Critic's Review
Down by the beach, your dining choices are an intermingling of crusty old places that have somehow survived and big fancy hotels that count on their guests not wanted to go to one of the crusty old places for breakfast. How else can you explain the Ritz Carlton charging $4 for 1 egg? The Deck fits the "crusty old" mold; and it fits it from head to toe.
There's an old entrance on the south side that's bolted shut; a rusty gate that I first thought might open. But you have to go around to the hotel driveway side to get in. At the entrance, you're greeted by a big Pirate. Sort of like Vegas without the fun.
There's a big sign that says wait to be seated, but every single person who came in was just told to sit anywhere they wanted. I wanted to get the best view; in the middle there was a family with 2 small children and a dog; I wanted to stay away from that action. So I grabbed a seat by the entrance. The place has stainless steel tables and metal and wicker chairs with the kind of table setup you see at an old-time diner. Silverware comes in a paper bag. But you can't beat the view.
The menu here is carefully crafted to not give you a very good deal. The first thing you notice is the NO SUBSTITUTIONS on the top of the menu. Nothing like coddling your customers. The combos cost more than the non-combos. The Sunshine "Special" is $6.50 and includes coffee, but they charge $3 for sausage or bacon, which is the same as they charge at the Riverside Hotel. The Deck Combo One is $7.50 and they give you a half order of sausage and a half order of bacon, but no coffee. Coffee is $2.50, so it's $10 total. So they're charging you .50 for half orders of bacon and sausage instead of just a full order of 1 of them.
I went with the Sunshine special with sausage, as if that should surprise any of my regular readers. Coffee here comes in a heavy duty (and small) ceramic cup.
This is the kind of place where they top off your coffee every few minutes without asking; doesn't anyone know that unless you drink your coffee black this is just plain annoying? Having to re-sugar my coffee every few minutes is a pain. And when you get it just right, they come along and ruin it again. On my first refill my server spilled coffee on the table and made zero effort to wipe it up. Inconvenience is a virtue here.
A runner brought out the plate.
Now the big problem with this was that there was too much stuff piled on one plate. The toast was unbuttered, and they only gave me 2 little containers of butter which was only enough to butter one slice of bread. Without a side plate, the whole thing was difficult to manage. I looked around for a few minutes hoping to ask for a side plate, but servers were disinterested. So I tried to separate the sausage and potatoes and put a couple of napkins down on the table for the toast. I think it's interesting they they give you unlimited napkins but not enough butter to properly spread on 2 pieces of bread. Aren't paper products more expensive than butter these days?
The food was fine; nothing great but nothing bad either; although the coffee wasn't very good. And the sugar here seemed like it might be a placebo. It didn't seem to matter how much I put in; it didn't get any sweeter.
They add an 18% gratuity, which explains the indifferent service. Another sub-par experience at the beach. Nothing surprising here.