The Residence Mauritius

On my first visit to Mauritius, we booked this hotel based on the traveller ratings. As a regular traveller myself, I was bitterly disappointed. The hotel building is nice enough in itself, the rooms are well appointed, however, we had to change rooms twice because of no view firstly ( we had booked an ocean view and saw air con pipes) and noisy building works on the second. But wait for it...we had a third change as we had so many issues with service and food at the hotel.
Regrettably, the Hotel isn't 5 star standard when it comes to food options or quality. There is only one main restaurant, buffet style and the other restaurant has the exact same menu day in day out all week. Its not rotated and is set at a few starter, main and desert options, but never different any given day.
We had two weeks here and were quite underwhelmed. In fairness to the staff who did listen to our feedback, we were given the room upgrade, but that came at great inconvenience and after much disappointment with service on a whole.
The bar and waiter staff seemed unprofessional and unaware of simple things. Location wise, this is located very far away from amenities and other, more well serviced areas. Everything was at least an hours drive away for sightseeing etc. This is not at all like the more built up areas of Mauritius, it is in a rural setting and extremely quiet. The hotel itself is almost silent after about 10pm. There is no music or entertainment after this time. A lovely pianist is in the reception every evening and there is a show once a week for about 45 mins to an hour. There isn't even gentle lobby music.
Bearing all this in mind, a few staff members tried to make us more comfortable by offering to make us our dinner on request. Apart from that, and our lovely housekeeper Ramoo, we had little to say of the establishment. Matters got so frustrating at times, we ventured down the road to a rival hotel and had dinner there. It was a pleasure. Having paid Half Board though, we couldn't do this more often. Drinks are expensive and water isn't free, apart from in the rooms, where bottles are refilled and dated,or at a water fountain. There are no drinks included with the evening meals, but breakfast has various juices and tea, coffee, water on tap. Please do your research before opting for The Residence. It may be fine for some, but we had a very testing time.