Hotel Breakers - Needs better restaurants

Anyone else agree? Perkins and TGIF are pretty crappy options in my opinion. Or at least if ya have a chain, have something like a J Alexander’s which has very good food. Or maybe some different type of restaurant that’s not a chain?

I'm not a huge fan of either of those places, but I totally disagree with you. I mean, yeah, we all want Breakers to have our favorite restaurants in it, right? But what it has now, has a lot of the bases covered for this type of environment. Perkins for breakfast, TGIF for lunch or dinner outside with some drinks, and Tomo Hibachi if you want to have a "show" and a bit more with your dinner. Bay Harbor is your upscale option, which you can get a shuttle to for free.

From the family perspective, those two restaurants are fine. Perkins, in my experience, makes a pretty good breakfast. Not Berardi's-good, but certainly good enough for a family staying on the peninsula.

As far as an upscale dining option, I'm not sure I'd trust a seasonal park to provide me a satisfying meal at that price point. Looking at Bay Harbor's menu, I see a filet costs $35. Looking at reviews as provided by Google, Bay Harbor is rated at 4/5 stars. For a $35 dollar steak I expect better.

Maybe there's a reason they stick to mediocre-to-decent chains.

That's exactly what I was typing. Perkins is pretty great for breakfast, if expensive. Tomo is a nice little place, and Fridays.. meh. It's overpriced and I could see something that better fits the "theme" of the resort there. A lakeside resort restaurant with some seafood, and fresher, better options.

As far as Bay Harbor, I've eaten there a couple of times, and I would say the price point is/would be right in line with the food I was served, if the decor was brought up to modern upscale dining standards. I haven't been inside in the last 3 years or so, but it was pretty dated when I was last in. Lots of brass fixtures and the like.

No updates inside at Bay Harbor but they did update the patio a little bit, and they bring in some performers that play on the patio on the weekends.

I’ve always thought Perkins was a good choice. Maybe because the area I’m from, Perkins is one of the go to places for breakfast and late night meals (ours are open 24 hours).

I agree. Perkins and TGIFridays are not very good options.

Perkins and Friday’s are appropriate options with well established brands for the market, they’re generic and safe. They have broad menu appeal to suit across wide demographics. Tomo is a good option for the more adventurous and higher end. Also, CP would not want to compete against itself in the fine dining option of Bay Harbor.

Fridays as a chain is struggling, along with a lot of other casual dining restaurants. I think it was a good marriage at first, as there was a location (or two?) in Sandusky. The dining brand needed not only to be familiar to the masses but willing to operate a seasonal location. Perkins also fit that bill. Just about everyone in Ohio and Michigan has been to one. It’s not our first choice for breakfast anymore, but at CP it’s an acceptable option and a good enough replacement for the park-run Coffee Shop. I leave my house at 6a to get to CP for ride time and by 10 I’m hungry. Even when I’m not a hotel guest I stop into Perkins knowing what to expect. And by then it’s usually not too busy.
Can you imagine a nicer option like Original Pancake House in there? Sure, we all love perfect pancakes, Dutch babies, and life-changing bacon but it costs an arm and a leg to get out of there and the family vacation crowd probably wouldn’t take to it. And neither would the ultra-particular OPH. So Perkins it is. There’s worse.
As for Fridays, a bar tender once told me that the Breakers location suddenly turns into the busiest and best producer in the chain for 3.5 months. So maybe that and the certain familiarity makes it a winner.

Perhaps a well-loved local spot like Berardi’s or Chet and Matt’s or Cameo could be enticed to set up shop for the summer, but I bet that conversation has already happened. This season will probably tell the tale for Melt- better things just have to come to that corner or they’re not long for Cedar Point’s world.

I opine that it would be a nice gesture of good will to bring in a local and established diner/restaurant in place of the Perkins, similar to how the park has partnered with tofts.

Considering Perkins and TGIFridays survived the Breakers Re-imagining, Dominoes is the only on point pizzeria, they needed to bring back Chick-Fil-A to its former location, Dave’s is another chain option, Quaker Steak & Lube is the off point park dining. It seems the safety of known brands is ideal for a vacaction destination that caters to a wide national, as well as international audience.

I’d prefer the park put money and effort into bettering the in-park food services, which needs a lot of work, before worrying about replacing any chains on the property.

When I go on vacation, I prefer to eat something unique to the area and not something I can get at home anytime. Actually, I don't even go to many chain restaurants when I'm at home either.

That’s the nice thing about Cedar Point, it’s in the great little city of Sandusky that has a lot of hometown originals to sample from. Get out of the park and experience some of the local culture if your are actually vacationing as opposed to visiting the park.

Couldn't agree more and it is too bad that they don't have the ferry service to downtown Sandusky any more. That would be an excellent way to go to downtown Sandusky, sample the local establishments and then make your way back to the peninsula.

Do the ferries only go to the islands from the Marina?

The islands are even more local dining, drinking and partying options that are only available at a park like CP!
I think some people need to venture out of the park sometime and see what else the area has to offer.

Edit: JetExpress has a post on Twitter about downtown service to CP Marina and the islands.

The ferry can take me to Hot Dog Tony’s and I’ll be set.

The Jet Express goes to the Islands. I think the route goes from Sandusky to CP to Kelly's and to Put-In-Bay. There is a return trip in the evening that stops at CP. I believe only two trips a day stop at CP, one to take you to the Islands in the morning and one to return you to CP in the evening. (EDIT - I just checked the Jet Express schedule and I'm wrong. They really increased the trips this year with multiple CP - Sandusky runs, so the Jet would be a good option to go to Sandusky in addition to the islands.) The islands, especially Put-In-Bay, are awesome and another reason CP is a place like no other.

The ferry I was talking about were the ferry boats that ran every 1/2 hour or so between Sandusky and CP constantly throughout the day. They would be excellent for someone staying on point to visit downtown Sandusky as part of their vacation.

I just came back from Silver Dollar City and man, talk about food. All good, homestyle cooking and baking and not a chain restaurant in sight.
I’d like the Trail to return (or transform) into more of a craftsman, cooking type of area.

I will say the Friday's at Knott's California Marketplace gets big business even though there are much better places a short walk or drive away.

Even here in Vegas, where we have some of the best restaurants in the world, we have Friday's locations in a few casinos that stay busy. Sometimes folks just want something familiar.

I'd rather see better in-park food that worry about Perkins or Fridays. I have no problems with those chains. And I understand that prices are ~25% higher because of the nature of feeding a captive audience. But for some reason, they always seem to struggle with food service inside the park.