Quick Review: W Mexico City

After a 2006 stay at the Condesa df that was mixed at best, we decided to cash in some Starwood points and check out the W Mexico City on our next two visits. This review is based on 6 nights over 3 short stays between December 2011 and March 2012.

The greeting in the lobby is prompt and sharp. The entire staff is bilingual and willing to either indulge your attempts en Español or let you off the hook and roll en Inglés if you need it.


The rooms we stayed in (1502, 1909 and 1409) were all Fantastic Suites. They were indeed fantastic.



Sleek and comfortable. For the most part anyway. That circular shower set right in the middle of the room is probably an instance of substance being subordinated to style. But I'll concede it's kind of cool.



Friendly greeting with chocolates and bottled water was appreciated.



Room service was friendly, prompt and tasty. We had one issue where an order just really didn't hit the mark, so we called down to let them know. It was removed from the bill immediately and our replacement dish was up in our room within 10 minutes. Then the manager called after the replacement was delivered to apologize and confirm everything was alright. Solid comeback service after the initial disappointment.



Views were pretty stellar in every direction.



Having a balcony that we could open the room up to was terrific. I love access to fresh air in a hotel room.



And the floor to ceiling windows made for great viewing of both the setting sun and the neighborhood lights at night.





Location is great if you want to base in Polanco (and it's just a quick walk over to Dulce Patria). I do prefer the vibe and greater walkability of Condesa. But at the W you are definitely within easy walking distance of shops and restaurants. The closest metro stop, Auditorio, is a bit of a hike, but still doable.

We did not dine in the restaurant so I cannot comment on how that is (room was so pleasant we just kept having room service brought up). But the gym is decent. Not too big, but it wasn't overrun either.

Pro tip: when you do want to head out to Condesa or perhaps San Angel, rather than take one of the cars in the hotel drive, walk down the block a bit and flag a taxi on the street. It will cost half to one-third the price.

Quick Review: Dulce Patria, Ciudad de Mexico

Dulce Patria was a great recommendation from the concierge @ the W Mexico City. My wife and I were just in town for an overnight stop before continuing on to Havana in the morning. After a somewhat long day of travel (car to ORD, wait around, flight to ATL, connect, flight to MEX, go through customs, taxi to hotel in evening rush hour traffic), we needed dinner. And we had just a few key criteria in picking a place. It had to be close, and had to be relaxing. Dulce Patria fit the bill.

The walk is 5, maybe 8 minutes through Parque Lincoln and a block or two of the sleek Polanco neighborhood. First impression of the restaurant is its sharp, contemporary exterior. It was pretty quiet when we walked in @ 7:45 on a Tuesday night the week leading up to Christmas. By the time we left ~9:15 it was buzzing. Since we had to be back @ MEX ~8am we were not ashamed to be eating so 'early'.

The first thing we noticed inside was the service. It was team service. Like SWAT team service. Every glass, utensil and napkin was placed, replaced, adjusted, etc. seemingly every minute. Honestly it was almost too much. One of the servers literally swooped in and moved my knife a millimeter back into its proper position after I had accidentally nudged it while putting my drink back down. If these guys were getting paid by the touch, they were racking up the pesos. On the positive side, one of them was quick to advise my wife about not leaving her purse on the heated floor and brought over a stool for her to rest it on. Good call, since we weren't expecting a heated floor. Especially since the air temp outside was probably ~70F.

Maybe anything would have tasted great after a long travel day, but the horchata con mezcal was amazing. It was like a rather sophisticated adult milk shake. Tasty.



Food was mostly good. Los antojitos (the starters) we tried were mixed. The quesadillas (which are more like empanadas in Mexico and I need to remember this because I've ordered them more than once expecting US style quesadillas) with huitlacoche were nice. The corn dish, esquites, was less pleasing. I like corn. A lot. It's very hard to serve me something corn based and have it not be a raving success. The esquites here were just okay. But as I've learned since esquites is a dish that lends itself to customization and interpretation (perhaps similar to how every has their own custom mac and cheese recipe). So try esquites if you see it on the menu. Just maybe don't try it @ Dulce Patria.



For my entree I went with a enchiladas con platanos en mole, which were very flavorful and rich. That richness could have used a bit more citrus or something to balance it out and break things up a bit. But on pure flavor, I'd get those enchiladas again.



Links: Reviews on TripAdvisor
DulcePatria website which is honestly kind of useless as of the date of this posting.

Hotel Review: Condesa d.f., Mexico City

Overview:
The Condesa df is an excellent concept that falters with disappointing execution and inconsistent service. Behind an unassuming exterior lies a pervasively contemporary and cosmopolitan design. The lounge / restaurant area on the ground floor is all cool tones and clean lines. Walking through the common areas is to glide through a landscape of hip furniture and accessories that all share a relatively limited palette of smooth, solid colors. And it works. You feel soothed, and cool.


Image Source: stylehive

Encouraged by a strong first impression, my wife and I had high hopes for our 5 night stay this past March. But we soon got off to a bad start that only signaled the beginning of a consistent string of challenges and disappointments. I can almost understand how Condesa df's management might believe that the environment and atmosphere could lead their guests to overlook the occasional inconvenience or disturbance. But so many piled up for us that my memory of Condesa df will be of a place with great but unfulfilled potential.

Highlights / Low Lights:

What was great
- Location. It is embedded within a relatively quiet, residential area, yet has great proximity to the restaurants, bars and shops of the Condesa neighborhood

- Food. When they got the orders right, the food was terrific. Both in the restaurant and for room service.


Image Source: A TripAdvisor Member

What wasn't so great
- Not getting the room we had reserved. We booked a 'Patio' room via Expedia, but were told no 'Patio' rooms were available when we arrived. They put us in a 'Balcony' room and assured me it was an upgrade, but wouldn't allow me to actually see an example of each room. They were not very apologetic about this in the least, taking a very 'it is what it is' attitude, seemingly unable to comprehend how disappointing and frustrating it was to believe I was reserving a room with some kind of patio but ended up in a 'Balcony' room that had perhaps a 3-inch balcony. I even attempted to negotiate a compromise/upgrade for one of their available suite rooms at a discount [but it still would have translated into out spending an additional 30% than what we were paying for our 'Patio' room] and I might as well have requested an escorted flight to the moon. No chance, no thanks, go to another hotel if you like, your room is #105. Period.



- Power. This is something you might be inclined to take for granted. But over the course of 36 - 48 hours the power had to have gone out 20 times. Seriously. We were watching a dvd we had brought with us and during the course of watching a 1 hour show we had the power go out 6 times. Each time triggering the need to cue up the dvd again and find where we had left off. End of the world? No. Aggravatingly inconvenient? Yes.

- Room service. We ordered room service breakfast 3 or 4 times during our stay. Twice we had to return at least a portion of what was brought up because it was the wrong order. It seemed to be some combination of having not enough staff on duty and having people covering jobs they don't usually fill. The place only has 40 rooms. This isn't the W Times Square. Didn't seem like their restaurant and room service folks should have been that swamped.

- Car service. We had an early flight out and requested a car be ready at 6am to take us to the airport. Actually, we requested a truck because we were bringing some big items back with us. And we made this request mid-afternoon the day before we needed to go. 6am next morning our ride is not there, and no one is sure why that is. The doormen seemed genuinely puzzled by this dropped ball, and the guy at the front desk was able to scramble and get another ride arranged for us, but we waited a half-hour and were cutting it closer than we would have liked for making our flight.

Scorecard:

The 2 Key Questions
(1) Would I stay here again? No, not unless all comparable options were unavailable.
(2) Did it seem like a good value? We paid $208/night. It would have definitely been worth it were there not so many screw ups. Bottom line - it was neither an outrageous bargain nor ludicrously overpriced.

Essentials
Service - Below average; decent on the routine things, but borderline condescending on some more significant issues.
Bed - Very good
Bathroom - Good; it's cool, but a bit cramped

Amenities
TV / DVD Player - Good, when it worked. Screen is small, but the rooms are a bit small, so probably good not to have a huge screen dominating things.
View - Good; Room 105 faces a nice little park
The Internets - Horrible; they advertise free wi-fi, but I was never able to access it for more than 10 uninterrupted minutes during our entire stay. You might ask what the hell do I need to be on The Internets during a vacation for anyway. Fair question. But I like to upload my photos to Flickr as I go, rather than deal with hundreds of pictures to upload in one batch when I return home.

Update: For more information on Condesa d.f., I just found the site differentworld.com, which appears to have more info and helpful pictures in its review than what you find on the Condesa d.f. site itself.

Duck magnets for 10 pesos

duck magnet on table, originally uploaded by sindlinger.

If you are going to be sitting down to dinner at one of the many outside tables in Condesa you are virtually guaranteed to be approached a couple of times during your meal by folks walking by with miscellaneous goods to sell. These vendors run the gamut. Men selling cell phone holsters. Men selling phone cards. An old guy selling toy violins. Etc.

Then there are the little kids - maybe 5 years old, but maybe not quite. You see them one moment sitting on a corner with a woman who appears to be in her twenties [his mother?] and a younger child [his brother?]. The woman looks like she could be pregnant again. They are eating now, but their wares are at their side, and they'll find you soon. When they do, you see the boy has a platter of magnetic ducks. 10 pesos each. About $0.91. We ended up with 2. One white, one blue.

Originally posted 4/11/07

Some old, some new and all colorful

orange bldg & multi colored beetle, originally uploaded by sindlinger.

Two things hit me immediately as our taxi took us from the airport to the hotel. One was the use of color everywhere, the other was the tension between things in decay and things being renovated. This theme was consistent through most of the places we visited, resulting in a series of visually interesting contrasts.

Everything had a sense of energy or progress. It was as if the ongoing, relentless ebb and flow of the city's daily activities were made visible and represented in the external appearances of the buildings, the cars, the signs.

This isn't unlike other cities we have been to [e.g., Lima or Buenos Aires], but we didn't spend enough time in Lima to see if it was something that is widespread, and our sense of Buenos Aires was that it was maybe more common in a couple of neighborhoods [Palermo Viejo, La Boca]. In Mexico City, it seemed to be pervasive - at least through every part we saw.

Originally posted 4/8/07

Mexico City Vacation

taxis verdes, originally uploaded by sindlinger.

Now that I'm back in Chicago and semi dug out from / caught up with the work issues I missed while away, I will start capturing some of the things Judy and I did during spring break.

Some top line thoughts:

* Had a great time. Never felt threatened, despite how many people asked us if we were crazy for choosing to vacation in such a notoriously dangerous city.

* Met an unofficial guide who wound up taking us around parts of the city on 3 different days.

* Enjoyed some good food.

* Found the Condesa df to be really inconsistent and somewhat disappointing nevermind what the NYTimes says [more on that later], though the neighborhood was great.

* Will definitely consider going back b/c there are a lot of things we didn't have a chance to do in 5 days.

And, most of our pictures are up.

Originally posted 4/8/07