Shoreham Hotel Rating: 3.5 Pearls

Midtown West, Manhattan, New York City

Welcome drink in the lobby

Located just a half-block from Fifth Avenue designer shops like Gucci, this 177-room boutique hotel appeals to the fashion-forward crowd. Like an intimate art gallery, the lobby has low ceilings and white walls with touch-screen TVs featuring words that cascade down the screen. Mirrored columns, stainless-steel surfaces, gray marble tile, black-and-white portraits, and modern, lime-green love seats complete the look. It's cosmopolitan, it's chic, and it's in perfect keeping with the high-fashion scene in the neighborhood.

There are trendier hotels, sure, like the celebrity-magnet Bowery, but most of them are downtown. For serious shoppers and business travelers who want to be close to midtown offices, the Shoreham is a good option, especially if you pay a little extra (up to $50 more) for a room with a massage chair. But be sure to check the rates at similar boutique hotels in the neighborhood -- like the Michelangelo and the Library Hotel, both of which one-up the Shoreham by offering complimentary snacks.

Friendly front desk attendant

Service is efficient, even business-like -- there was no time to chitchat during check-in, and the staff don't even wear name tags. Still, I was promptly offered a glass of champagne (a very rare treat among New York hotels), and directed to my room.

The staff was very professional, but not particularly warm or friendly. Even the restaurant servers and the bartender had a cool efficiency about them. Wake-up calls come from an automated message. Room service arrived in 10 minutes, as promised. I requested a shoe shine at midnight, and my boots were delivered to me at 9 a.m. The bellman who dropped them off didn't say a word as he handed them to me.

The hotel does not have a dedicated concierge, but the front-desk staff can make arrangements and recommendations for theater tickets, restaurants, and spa and salon services. City guides and local magazines like Time Out New York are placed around the hotel for helpful tips. If you want more personalized attention, there are hotels with more focused service, such as 70 Park Avenue.

View on a Larger Map

Sharing a stretch of West 55th Street with such upscale hotels as the St. Regis and the Peninsula, the Shoreham is in Midtown West but right near the Fifth Avenue dividing line into Midtown East -- sort of the middle of the middle, as it were.

For subway transport: the E/M trains are two blocks south and the N/Q/R trains are five blocks north. Visitors can also hail a cab -- there are plenty on the corner of both 5th and 6th Avenues (a half-block in either direction). The hotel can also make car-service arrangements, for a higher cost than flagging a taxi.

Aside from a string of high-end emporiums only a half-block away -- such as Prada, Gucci, and Tiffany's -- this section of Midtown is populated with corporate offices like the nearby Trump Tower. Other upscale department stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys New York are a short walk away.

Central Park is five blocks north on 5th Avenue. The Museum of Modern Art is two blocks away from the hotel. Also within walking distance are Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.

Excellent dining is all around the neighborhood, though it tends to be on the expensive side. Check out New York magazine for excellent restaurant listings and descriptions in Midtown East or Midtown West.

There is no valet parking. A self-parking garage called Gotham 55 Street Parking is next to the hotel, and it offers discount rates for Shoreham guests. For other parking options, check out Best Parking.

New York City has three nearby airports: JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark (in New Jersey). Getting into town from JFK or LaGuardia is usually more convenient than from Newark, but travel times are heavily dependent on the time of day and traffic conditions. From JFK, a taxi to anywhere in Manhattan costs a flat rate of $45 and takes around an hour in average conditions. From LaGuardia, a metered cab ride to midtown Manhattan costs about $40 and can take 30 minutes if traffic is light, three times that if it's bad. Rides from Newark cost at least $40 plus tolls and can take more than 90 minutes. It's customary to tip your driver 15 to 25 percent.

Those looking to save some cash can use the privately run shuttle buses that are available at all three airports for about $14 per person. For more information on the shuttles, go to Super Shuttle or New York Airport Service. Public transit is also available for as little as $7 per person, but travel can take up to two hours and involve a lot of lugging bags up and down stairways.

For mass-transit directions right to the hotel, check out HopStop.com.

Massage chair at The Superior Plus Room

At 175 square feet, the standard rooms (called Superior) are a touch smaller than most NYC boutique hotels. Still, the Shoreham manages to infuse enough style into its rooms to make them feel luxurious. While it's not the same brand of luxury as the opulent Plaza, rooms have a tasteful, minimalist design. The recessed lighting is amplified by a back-lit, black-and-white photograph of a lily, framed by a velveteen headboard.

Upscale treats include a fully stocked minibar, the latest issue of Time Out New York magazine, and Aveda bath products in the gray-marble bathroom. Cotton robes are part of what you pay for, so make sure you request them if they're missing (as they were in my room). There's free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, and the connection was strong in my sixth-floor room.

The Superior Plus room has either a king- or queen-size bed with 300-thread-count linens, a pillow-top mattress, and six soft pillows. There's no duvet, but the bed still feels plush and it puts you at eye level with the 32-inch flat-screen TV. The TV in my room had fuzzy reception, though it did come with on-demand movies and premium cable, including TNT and the Discovery Channel.

The hotel's 177 rooms are spread between two buildings, and all rooms were renovated in 2006. The east side of this pre-war building has bigger rooms and higher ceilings than the more recently constructed western building. Since the price for a Superior -- the standard room -- is the same in both buildings, be sure to request a room on the east side.

The hotel has 12 different room types. I stayed in a Superior Plus room, one step up from the Superior. There's literally one difference: the iJoy massage chair, a unique and very relaxing feature that can be well worth the slight splurge (in my case, only an extra $10 per night). Deluxe rooms (between 225 and 275 square feet) come with multi-head massage showers; Executive rooms have a separate work space; junior spa suites have a Jacuzzi tub; and one-bedroom suites and two-bedroom apartments come with a separate living room. The Penthouse Suite and the Atrium Loft Penthouse -- a three-room, 800-square-foot living area and event space with a balcony -- both overlook MoMa's glowing glass facade at night. Smoking floors are available, though the majority of floors are non-smoking.

Most rooms come with a small window that faces other buildings. For more natural light, request a street-facing room. Noise isn't a problem, since the windows are double-paneled and 55th Street isn't highly trafficked, especially at night.

On a minor note, the work desk in my room didn't come with an available outlet to plug in my laptop -- I either had to unplug the Bose Wave Radio and CD Player or work from the massage chair (not an entirely unpleasant experience).

24-hour modern Fitness Center

The 24-hour fitness center is sizable and modern, with free weights, fitness balls, and eight TechnoGym machines.

The hotel also provides a refreshment station, where you can get an espresso or tea at any time of day.

Catering to business executives and fashion mavens, magazines in the lounge include BlackBook, Time Out New York, and IN New York, as well as the newspaper staples: New York Times, Financial Times, and Women's Wear Daily. Like many NY boutiques, the hotel also offers a complimentary shoe shine.

There's free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel -- including the rooms -- and there's a business center tucked in a corner of the building, but it's actually just two computers and a printer. The front desk handles fax and delivery requests. For meetings, there is a conference room with a skylight and a flat-screen TV. Or the adjacent Shoreham Gallery is open for events.

Pull-out sofa at the Atrium Loft Penthouse

Standard rooms, called Superiors, either come with a king- or queen-size bed. These rooms are small -- between 175 and 210 square feet -- so they would only fit a couple and a small child. Of the hotel's 12 room types, the Deluxe 2 Queens with two queen beds is the first level that can accommodate a family of four or five. Other types of accommodations include suites and apartments, including the penthouse. Some of the suites have adjoining rooms, ideal for families.

Rollaway beds are available for $50 a night, but they can only fit in the larger rooms (225 square feet and up), starting with the Deluxe rooms. Cribs are complimentary, but there are a limited number so reserve in advance.

Xbox 360 and PS2 video-game systems are available in any room (upon request), as are DVD players. However, the hotel doesn't offer any DVDs, so you'll have to bring your own.

The location is great for families, and the famous FAO Schwarz toy store is just five blocks north. Beyond the toy store is the entrance to Central Park, which has an ice-skating rink in the winter and a zoo that's open year-round.

All pets, however, must be placed in a crate when guests leave the room. Dogwalking and petsitting services are available by request.

The rooms are tidy and neat, and the bathrooms are immaculate. The hotel was renovated in 2006, and the fixtures have held up well. Even the massage chair, which has probably rubbed many bodies in its time, looked new. The carpet felt clean under my toes.

The gym equipment looks barely used. The only things that seem a bit past their prime in the hotel are the two computers in the business center.

Sea bass and the "Pear"fect Martini at Amuse

Amuse is the hotel restaurant that serves "international cuisine," which means the menu is a short list of fish and steak entrees. The place gives off a lounge vibe with its translucent, aquarium-like backdrop and vaulted ceiling. The hotel website credits the underwater illusion to designer Donna Glubo-Schwartz for Livinglass, and the lime-green seating to Kazuhide Takahama for Knoll. I don't know who these people are, or how important they are in their industries, but they make pretty things that evoke a cool, metro-marine setting (if I may invent a term).

While it's obviously chic, this is not a local hangout. This is a hotel restaurant, with hotel prices, and with diners who are hotel guests. For dinner, I ordered the sea bass ($28), which was nice and flaky. My companion ordered the seared tuna, which had a tasty, peppery texture. Cocktails ($15) are mostly sweet and syrupy. The signature -- the Shoreham Happy -- is a lime-green concoction exactly like the furniture. The Pearfect Martini comes with a sliver of a pear.

For breakfast, there's a $17 continental spread of pastries, fruit, and yogurt laid out every morning from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Or you can order room service, which offers items like croissant French toast (delicious) with a side of turkey bacon. With fresh orange juice, the bill came out to about $28.

Outside the hotel, excellent restaurants abound, like Nobu, the modern Japanese restaurant co-owned by Robert de Niro (three blocks away), or the more affordable Torino (around the block at 56th Street), which serves great soups and sandwiches. On the same block, there's also Pro Bagel, which curiously serves Korean food as well as deli standards.