One Hit, And a Miss, While Dining At The Standard Downtown LA

1:30am. There we were in our room at the Standard Downtown LA, avoiding writing the stories that were due bright and early the next morning, and it hit us: a hot chocolate would really hit the spot right now, and maybe even give us the jump start we need to finish our work.

Illogical, maybe. But we're self-professed sugar fiends, and require just the slightest hint of an excuse to indulge.

So we picked up the room service menu, conveniently placed beside the bed, and checked out what was on offer. Ooh, an Irish Hot Chocolate, with Bailey's Irish Cream!�that ought to perk us right up. Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, an attendant showed up at the door, bearing a lukewarm hot chocolate, with the liquids separated, and a bill of $19.34. Jeez.

We take full responsibility for trying to satisfy a craving that would have been better left un-quenched, and for having failed to do the proper math. (Even though the drink showed up on the menu for just $13, after tax, a room service fee, and gratuity had all been added on, we were face-to-face with a $20 hot chocolate. A boozy one at that, but still...)

However, to make an unfortunate situation slightly better, our attendant immediately sensed that the drink might not have been as fresh off the stovetop (or microwave) as we would have liked, so he offered to run it down to the kitchen for us and bring it back again piping hot. Much appreciated, Phillip!

But we can't claim that all of our dining experiences at the hotel were that terrible. The next morning, we treated ourselves to breakfast in the hotel's all-yellow 24-hour restaurant (named, unssumingly, 24/7 Restaurant). And that's where the hotel really shone for us.

Amidst an entirely yellow-painted diner (yellow floors, yellow booths, yellow chairs), we ate a yellow omelette (spinach, mushrooms and swiss, in case you were wondering) with toast and potatoes, for just $10, plus $3 for tea. That bill made us way happier than the one we half-heartedly signed the night before. And did a much better job of making us feel re-charged, too!

The diner was practically empty, though, which worked well for us�underslept as we were, and still with a bunch of emails to send and stories to write, we were grateful for the quiet, monochrome breakfast we enjoyed in near total peace.

[Photo: HotelChatter]

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