The Food! The Location! The Prestige! (The Price!)
Written: Apr 28 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Best location in Paris: Place Vendome. Great hotel restaurant.
Cons: Expensive. The regular rooms are small (upgraded rooms and suites are *very* expensive)
The Bottom Line: If you can afford it, this is the place to stay in Paris. Equally ideal for a romantic vacation and for impressing business associates.
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| jakob's Full Review: Hotel Ritz |
The Ritz might well be the most famous hotel in the world. For sure, it's the place to stay in Paris, both in terms of prestige and in terms of the address. The hotel is right on the Place Vendome, next to one of the main government ministries (guarded by friendly cops) and all the best (and most expensive) jewelry stores. Also very close to Rue St. Honore (major shopping street) and the Louvre. Only thing it's not very close to is a Metro station, but then the people who stay at the Ritz probably don't use the Metro a lot - there is a constant flow of Mercedes limos at the front door.
Talking about the front door: it's pretty understated, since the hotel is located in an old, traditional house on the square, and thus has an architecture that fits in with the rest of the Place Vendome. Doesn't at all look like a major international hotel from the outside.
Once you enter, though, it's definitely a luxury hotel. Of course, they take good care of you at the reception, even though I did have to wait longer than I like after a 12-hour flight since I was in line behind a few other people and they don't have a lot of check-in staff.
The concierge worked very well, getting me reservations at some of the most difficult restaurants in Paris as well as tickets to the Opera. I didn't like the actual performance, but that's hardly the hotel's fault.
The public areas of the hotel are tastefully decorated and provide several good places to sit down for a cup of coffee or informal meetings with French business associates. One of the areas was taken over by a group of chain-smoking Versace models during the first part of my stay (Versace was using the Ritz as the venue for launching some new line), but there was plenty of other areas for my meetings.
The hotel restaurant, Espadon, deservedly has one star in the Michelin guide. Some years it has even had two stars, and I found it an excellent choice for dinner, especially early in my stay when I was too jet-lagged to go out. The cuisine is obviously French, and rather classic and conservative French, at that. Great foie gras. The room has a very classic and rather romantic ambiance. Being a hotel restaurant, they are very used to tourists and even have the menu translated into English (which is unheard of for a French restaurant in France). Many foreigners will probably appreciate this and feel less intimidated than they would in most high-end restaurants in Paris, so Espadon could be a good place to start your adventure of gourmet dining in Paris.
I liked my dinner at Espadon better than a meal I had at a *** restaurant that's usually my second-most liked restaurant in Paris. That other chef must have had a bad day, so I am not going to dis the place by name.
Even though dinner in the hotel restaurant was great, breakfast was only OK. Of course, it was actually wonderful, both in terms of the service and in terms of the croissants, but you expect good croissants in Paris, and the bakery items here were no better than I have had at hotels that were less than half the price of the Ritz.
The evening I arrived (straight from San Francisco), I didn't even bother with the restaurant, but ordered room service. My lobster bisque was good but not up to the standards of a hotel that has a one-star restaurant. I also got a great cheese plate, with very generous slices of each selection. Could have served two people minimum. The room service wine list was fabulous, and the service definitely the most polished I have seen from room service. If I had splurged for a suite, I could have had an ambassador over for dinner, and that's exactly what many of the people staying at the Ritz need to do.
Even though it's a classic hotel, they have a very modern fitness center with a gorgeous and very large pool. Unfortunately, the pool was closed for renovation during my entire stay, except the first day.
The guest rooms are tastefully decorated in very classic (i.e., old-fashioned) French style. In fact, they look somewhat like the period rooms used to exhibit classic French furniture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Unfortunately, the rooms at the Ritz are smaller than the rooms at the Met, so you do feel a little squeezed if staying at a regular (i.e., "cheap" at $500) room. Upgraded rooms are surely bigger, but run closer to $700 (more for suites).
Even in my rather small room, the bathroom was nice and comfortable and the amenities definitely top-class.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jakob
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Member: Jakob Nielsen
Location: Mountain View, CA
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 99 members
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