The Trinity Hotel

We travel a lot, and this place was incredibly inexpensive for the luxury and service. It’s a must stop if you’re passing through Carlsbad. The downstairs bar was fantastic, with great bottles of wine that we brought back to the room with dessert. The owner, Dale, greeted us when we arrived at 8pm and made the visit feel extra special. We loved the history built into the hotel. The room was spotless and really nice. We paid $40 extra to stay in one with an old bank vault inside, and it even had a hot tub in the room. The TV connected to my phone without any trouble, so we streamed Amazon Prime. My girlfriend and I both loved this awesome little place.

The building has a lot of character, and the staff were nice. We came for dinner and enjoyed the steak, though the sides were bland. The rolls seemed like the reheated supermarket kind, and the other sides tasted frozen, but that wasn’t a huge deal. What took away from the meal was a roach coming out of the wall behind me and crawling onto the back of my seat before I noticed it. I know it’s an old building and pests can be hard to deal with, but it was startling during dinner.

The historic building is beautiful and romantic, and our server was cheerful and friendly. I liked the salmon, though I scraped off the cream sauce since I don’t care for it. From what I could tell, there were only a few menu choices without cream sauce. The cheesecake, cake, raspberry thing was delicious.

The servers were bartending too, and you could see they were working hard. I had the ribeye, ordered medium-rare, but it came out rare. It had a good sear, though not much flavor. It was also a poor grade for $35, with lots of gristle and weak seasoning. A ribeye shouldn’t be tough. The fried ziti(?) appetizer was really good, and my dinner partner enjoyed the chicken and green hatch chile pasta. It’s an expensive dinner, and I found it lacking, though not horrible. I’m not sure I’d go back.