Apollonion Asterias Resort and Spa

We recently stayed here for a week in the Apollonian part of the hotel half-board which we found reasonably positive but a few aspects let this hotel down. Summary: Positives -＞ Hotel grounds, rooms, cleanliness, facilities, staff, location Negatives -＞ Buffet restaurant, food quality & choice, restaurant managers, entertainment There are many positives about this hotel which simply can't be ignored, first being the hotel grounds which are immaculate and really well maintained. The room was spacious, very clean, and well equipped (such as a Nespresso machine… but sadly not Nespresso branded pods). *Most* of the staff are incredibly hard working and treat guests really well, such as Makis in the La Pergola bar and the waiters in the buffet restaurant. Both the pool areas in the hotel are the best we've ever had with plenty of room to swim or play with a ball (with the one at the Asterias part of the hotel being particularly good), as well as plenty of lounges & parasols (meaning people don't need to reserve lounges as you can always get one). Staying on a half-board basis meant we were able to dine at the La Pergola bar for lunch where we thoroughly enjoyed the souvlaki and gyros for lunch most days. The hotel is situated in a good location, 5 minutes from a stunning beach, and 15 minutes from the town of Lixouri, where there are loads of independent cafes and restaurants making it a good day out, with buses 4x per day from right outside the hotel and costing just 2€ each or a taxi is 13€. The drinks in the bar were good for half-board guests who have a separate menu from the all-inclusive, where we also appreciated the complementary snacks which were occasionally given to us alongside our drinks. There are also 2 onsite shops which weren't too bad value, as well as there also being 2 more outside the hotel which were a 5 minute walk down the road. The hotel offers complementary drinking water to all guests out of a fountain providing you have your own bottle which was a nice touch. There are some aspects of the hotel which were really well thought out, such as the non-slip mats by the childrens pool, the rooms having doorbells (which is very inventive), the parasols being screwed to the ground, as well as there being plenty of tables available which stopped people moving them around. We used the gym a couple of times and we found it to be reasonably well-equipped with good machines (but it would be good to see a few more weights available), as well as using the games room which featured table tennis (free), pool and table football which were both a few euros per game which we enjoyed. However, there are also a few aspects of this hotel which really let it down for us in our opinion. First being the buffet restaurant (dinner especially), which to put it lightly… is absolute carnage. There are often no tables left after 7:30, and the restaurant itself is crowded, loud, and stressful, with music (which sounded as if it was directly ta