Hotels near Bolt's Antique Tool Museum, Oroville

As the scion of a New Mexico homestead family from the early 1900’s I have been eating Southwestern Style Mexican food my entire life (72 years). Since I live about two miles from the Gold Country ****** in Oroville, California, we decided to try their new Agave Mexican restaurant. The ****** completely remodeled the old buffet dining area into a nice looking new restaurant. The ambiance was well appointed and tastefully done is a Southwestern style motif. My wife, son, and I were promptly and courteously seated. Here’s where the “niceties” ended. A slick, double sided, single page menu was presented along with the obligatory corn chips and salsa. The chips were warm and fresh but the salsa was weak and bland. The menu’s offerings were somewhat limited as I expected more from such a locale and the effort to remodel. I ordered a combination plate of an enchilada, chili relleno, taco, rice, and refried beans. The meat was to be ground beef, NOT shredded beef. The sauce red, not green. The food arrived and I noticed a dark red almost molé-style sauce covered both the single enchilada and the relleno. My curiosity compelled me to taste the sauce singularly. My discriminating palate cried “foul!” What is this!? Surely not a “red” or enchilada sauce!? It was horrible! It may even have been an attempt at a molé, perhaps? Since both the enchilada and the relleno were covered in this goo my dinner was ruined! Next, I tried the refried beans. Never, in the seven decades of eating refried beans, have I had them served in a small separate casserole dish. What pretentiousness is this?! I thought. But the issue here was not the delivery but the appearance of these beans! Now, everyone knows that the backbone, the very essence, of a Mexican lunch or dinner are the frijoles. You fail the beans, you fail the meal! Period. Agave failed the bean test! The beans were covered in a thick crust of melted (jack?) cheese and were white in color. Yes, white! Upon tasting they were, well, tasteless! Not a hint of pinto bean flavor! Fail! Moving on to the taco one bite exposed yet another failure: the beef was shredded, NOT the ground beef I had ordered! The taco was small and not appropriate for a combo plate. Perhaps it was snatched from an appetizer plate in the kitchen? The one thing that came to me was thank God for Taco Bell! Whoever made this taco would be fired from any respectable taco assembly line! On to the poor little smothered-in-faux-enchilada -GOO-sauce “enchilada”. I use quotes here because this, certainly is NOTCHO DADDY’s enchilada! This thing was all of about four inches long, folded over like a pathetic omelette, lightly encasing, yep, you guessed it SHREDDED BEEF!! AAARRGEEHHH! Having failed frijoles, tacos, enchilada sauce, salsa…….what was I expecting?! The enchilada and the relleno, having been rendered inedible by the aforementioned GOO compelled me to next move on to the rice portion of the combo plate. The rice was delightful, the one shining sta

The room was large and pleasant. The staff was extremely accommodating about several changes of plans. The breakfast was decent and you can eat outside on the pleasant patio. The beds were modern (i.e., thick mattresses that I personally don't prefer) and good quality. We never heard any noise coming from adjacent rooms. There were some mechanical and plumbing noises, but nothing too bad. In normal circumstances there was no problem with traffic noise. There was only one problem, which is that on Friday and Saturday nights there were a lot of loud motorcycles riding around. I guess the streets by the hotel are some kind of motorcycle cruising zone. It's not the fault of the hotel, but it was rather obnoxious.

I've stayed in about a hundred Hamptons. Midscale brands like this are all about consistency. This property has the consistency thing down, and, bonus, it's only about a year old, so the place is in really good shape. What distinguishes this particular Hampton was the level of service. Normally, front desk people are mostly indifferent, about the guest experience, about their jobs, especially when encountering a guest like me, who can be introverted and not particularly ”cheery” at check-in. Not true here: Both front desk people I encountered--Luke, one of the managers, and a pleasant youg woman--brought their best game, as if my business and my stay mattered to them. That shouldn't be unusual, but unfortunately it is. It's important because when things go wrong, you want to know the front desk will take care of you, make it right, and gives a darn for your inconvenience (and that's exactly what happened and what it felt like when our A/C unit quit unexpectedly). Rooms are quiet, too, which is important to me, and the hotel is located away from the freeway--also unusual for these types of hotel. All in all, an A+ experience as Hamptons go.

This review is for a budget hotel. This would not be a vacation destination or for someone looking for more upscale lodging. There were several price reductions on rooms here and paid just under or just over$100 per night depending on day. The location was easy to navigate if a bit “sketchy” I stayed for a week with a short 1 night break between. The customer service varied widely depending on person, day, situation from incompetent, indifferent to friendly and helpful. The rooms were clean. The beds comfortable. Shower spacious. There was a coffee machine, microwave and small fridge. The AC worked well but was very loud (wall unit not central). The first room I stayed in was on first floor very close to office and was much quieter than the 2nd which was only about 5 rooms down by stairs and rear parking...this room was noisy with people coming and going. If you don’t mind carrying bags the upstairs units might be quieter. All in all this fit my need, a clean place to sleep.