Recently completed a single night stay over the last weekend. We went a week early to celebrate our 6th anniversary as I wanted to stay here and they had no award availability for the day we wanted. I applied SNA cert and it cleared into Astor suite with 4 days to go - I was very happy with this.
I had booked afternoon tea reservations at 3 PM and asked F&B manager for 2 glasses of champagne and a dessert - both were offered complimentary which I appreciated. When I had made the reservation I had clearly mentioned that my wife is a strict vegetarian who doesnt even eat egg and asked would it be a problem to accommodate her dietary needs - I was assured it would not be.
I got in around 1 30 PM - the plan was to have a light lunch before tea. We also had dinner reservations at the Nix - a single Michelin star vegetarian restaurant. The FDC said the room was not available yet but if we were willing to wait till 5 or 5 30 we would be upgraded to the Madison suite - I thought why not and said yes. She took a note of my number and said she would call me when the room is ready.
We moved our tea reservation to 4 and headed to a little Italian place just down the street for some lunch.
At our tea when I mentioned that my wife is a vegetarian the waiter gave us a very condescending look which immediately put us off. I clearly told him that I had mentioned this when I made the reservation to which he said he will check with the Chef about what can be done.
After consulting with the chef he did give us some choices but frankly they were sub-par. At $65 I dont think its worth it. In stark comparison at ritz central park my wife really enjoyed the choices which were made for her. They served a dessert - chocolate and salted caramel bomb which was pretty amazing. It had a Happy Birthday Tag on it - this is after the waiter wished us Happy Anniversary. My wife was given sorbet for dessert.
After tea we got to the front desk at around 5 15 - I had not gotten a call that the room was ready till that point , they offered a deluxe suite which I gladly took. I guess the Madison suite was not ready yet. They sent the luggage to the room a few minutes later.
Now for the biggest letdown - everyone here raves about the Butler service at St, Regis - I never even saw them. They did not even show up at my room - I did have the privacy sign up but some one came twice - once to deliver my luggage and second time to deliver some bath gels which I had asked for but I dont even know whether they were the butler or not.
The suite - no doubt huge looked dated with the furniture and the bathroom mirrors showing signs of wear and tear. I was assigned room
#307 so no view to talk about either.
We had to cancel our dinner reservations as we were pretty full from lunch and tea - this was the reason we went to NYC so that we can eat at Nix - it was my fault that I booked tea and late lunch. We decided to come back at a later time.
During breakfast the next day I decided to try the Astor Omlette and I was actually impressed by it. Sorry for the poor lighting below:
My wife had oatmeal and potatoes as basically those were the only options she could get - this time the waiter was much better and he did not make any snide remarks or faces.
I have to say I was not overly impressed by the rooms or the service. We kept comparing to the Luxury Collection Hotels in Peru - frankly the FS marriotts at Buffalo, Washington DC had better service than this one.
I dont know if it was me but the luxury in the rooms seemed a bit forced - thats the best way I can put it. I frankly had trouble understanding what warrants such high prices at this hotel. Safe to say I dont think I would be returning to this hotel pretty soon.