Fuse Lounge

Juicy glass of local Merlot at «Fuse Lounge» inside our hotel in Carmel love! Great happy hour app buffet.

Free appetizers during Happy Hour with the purchase of an adult beverage… I guess I’ll order a glass of wine if I HAVE to ;)
It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be… we had low expectations for the appetizers because it was free, but it was actually pretty nice. The spread had fruits, cheeses with crackers, Caesar salad, soup and some kind of pasta! Nothing crazy amazing, but also not terribly awful! It was the perfect way to tie us over until dinner time.
Also, the bartender/​server (Juan) was so friendly and checked up on us frequently which we appreciated.

Went here while staying at the Inn. A niceish bar area although a little sparse keeps it busy. Happy hour gives you some snacks etc which is a different addition and is a good treat getting back but before you want to head out for dinner.

The waitress lady was so rude at the restaurant you should never go here. Walked in 8 minutes before close.
Us: said nothing.
Inhospitable waitress: «We close at ten.»
Us: «Is it too late to order anything?»
Her: Walking away. «What do you think?»
I didn’t even know what to do at that point. I walked away got mad went back to talk to her. She was slightly less unfriendly, and made something up to get me to go away.
If you are staying at this hotel in this area you will probably tolerate this type of treatment. You get what you pay for and that’s pretty much scaled to the area.

Nice ambience. Nice view. Great feeling atmosphere. Fast service. Fabulous lounge and Hotel.

Nice space. They have some good music (weekends only?). The food we had was okay, but nothing great. (Fish tacos a 3 ½; Caesar salad was overdressed.) The bartender was kind of sloppy in the way he handled things.

I’m not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination, but this restaurant left me disappointed. They seem to like things in the extreme:
The calamari was EXTREMELY salty
The sweet Thai chili sauce was EXTREMELY sweet
The Caesar salad was EXTREMELY sour
I came in on a Thursday at 7pm to dine alone (business trip, not because I don’t have any friends. Although, I really don’t have many friends. Ha!), and I was literally the ONLY person in the dining room. There were some people in the adjoining bar, but no one else on the restaurant side. The chairs were huge and very comfortable. I’m 6′ tall, so when I feel like Edith Ann in a chair, it’s saying something! (Aaaanndd…I just totally revealed my age)
The menu was less exciting than I had hoped: a few salads, sandwiches, and a burger. The appetizers were much more tempting! I settled on the aforementioned calamari and a Caesar salad.
Since I was the only patron, I would think that it would be easy to get attention, but I’d be wrong. My water glass sat empty for most of the meal, and it took quite a while to order, get my food, and pay the bill. While the waiter was friendly enough, I guess he was busy doing other things besides waiting on his one and only customer.
I ended up eating more of the salad than the calamari (which is shocking for someone like me), because after a few bites the calamari tasted like I was washing my mouth out with salt. You know when you get so much salt in your mouth it almost burns? Yeah– it was THAT salty.
If I travel to this hotel again, I think I’ll venture over to the Barnyard rather than eat here.

Best locals happy hour, I think its still sort of a best kept locals secret that this type of happy hour even exists so I probably shouldn’t even be reviewing this. If you order just one glass of whatever you get a small plate for their complimentary food buffet which always consists of cheeses, fruit, soup and other various items (sometimes a pasta or ribs and one time even muscles). Great place to grab a cheap glass of wine and free meal.

We had free breakfast here as part of our hotel stay — it’s buffet style. If you didn’t have a free breakfast deal I think they offer it as part of check in around $ 10 a person. If you don’t purchase it then, I think it’s more expensive if you just go have breakfast. We found our free breakfast deal on trip advisor — I had booked my room through the hotel — and went to look at reviews and trip advisor had a free breakfast thing with free drinks too — which we used for mimosas :)
The buffet is awesome, everything is hot and tasty — and coffee is included. There was eggs, oatmeal, bread/​muffin/​biscuit variety, sausage, bacon, potatoes, pancakes and waffles I think and a lot of fresh fruit. IT was overall a VERY YUMMY breakfast that allowed us to head straight to the beach with our puppy and enjoy the morning.
And they don’t allow dogs in the restaurant, but they allowed us to sit in the lobby with our puppy and still served us our drinks and utensils.

My fiancé and I recently stayed at the Carmel Mission Inn during a trip to Carmel. We arrived late Friday evening and were exhausted from the car ride, so we decided to have a late dinner at the hotel. We had our dog with us and, thankfully, Fuse Lounge was able to accommodate us in the nearby lobby area. There was live music in the main restaurant, but we were able to hear from our seats in the lobby. We ordered the beef short ribs, the caesar salad, and the grilled artichoke. Everything was delicious. We also ordered the apple tart a la mode for dessert. Our waiter was fantastic — I think his name was Dionis — he was extremely attentive. Even though we were seated outside of the restaurant in the lobby, he kept checking in on us and we never had to worry about waiting!

best place in monterey to hang without having to deal with unruly people, street vagabonds
and the cold serious wharf atmosphere of give us your money then «hurry up and leave». Good thing no one knows to go to the fuse because we can have it to ourselves.
really good chicken sandwich with salad or perfect not half cooked french fries.

Just tried the dance floor and the band. Although not a real rock n roll place, the dance floor is spacious and since the clientele are dancers, it makes it more fun.
Sadly, like all spots in this part of paradise, they stop the music early — midnight. For this NOLA girl, way too early.

Nice atmosphere.
stage and dance floor was pretty big. really enjoyed the live band while hubby and i relaxed in the lobby by the fireplace.
didnt get to try their food but their HH special sounded really good especially the buffet!
Carmel Mission Inn rocks!

Bring your dancing shoes because they have great classic rock with «Cheeky Spanks» on Friday nights.

Hit the Fuse Lounge a few times during our recent stay at the Carmel Mission Inn. The first time was Friday night, we only came in for a bit, but sat at a table for nearly 30 minutes and a cocktail waitress never came by. Finally decided to just go with the Alcohol we brought in the room. The band did sound nice. although your typical ‘hotel cocktail lounge band’.
Saturday morning came down as part of the breakfast buffet we got with the room. The buffet costs $ 15. Our server did advise us we could order off the menu if we liked. The buffet was very good. especially the scrambled eggs. which are usually powdered. or the consistency there of. these were very fluffy. and the top had originally been covered with Cheese.
Came back again Saturday night after we closed the Rio Grill (see separate review).and again listed to the good but cheesy hotel band, but were rudely treated once the band was done at midnight. No where was it posted that the lounge closed at midnight, there was no last round by a cocktail waitress (never was attended to by one).and the bartender wouldn’t even answer us when we called out. but was just pulling the liquor from the shelves… really. they could have advised. and made another couple of hundred from our party. instead we headed over to Flanagan’s!
The next morning we came down again for breakfast. we arrived a little before 10 (breakfast was until 11) and the buffet was very picked over and not replenished. There were 3 in our party. but our breakfast ticket was for 2. so one would either have to definitely pay for the !5 buffet or order off the menu. The Sunday server would only allow the extra person to order off a menu and pretty much expected us to remember what was on the from the day before.
Would i go here again. yes if i was staying in the hotel. but i certainly would not make it a stop while i was in Carmel.

I’m pretty sure our waitress didn’t want to be here tonight. That’s never a good start. I had the $ 18 prime rib sandwich which was mostly prime gristle. Hubby had the smoked chicken sandwich. It looked and tasted like smoked ham, which is fine unless you wanted something that tasted like chicken. The homemade chips were good though, and the shoestring fries were ok.
Service was amazingly slow considering there were just 3 tables occupied. We def. won’t be eating here again.

Checked out their appetizer special on a Friday night and found that was as good as reviewed in the local «GO» magazine. The free appetizers were good, and the pasta was delicious. Appetizers off their bar menu are limited but good, plus ½ off on Fridays and Wednesday during their happy hours from 4 to 7 pm. Despite the strange driveway entry next to the gas station, we were pleasantly surprised by the low-​key but tasteful ambiance of the hotel and lounge. Looks like the hotel was upgraded to a more modern look with lots of carmel stone, wood, and quiet earth-​tone colors.

Nice job on the renovation. Our cocktail waitress was very nice and patient while we were trying to decide what to order. We ordered this great little edamame dish — whoohee! spicy… Nice. Some sort of artichoke thing, good. Some ahi tuna thing — ok. The bartender took forever to make our drinks — our poor waitress was just standing there waiting for him to stop yakking and pour. When they did arrive, they were A-​Ok. Here’s the lame part! Aaaackkkk, the music is terrible it doesn’t fit with the theme at all. They need to have some cool swingy, rat pack era, loungy music. What do they have? Loud, strip club, live band… You literally have to yell the entire time in order to be heard. Cannot go back if they don’t fix the terrible music.

I ate there last night. Is this the only restaurant in the Carmel area that appears to care about people under 40 years of age? It seems to be the case.
The ambiance is very off-​the-​beaten-​path mod aesthetic; the lounge was half full on our Thursday evening repast.
We were a group of 7 eating off an expense account, so we were able to sample a number of appetizers. We particularly liked the fire cracker edamame, salty and spicy soy that was a treat. Also, the calamari were light and crispy. The angus burger was ordered medium, but really came more medium well. Alas, I ate it anyway.
All in all, an enjoyable restaurant with a sense of humor in a place that takes its «casual» restaurants far too seriously.

This new lounge that opened 3 months ago as a part of Carmel Mission Inn’s renovation has potential. I had heard about their Friday 5 to 7pm happy hour so we stopped in for a drink before hitting up a little shindig. Their HH includes discounted drinks and an apps. buffet which was a nice touch. Apps. included veggie platter with ranch, calamari with thai chile dipping sauce, some pesto penne pasta and cheese tray. This place is a medium large lounge like area with comfortable looking tables a good place to catch up with old friends or to rent for a business meeting. We sat at the bar and our bartender was a nice guy who whipped up a solid gin martini. I had the house Chardonnay which was ok.
The crowd was pretty mixed with a younger couple and a couple seniors at the bar and a table full of 60 plus taking advantage of the app. buffet. They also offer live music after 7pm and the atmostphere it pretty welcoming.
A few things that would be nice and that I recommend would be:
Signature Cocktail Menu
Wine List
Staff (servers) with more energy and charisma.