Park Hyatt Tokyo

[HUGE AL]

I can tell you that I was just at the PHT with some friends who were Plat. Needless to say they were pissed at how much more I got. NY Grill now charges a ¥2000 cover PER PERSON. This is waived for Diamonds. And let's not even get in to the spa benefit (¥4600 per day).

[jhm]

I can tell you that I was just at the PHT with some friends who were Plat. Needless to say they were pissed at how much more I got. NY Grill now charges a ¥2000 cover PER PERSON. This is waived for Diamonds. And let's not even get in to the spa benefit (¥4600 per day).

I'm currently at the PHT but I'm afraid it's a bit of an anti-climax. Perhaps too high expectations from what I've heard so I'd been pumped up to be amazed ... but so far I don't find the hotel special let alone anything which blows my socks off.

The room is poky (the smallest on this floor - this for a diamond but I appreciate it's Saturday and the hotel may be full and so no upgrade) and feels tired and dated. The king size bed is small. The single seat sofa is cheap and uncomfortable. The desk is tiny and the chairs are flimsy. The furniture is of low quality, e.g. cupboard doors where one is slightly higher than the other. The bedside clock is a cheap plastic Braun alarm clock. I find the choice of reading matter a bit unusual as it includes an encyclopaedia and an Oxford English dictionary! The bathroom is fairly large by Tokyo standards but the shower body jet is ineffective. IMO, the Westin Tokyo has nicer rooms - the PHT room feels like a Sheraton and I expected (much) more.

There's no lounge here for diamonds ? Only an American breakfast ? Not like the Sheraton Miyako for SPG plats with their free drinks and free breakfast anywhere in the hotel (including in the Japanese restaurant). No late checkout for Hyatt diamonds as I understand it (a SPG benefit which I find particularly useful).

As for the New York Grill, I resent being forced to pay more at the weekend for the same lunch which they call brunch (the only difference being a glass of alcohol included). So we ended up in the hotel's Japanese restaurant, Kozue - the food was excellent, service friendly and the range of sakes nice. I'll wait to see whether breakfast here compares to the fabulous Westin Tokyo buffet breakfast!

Maybe next time in Tokyo I should try Beckham's Hyatt (which I understand is more modern and slightly less formal).

[HUGE AL]

The room is poky (the smallest on this floor - this for a diamond but I appreciate it's Saturday and the hotel may be full and so no upgrade) and feels tired and dated. The king size bed is small. The single seat sofa is cheap and uncomfortable. The desk is tiny and the chairs are flimsy. The furniture is of low quality, e.g. cupboard doors where one is slightly higher than the other. The bedside clock is a cheap plastic Braun alarm clock. I find the choice of reading matter a bit unusual as it includes an encyclopaedia and an Oxford English dictionary! The bathroom is fairly large by Tokyo standards but the shower body jet is ineffective. IMO, the Westin Tokyo has nicer rooms - the PHT room feels like a Sheraton and I expected (much) more.

There's no lounge here for diamonds ? Only an American breakfast ? Not like the Sheraton Miyako for SPG plats with their free drinks and free breakfast anywhere in the hotel (including in the Japanese restaurant). No late checkout for Hyatt diamonds as I understand it (a SPG benefit which I find particularly useful).

As for the New York Grill, I resent being forced to pay more at the weekend for the same lunch which they call brunch (the only difference being a glass of alcohol included). So we ended up in the hotel's Japanese restaurant, Kozue - the food was excellent, service friendly and the range of sakes nice. I'll wait to see whether breakfast here compares to the fabulous Westin Tokyo buffet breakfast!

Maybe next time in Tokyo I should try Beckham's Hyatt (which I understand is more modern and slightly less formal).

Wow, jhm! I'm sorry to hear it hasn't met your standards.

While I'd be the first to say the rooms need a refresh, I don't think they even come close to the 1970's decor of the Westin.

The shower is one of the best parts of my stay. Much easier to control than the SR Singapore.

Park Hyatts generally do not have lounges. I love the NY Grill Breakfast. While it's not a buffet, the quality is top notch.

Sheraton Miyako ROCKS -- as I've said many times. It is my fall back position when the PHT is booked. A fantastic hotel with one of the best happy hours I've ever seen -- beating the SGS by a mile.

PHT is usually accommodating to late check outs for Diamonds.

I've never been to NY Grill for lunch.

[jhm]

Thanks for the comments, HUGE! Unlike some others , I don't think I'm a fussy or demanding person. I guess I was prepared to be WoWed but reality fell far short (IMO).

Having tried breakfast this morning, this may be another area where there's a disconnect between expectations and reality but before saying the below, I should check first ... I had the "New York Grill breakfast" this morning in Girandole which was free for diamonds. Is that the right one ?!?

If it is then perhaps they had an off day today or it's changed recently but - without trying to be controversial and just giving my opinion - I thought it was an awful experience. Why ? There are several reasons:

* For the "New York Grill breakfast" on the menu, I chose the herbed sausages and scrambled eggs. The eggs were fine (nothing special) but the sausages reminded me of the awful ones which BA/QF serve in F or which you can find in a hotel buffet. Long and no texture. Not like quality sausages where the meat is more coarsely ground. (However, my friend had the bacon (from Iwate) and that was good! )

* For the pastries and yoghurt (from Hokkaido), we were told to help ourselves from the buffet which consisted of 2 or 3 small tables. The buffet selection was small - nothing there seemed to be of high quality (I was reminded of a breakfast buffet in a Hilton for example) and what made it worse was that the food had been messed around by other guests and the staff had done nothing about it (the staff were far too busy as mentioned below).

* The pastries tasted like something I'd buy from a supermarket, e.g. the croissant I had. Everything was cold and dry. It didn't seem like something freshly baked on the premises.

* There was no toast so I ordered some from the staff. I asked for white and I got some Japanese style toast, i.e. thick like a doorstop and fluffy; and not thin and crispy.

* The staff were madly rushing around doing things but there were not enough of them. For example, I had coffee which a staff poured for me but after drinking it, my cup was empty for about 10 minutes before somebody noticed and came round with a refill. The staff were just too busy clearing up, pouring coffee, bringing food out etc. With a used plate which I moved to the side of the table, several staff members rushed by (busy, busy, busy) before somebody noticed and cleared it away.

Now when I compare the breakfast I had here to the buffet at the Westin, the difference is literally like night and day. The Westin breakfast is fabulous (without exaggeration). The range of pastries puts that which I saw this morning to shame and the Westin ones are fresh and warm (you can see them being baked in front of you by someone whose job it is to do that). The Westin buffet also has a huge range of cold and hot food including lots of Japanese and western breakfast items, doughnuts, smoothies (which change daily), fruit juices etc.

If you haven't tried the Westin breakfast (in the ground floor restaurant; free for plats), please do so. I guarantee you'll be blown away by how it compares to that in the PHT (assuming I went to the right restaurant in the PHT this morning!). If you don't think it's several orders of magnitude better than the PHT breakfast, dinner is on me the next time we meet. Seriously!

[HUGE AL]

First off, putting a Park Hyatt in the same context as a w is just blasphemy.

You did get the correct breakfast. However, I always get it via room service as (in agreement) the service downstairs is kind of sparse.

In general, if you want quality, PHT wins hands down; if it's quantity you're after, I'm sure Westin has them beat.

A simple example are the eggs. Cut a boiled, poached, or fried one open and compare the yolks. Not even close.

I actually prefer the sausages and ham to the bacon.

The pastries are the main thing that keeps me there in the mornings (remember, the full breakfast is a rather new thing as it used to be continental only). ALWAYS fresh and delightful.

Never had the toast.

While I've seen the breakfast at the Westin, I have never tried it. Don't think I should take you up on your bet as I would present you with the yolk test.



[as we are a bit OT here, we might want to split this off into a PHT Review thread]

[jhm]

Thanks, HUGE!

Having just had the PHT room service breakfast literally a few minutes ago (before reading your post), you are so right! A huge difference. I would call yesterday's buffet breakfast "awful" but today's in the room is "excellent".

It's not only the dismal service downstairs but the croissants and pastries are so different - yesterday's were cold and dry (presumably as they'd been sitting out in the buffet for a while) but today's were warm, flaky and light (possibly better than the Westin's but the pastry and bread selection there is much wider).

I don't know about the yolk test. I had the scrambled eggs yesterday and the poached ones today. Nice but I've never had the equivalent in the Westin. I did have in the Westin the very soft boiled (almost raw) eggs amongst the Japanese items in the buffet and remember those as being good (although I can't recall about the quality of the yolk itself). I definitely prefer the bacon today to the sausages yesterday (perhaps quality sausages are different in the UK where I certainly associate shorter, fatter, coarser ones to be better than what to me are mass produced long, finely chopped versions).

The yoghurt bowl in the buffet yesterday was nearly empty and that and everything else didn't look too appetising anyway due to how tired the buffet looked in general. The PHT need a lot more staff downstairs so that they can do the proper job of filling coffee, clearing tables and refreshing the buffet on a frequent basis. (I can recall having the buffet breakfast in the RC Osaka where - as it should be - a staff member would magically appear whenever required.)

Although the SPG plat benefit in the Westin includes breakfast in the buffet downstairs, I can't recall whether it includes a room service breakfast (and if it does, whether it's anything more than a basic continental) so the PHT including the NY Grill room service benefit is very nice indeed.

The PHT room service breakfast and the Westin buffet are both things which I would happily pay a decent amount for but certainly not the PHT buffet (which I'd rather skip even if it is free).

[HUGE AL]

jhm, you may enjoy the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi a bit more than the PHT. It's a very gaijin hotel and many of my friends like it. Though I know you're more of a local.

[MAN Flyer]

[as we are a bit OT here, we might want to split this off into a PHT Review thread]

Good idea.

[Singapore Sling]

I might be going here at the end off the year. I would be staying in a Park Suite Twin or a Diplomat Suite Twin. What do you think of these rooms?

Diamonds get a ¥2000 cover waived at the NY Grill are there any other special offers for Diamonds at this hotel apart from the normal ones?

How close is the hotel to the main parts of the city as I have never been to Tokyo before?

[Kyo]

It's a bit of a walk to the Shinjuku underground which gets you to most places quickly, but you do have to know how to use it...

Will let the HUGE one answer your other questions...

[HUGE AL]

There's not a room in the hotel that is a bad one.

Not sure what is meant by "main parts of the city" as Shinjuku IS a main part and one of the major access points to all places in Japan.

[Singapore Sling]

Originally Posted by HUGE AL
Not sure what is meant by "main parts of the city" as Shinjuku IS a main part and one of the major access points to all places in Japan.

I was not sure if Tokyo had more than one main area as some big cities seem to, thinking of places like Bangkok. But reading your answer clear it up.

Originally Posted by Kyo
It's a bit of a walk to the Shinjuku underground which gets you to most places quickly, but you do have to know how to use it...

I have used the Singapore and London underground quite a lot of times so hopefully will not have to much trouble using it, unless it`s all in Japanese, as my Japanese is very poor.

When you say it`s a bit of a walk from hotel are we talking over a mile or under. A mile or under is fine for me.

[Kyo]

It's a 10-15 minute walk but I think the hotel also provides a shuttle service (didn't take it, I preferred to walk and soak in the culture..)

[Singapore Sling]

Originally Posted by HUGE AL
And let's not even get in to the spa benefit (¥4600 per day).

Just a quick check, are they still doing the ¥4600 per day spa benefit for diamonds, as I could do with a Massage after my long flight over.

[phaleesy]

Spa access is free for diamonds - you get to run naked in the shower rooms, watch the sand clock in the steam rooms, sit and play with the rubber ducks in the hot and cold tubs, watch the Tokyo skyline from the changing room, sip tea, relax and read pretentious highbrow art books on Klimt and Manet.

Massages at the PHT are in the region of 100 to 200 pounds.

The clientele are usually adults.