The St. Regis New York — Hotel Review Rating: 5.0 Pearls

Oyster Review Summary

Photos and review by Hailey E., Oyster Expert Hotel Investigator.
Updated: August 6, 2010

Oyster Hotel Photos

Presidential Suite (34)

Amenities (21)

Imperial Suite (47)

The Hotel (121)

Madison Suite (43)

Restaurants and Bars (39)

Superior Guestroom (136)

Grand Luxe Guestroom (25)

What Do Customers Ultimately Book After Viewing This Hotel?

47% book the hotel featured on this page
The St. Regis New York - Midtown East, New York City

/night and up

Sold out for your dates!

19% book
The Plaza - Midtown East, New York City

/night and up

Sold out for your dates!

13% book
Mandarin Oriental, New York - Upper West Side, New York City

/night and up

Sold out for your dates!

11% book
Four Seasons New York - Midtown East, New York City

/night and up

Sold out for your dates!

Rooms at The St. Regis New York

Deluxe Suite 800 sq. ft with a King bed. A 55th Street view.	/avg. per night You Save: 00%   Book Room
Superior Guestroom 430 sq. ft with a King bed. An Interior or 55th Street view.	/avg. per night You Save: 00%   Book Room
Grand Luxe Guestroom 430-490 sq. ft with a King bed. An Interior or 55th Street view.	/avg. per night You Save: 00%   Book Room
Madison Suite 950 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. A Madison Ave view.	/avg. per night You Save: 00%   Book Room
Astor Suite 600 sq. ft with a King bed. A 55th Street view.	/avg. per night You Save: 00%   Book Room
Deluxe Guestroom 450 sq. ft with a King bed or 2 Doubles. An Interior or 55th Street view.	/avg. per night You Save: 00%   Book Room
Sorry, no rooms are available for:   Change Dates

Oyster Hotel Review

 Scene

Ceiling art in the lobby

It's hard to find fault with the St. Regis. There are hotels, and then there are Hotels -- iconic, epitomizing structures that are more than the sum of their rooms and amenities. In a hotel, you sleep, and maybe eat or log a few miles on the treadmill, in order to work and/or play in New York City. A Hotel, however, is a different stay. It's a destination within a destination, a place where those who can afford to stay there experience a special slice of the city, and where those who can't afford it visit anyway.

The St. Regis, along with The Plaza, the Mandarin Oriental, and just a few others, is a New York Hotel. It's a place worth visiting even if you can't afford to stay there (and these days, darling, who can, really). At the least, splurge on a Bloody Mary in the legendary King Cole Bar, supposedly the first place stateside to serve the tomato juice and vodka concoction, or take in dinner at Alain Ducasse's Adour, lauded not only for its fine French cuisine but also for its stunning decor.

Built in 1904 by John Jacobs Astor IV, the great grandson of the country's first multi-millionaire, the St. Regis is, like The Plaza, a Beaux Arts landmark. Translation: even the front desk is gold and shiny, and even the standard guest rooms, not just the ornate lobby, have elaborate chandeliers.

Yet, even with all that shines, the St. Regis, especially its guest rooms, are slightly more understated and homey than The Plaza. Likewise, the hotel's 24-hour butlers go above and beyond to assist guests. They wear tails and white gloves and anachronistic charm on their sleeves, but they also help with any and all modern conundrums, say hooking up your iPod to play through your room's surround sound system. Whether you're working or playing in the city, this is a top luxury pick.

 Service

Friendly porter at the entrance

The staff at the St. Regis quickly make it known that they're there to do any and everything to make your stay a perfect one.

After checking in, the front desk attendant takes you up to your room herself. Once in the room, there's a knock at you door. It's your butler, dressed in tails and white gloves and ready to serve. He shows you the room's features, which remote to use where and such, and asks if there's anything, anything at all he can help you with: would you like anything ironed, a bath drawn, extra chocolates, a different type of bottled water? When you ask about a place to hook up your iPod (there is no iPod docking radio in the room), he quickly fetches a cord to hook it up through the room's surround-sound speakers.

Whenever guests at the St. Regis need anything, all they have to do is push the "butler" button on their touch-screen phone. Reaching the front desk and concierge is just as easy, and breakfast service at Astor Court is perfectly doting, offsetting the shock of $12 cappuccinos.

Sometimes old-fashioned service touches, say the white-gloved elevator attendants at The Pierre, are more about creating an anachronistic atmosphere than offering practical assistance to guests. At the St. Regis, personal butlers, assigned to each floor and on call 24 hours a day, go out of their way to be helpful in ways big and small and make guests' stays memorable. They provide complimentary French-pressed coffee when guests arrive and every morning on request.

All of the hotel's concierges are members of Les Clefs D'Or, a society of professionally trained concierges. Like butlers, room service is available around-the-clock. All guests receive a lovely fruit plate as a welcome amenity, as well as chocolates, and they're replenished daily or by the butler on request. Turndown service is provided each night. For anything else, simply let the butler know and it can probably be arranged.

 Location

View on a Larger Map

While some portions of Midtown East are all business and moneymaking, further north, it's all about spending money. The hotel sits in the middle of the city's high-end shopping district on Fifth Avenue, sharing the block with pricey shops like Bottega Veneta and Takashimaya.

While the St. Regis is quite close (just four blocks away) from Central Park, it isn't right on the park like its East Side neighbors, The Plaza and The Pierre, or as close to it as the Mandarin Oriental (just a block away on the west side of the park).

Other attractions within easy walking distance include the Museum of Modern Art (one block away), Radio City Music Hall (6 blocks away), Rockefeller Center (8 blocks away), and St. Patrick's Cathedral (5 blocks away). Hotel guests who want to experience the subway can grab the E or V two blocks away at 5th Avenue and 53rd Street, and there are seven additional subway lines within four blocks. Aboveground, the St. Regis doorman effortlessly hails cabs for guests in front of the hotel.

 Airport Transportation

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.

 Rooms

The Superior Room

Last remodeled in 2006, the hotel's rooms still feel quite fresh, thanks to a rich blue palette and silk-covered walls. They're also quite spacious, though not the biggest of the luxury bunch. Standard "Superior" rooms are 430 square feet, the same as the more modern standards at the Mandarin Oriental and slightly smaller than the 500-square-foot standard rooms at the Four Seasons.

Bathrooms in standard rooms are especially spacious with his-and-her sinks and plenty of marble floor space, along with their own flat-screen televisions. Sadly though, standard Superior rooms have shower/tub combos, albeit ones with brass fixtures. For a separate tub and shower, guests need to upgrade to a Deluxe or Grand Luxe room, or stay at the Mandarin Oriental, where even the least expensive guest rooms have separate, oversize tubs.

The St. Regis down duvets are some of the fluffiest I've ever encountered, and they rest atop Egyptian cotton sheets. Thankfully, the hotel's climate-control system works quite well, allowing me to curl up underneath the super-thick duvet without overheating. Mattresses are nice firm Sertas, but they lack a pillow-top or featherbed.

At the foot of the bed, a tasteful cupboard conceals a 32-inch Sharp Acquos flat-screen television which rises when beckoned by a remote control. Standard rooms don't have iPod docks, but when I inquired, my designated butler quickly offered to get a special cord to hookup my iPod through the DVD player, so that my tunes would play via the surround-sound speakers attached to the room's ceiling. Once hooked up, my music sounded better than it would through any iHome iPod docking alarm clock. Internet in guest rooms is available both wirelessly and via cable at a cost of $9.95 per day. The Wi-Fi worked well enough and the cable connection was blazing fast.

No less than five lamps, in addition to the ceiling chandelier, illuminated my already sunlit room. But, turning them all on and off was simple. All I had to do was press a single button on the control panel on the touch-screen phone next to my bed. I did have to lift a finger to gently press said touch-screen button, but I somehow found the strength to do so without paging my butler for help.

 Features

Small but lovely Fitness Center

The hotel's Remede Spa and Fitness Center are both located on the lower level, so don't expect to look out any windows with sweeping views while powering away on the elliptical machine. Guests can, however, watch a DVD of their choosing on an individual monitor while running on the treadmill. There are also a handful of weight machines and free weights, but the gym itself is fairly small and the cardio machines are lined up in three unappealing rows. For a great gym with 36th-floor views and a pool, try the Mandarin Oriental.

The Remede Spa offers body treatments, massages, waxing, and facials. It's quite small, with just four treatment rooms, but the Laboratoire Remede skin care products are renowned. For a more expansive spa feel, with "Experience" showers, relaxation lounges, and "vitality pools," again, try the Mandarin.

The hotel's business center is available 24 hours a day, as is room service and the personal butlers assigned to each floor. The business center is quite expensive, however, charging $1 minute for Internet with a minimum of 15 minutes. Bring your laptop instead. The St. Regis' intimate, extremely attentive approach to service easily bests the Mandarin, which has wonderfully attentive staff but no butlers and no Les Clefs d'Or concierges.

The hotel doesn't have a pool of its own (yet again, try the Mandarin Oriental for that), but guests can use the pool at the somewhat close Sheraton which, like the St. Regis, is a Starwood property. The Sheraton is located six blocks away, about a 10-minute walk.

If having your butler draw you a standard old bubble bath won't do, the hotel also offers a "Signature Bath Menu." Signature bath options range from a Krug Champagne and Chocolate Extravaganza to a sudsy pairing of Caspian Osetra Caviar and a magnum of Krug. The ultra luxurious baths run around $400.

 Family

The hotel has a limited number of adjoining rooms. Deluxe rooms can be connected to a Superior room, which offers two double beds. Rollaway beds and cribs are available at no additional cost for guests 18 and under. A Deluxe room or larger is needed to accommodate a rollaway. For even more space (at quite an additional cost), families can consider the two-bedroom St. Regis suite which also has a small kitchen area with microwave and a compact refrigerator. Children receive milk and cookies as welcome amenities.

The hotel's restaurants don't offer children's menus (Adour is no place for the kiddies) but room service does, with options like a Coney Island hot dog ($12) and spaghetti with meatballs ($18). For breakfast, lunch, and tea, well-behaved children would be fine at Astor Court, though there's no specific kids' menu.

 Cleanliness

Guest rooms were last renovated in 2006, and while furniture shows the slightest wear and hallways show the occasional bit of wear or have the faintest carpet spots, rooms are immaculately clean and all the shiny bits in the shiny lobby still shine.

 Food

Breakfast at Astor Court

In 2008, internationally acclaimed Michelin-star chef Alain Ducasse opened his new signature restaurant, Adour, at the St. Regis. Fancy and French, the restaurant has received critical acclaim for both its food, earning three stars from the New York Times, and its decor, having been nominated for a James Beard award for "Outstanding Restaurant Design." Naturally, such accolades don't come cheaply. This is a special occasion sort of place, with appetizers averaging in the mid-$20s and main courses ranging from olive oil poached Gloucester cod ($35) to beef tenderloin "au sautoir" ($49). A five-course, $110 tasting menu is also available.

The hotel's second restaurant, Astor Court, serves American bistro fare in an opulent setting just off the hotel's equally opulent lobby. It's popular for breakfast and tea, but come dinner time when I visited, there was nary a guest dining under the restaurant's large chandelier. It's more affordable than Adour, but not all that much more, with starters in the high teens and entrees ranging from homemade pumpkin ravioli ($24 for a full portion) to chilled Maine lobster ($36). Breakfast gets pricey with $12 cappuccinos and $9 orange juice.

Hotel room service is available 24 hours a day, and, like Astor Court focuses on American fare with European touches. Extensive options range from a $48 afternoon tea with sweet and savory sandwiches to a $28 artisanal cheese plate (lovely! I nibbled on it one night after requesting a bath be drawn in my room). There's even a Central Park Picnic Basket for two (for the bargain price of $300), containing luxurious small plates like American sturgeon caviar and a lobster club sandwich.

 Drinks

Wine at Alain Ducasse's Adour

Even if you can't afford to stay at the St. Regis, it's worth stopping in the King Cole Bar for a nip. According to legend, it was the first place in the country to serve a Bloody Mary, here called the Red Snapper. The signature cocktail can be had for a mere $18, while other cocktail prices inch into the $20 range. The bar also serves small plates like a half-dozen oysters ($20) and a sliced steak sandwich ($34).

Behind the bar, the famous Maxfield Parrish mural hangs. (Why are the courtiers in the painting laughing? Supposedly because the king has just passed gas.) Grab a seat in the small, dark woody bar if you can.

 Bottom Line

The extraordinary service at the grand, century-old 229-room St. Regis is rivaled only by the Plaza. It lacks the pool, amazing spa, and Central Park views of the Mandarin Oriental, but a famed Bloody Mary at the King Cole Bar and a dinner at Alain Ducasse's Adour more than compensates.