a few more berries, but it was a decent waffle: a bit of crisp on the outside and softness on the inside.

The french toast sandwich was incredibly dense. I’m sure you could tell based on the picture that it’s a bit too far on the sweeter side. I think it works if you’re looking for a heavy breakfast, but otherwise you might want to give it a pass.

The eggs and bacon was exactly what you expected it to be. I’m not sure I would be thrilled paid $24 for the meal, so it was good that it was covered by my Globalist status.

Lastly, we ordered some avocado toast. It was a welcome sight to get some smoked salmon on top and the flavors meshed well.

Collectively, the five items above cost about $139 after tax and VAT. We didn’t order any drinks though technically we did have some room left in the budget. As a breakfast place, I think we had mixed opinions in our group in comparing it to Regatta. From a quality perspective, I think it was marginally better at Palms than it was at Regatta, and some of the mixed opinion comes from just the variety.

If you’re here for the flamingo parade, which honestly felt like it was more of a parade of people following the flamingoes as they walk around (more on this in a future post), you will see them walk by at 9:30AM. However, depending on your seat, you might not be able to see much if there is a bush in the way. It’s a nice addition to see them walk by, but it didn’t feel like a must-do.

Café Madeleine

We only got around to trying Café Madeleine on our last morning here. That might have been a mistake. First of all, you’re going to want to get here before 8AM as lines do get long just like at Regatta. I think this tends to be the primary option for breakfast-goers who don’t want to eat the truly quick-service options (like Starbucks).

There is both indoor and outdoor seating, but it’s far preferable to sit indoors for a multitude of reasons: better ambience, comfortable seating, don’t need to worry about birds (or the business the birds left behind).

When you arrive, place your order at the front desk and then grab a seat. I should note that I’ve heard you can add alcoholic drinks (like mimosas) and it will be covered under the Globalist breakfast amount, but I didn’t get a chance to try it.

While you’re up there, you can also get a view of all the sweet treats they have to offer.

In any event, the muffins here are plenty moist, so it does have a leg up over the generally-dry baked goods over at Regatta.

We ordered two bagel sandwiches, which were absolutely massive. I like that you can customize which bagel to use as the bread in case there are preferences. I’d say the bagels were good, but it’s still not as delicious as a bagel from New York. The bagel sandwiches also come with a side salad.

We also ordered the bacon hash, which was smothered with a fried egg. The dish was pretty tasty and well-balanced with some much-needed greens.

Lastly, we also ordered a seasonal fruit bowl. The kids love their fruit and there was something for everything in this bowl.

The food above, plus two glasses of orange juice, put us at $123 after tax and VAT, well under the $145 allowed for the Globalist benefit. We debated getting back in line to get a drink (like a chai tea or a mimosa) but ended up not doing it because the line is just so long. If you’re not getting your breakfast comped, I think this is the place to go. In fact, I’d say this is the better place to go regardless–in pretty much all aspects, we liked it more here than at the other spots. We’re just disappointed we didn’t get a chance to stop by here until the very end of our stay.

Where do you like to eat breakfast?