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.