Overall, the bathroom was kept clean. This is pretty impressive considering how busy Cabos is, especially on Cinco de Mayo. Longtime readers know how much I value a good clean bathroom. That having been said, I wasn’t overly excited about the trash can overflowing in pictures 4 and 5…yes I know they were busy…but when you run a popular establishment, you already know it’s going to be busy. Every year for the last three years the line is out the door on May 5…there’s no reason to not take an extra couple minutes and go check to make sure the sinks are dry and the trash can not overflowing. They managed to keep the bathroom clean overall but it seems like this was an oversight…and while not as bad as a filthy toliet or dirty stall, it looks careless. I’ll give this one three-and-a-half rolls, it’s colorful and clean, and I’m going to deduct a quarter of a roll for the overflowing trash can.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

This has literally gotta be one of the coolest bathrooms I’ve ever been in. If it were in a Honda or VW or Ford or Kia or any other car dealer (despite Honda’s near-stellar reputation, I’m not a fan…I like Ford trucks, their now-defunct Excursion, and they did probably the best job of any company of renewing the retro side of the pony car-era with the new Mustang…VW owns Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, and Bugatti, so there’s some love there, and truthfully, although it took me a while, I like the New Beetle…I still wish it were a rear-engine configuration, but oh well)…I would feel exactly the same. No joke…this bathroom is cool! The first thing you notice when you walk in is the TV screens built into the mirror (see picture #5) and right above the urinal (see picture #1). I’m not sure if there are TV screens in the stalls, I didn’t check. Ironically, as you can see in pictures 4 and 5, the channel was on CNN, where James Lentz, President of Toyota USA, was discussing before a Senate panel the issues Toyota was having with sticking accelerators (some of those stories turned out to be fake). Finally, in pictures 6 and 7, you can see the sink they had in there. I tried to capture how the thing worked in picture #7, but it didn’t come out very well…anyway, there are no sinks per se. This is a solid slab of granite sloping toward the mirror, with a trough running behind it that collects the waste water and soap. The sink heads are automated and start when you put your hands under them (pretty standard).

For all the cool stuff in this bathroom, I’m giving it four-and-a-half rolls. “But, Bathroom Guy,” you might be asking yourself, “why only four-and-a-half? Why not five?” Let me tell ya, pardner! I’ve seen some amazing bathrooms on the web and in person (for some reason more when I was a kid than now…hmm). Although this bathroom is really cool, it can’t compare to the bathrooms in the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo for orginiality or design, and as I remember them, some of them are five-roll bathrooms).

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

This is a quickie…I’ll get right onto the bathroom. First, I thought the “hammered steel” look was great on the stalls. I don’t know whether it really was hammered metal or just a “skin”-type dealio. Either way, it was pretty damn cool. Other than that, the bathroom was pretty standard…paper towels (yay!), a handwashing reminder (complete with Carl’s Jr. star), and a door that pushed open from inside the bathroom.

People forget, but that last one is pretty freakin’ important. Let’s face it…some people just don’t wash their hands. Sure that’s gross—and can spread disease—but ya know, people are gonna do whatever they’re gonna do. The least stores can do is make that door open out from the inside, so if you don’t wanna touch it you don’t have to (and you don’t have to waste paper towels). I won’t recommend a Chuck Norris kick to open it, but a gentle push with your toes oughta do the trick. 4 rolls for the stalls, overall cleanliness, paper towels in a fast food joint, and that door!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

They keep the bathroom clean, so that’s certainly a plus. I don’t think they check on it very often though, or the franchisee maybe just doesn’t care? Take a look at picture four, you’re looking at one of those combination paper towel dispensers/trash cans (pretty common in fast food places, department stores, and even some “sit-down” restaurants). Where’s the trash can?!? Oh wait…check out picture five…there it is! Underneath the sink…I’m not sure that’s quite how the parts fit together. Pictures six and seven are the paper towel dispenser part…the paper towels wouldn’t come out the bottom so I opened up the dispenser…you’d think they’d make sure all of that was working and prevent people from opening that door (it’s thin sheet steel, maybe not the safest thing to be opening and closing through that little hole). Two-and-a-half rolls for the apparently neglected bathroom.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

You’ll see in the entrance shot (picture one) and the fourth picture they have a divider/partition in the bathroom. I’m not really sure why, this is a one-user bathroom with a lock on the door…I suppose if someone manages to get the lock undone it gives the poor sap on the toilet a chance to scream out “Wait! Someone’s in here!” without being too embarassed. Of course, you’d think the other guy wouldn’t have any issues with embarassment if it comes to picking a bathroom lock…

The car magazines in picture five and the painting in pictures one and six are a nice touch and keep in-sync with the fact that this is, after all, a body shop. I love to read while in the bathroom as much as the next guy, but I’m not really sure about public bathroom magazines (frankly, that’s what my Instinct is for…catching up on news—and of course taking pictures—while in the bathroom). Shared public bathroom magazines…that’s just wrong. Three stars for an average clean bathroom that’s got a few nice touches. I’ll add half a roll as a bonus for the partition; it makes me smile.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

This is a really crazy bathroom. I was all ready to give it four rolls from the get-go, but doing all these bathroom reviews has really lead me to be far more detailed in my reviews. I get way behind pretty consistently, as you can see if you read through the reviews…every five or six days I drop a content nuke and put that last 6 days’ worth of content in one or two days. I’m really working on improving my timing…but it hasn’t seemed to have an effect yet. Way to get off-topic…

Like I mentioned, this bathroom is pretty cool (I think I said “crazy”…but when you’re me, there’s no difference—how would you know that though? you’re not me…I’m pretty sure anyway…) The walls are covered in a brown textured wallpaper that looks like leather grain. They put clear yellowish stones in designs, and even put a clock in (really helpful when you forget your cell and have people waiting for you). Seriously, more bathrooms should have clocks in them. Some of the stones broke off (came unglued?) and haven’t been repaired yet (I’m not sure how long, maybe someone stole some of the stones?). Overall, the intelligent and cool design and overall cleanliness give this bathroom four rolls. However, I have to deduct half a roll for the unrepaired missing stones (it just looks bad).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Alright, so enough gushing about the coffee house, time to gush about the bathroom. Take a look at the pictures, they decorate with paintings, ornate mirrors, there’s a steamer trunk in there (I’ll get some more pictures next time I go in…someone was practically breaking down the door this morning so I didn’t have time to finish photographing). It’s a little on the dark side and my Instinct has no flash, so some of the pictures aren’t great (are they ever?). All told, someone actually put some time into the design here. I’ll give them my first four-and-a-half rating…this bathroom is cozy, warm, inviting, and well thought-out without being over-the-top or cluttered.

(edit 9/29/09: added pictures four through six)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Anyway…I really wanted to give this bathroom three-and-a-half or maybe even four rolls. I really like their treatment of the bathroom (despite the fact that you have to go outside and around back) as another area to decorate interestingly. They do a good job keeping it clean, too…even including a Wallflower® to keep the bathroom consistently smelling better (they really do work…I use ‘em at home all the time for a nice even clean smell). The plant and paintings (in pictures four and five) also really improve the overall feel of the bathroom, and make it seem much more homey (yep, I have plants in my bathrooms). Then we get to picture six…where things fall apart a little. You’ll notice the toilet cover on the floor in picture two…the complex flushing system didn’t work right (remember the good ol’ days of simple valve toilets?), so in order to flush, one has to press down on the white plunger in the center of the tank. For the working-but-not system I have to deduct half a roll; I’ll go back again and review at some point, and if they’ve fixed it I’ll adjust accordingly.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

So…the bathroom. First, red seems to be the prevalent color (if we don’t treat white as a color…and in fact, in paint, it’s the absence of color, so…), which really surprised me at first. Blue I could understand, since there’s so much blue in IHOP’s logo, design, etc. (maybe they felt the need to balance it out, or maybe the womens’ bathroom is blue…hmm). On further consideration, it makes perfect sense…IHOP uses red to accent their logo (and, as you can see here, the mens’ restroom). Check out the fourth picture for instructions on hand-washing (they provide the instructions in both Spanish and English…but not Spanglish). They even give you pictures, just in case you don’t speak either. Look closely and you’ll see someone autographed the soap dispenser…BRILLIANT! The fifth and final picture shows what I think are light switches (maybe key-controlled?). If anyone knows how these work, please share! Three-and-a-half rolls for a clean well-designed bathroom (especially with the red accent reflecting the logo), crazy light switches, and an autographed soap dispenser.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Fortunately, the bathroom is more than an afterthought. They selected warm colors, sort of calming after the hustle and bustle within the restaurant (I’m not sure if he realized how popular they’d be, but it’s quite the relief—pun not intended—to have a very calming bathroom experience). Selection of tiles, art (you can see the reflection in the first picture), and the large wooden-framed mirror in the first picture show the thought that went into creating a relaxed atmosphere. Right next to the urinal they have a collage of advertisements; I attempted to photograph it but it came out blurry, and I didn’t notice that til I was ready to post the image. I’ll go take another picture next time I’m there and include it here. Three-and-a-half rolls for keeping it clean and well-decorated.

(edit 9/28/09: added picture of the collage of advertisements from 9/24/09 trip)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars