As India's oldest western/American upscale hotel whose built was linked to a major international multi-sport event in 1982 at New Delhi, this hotel was always in our sights for a staycation someday. It finally appeared possible this year during the Holi vacation when we decided to do 2 nights here. The stay was paid for by points and stay vouchers. For the first night, I redeemed points for a Regency Suite night while the second night was via a regular free night voucher. Of course, they allowed us to continue in the same room. My emails were responded by Bikramaditya Adhikary, the Director of Rooms who promised to block a Regency Suite and also confirmed an early check-in at around 7 AM. He denied upgrade to Premier Suites, which is pretty much the norm with Hyatt.
Our room was ready when we checked in early. We were assigned one of the Regency Suites on the executive floors (with direct access to club lounge via a staircase) that faced the pool. This may have been a Regency Executive Suite, which were very slightly larger than the standard suites. However, the 500 odd square feet suite was quite small by today's standards and in many upper-upscale and luxury properties today this would be designated as a deluxe room or at most a junior suite. There was no partition between the small living area and the bedroom, while the walls and hardwood floor had this cherry reddish panels, reminder of a bygone era. Beyond the entrance foyer, the living area had a circular carpet with a circular three-seat sofa placed at its periphery and a round wooden coffee table inside. This had our only welcome amenities, the standard fruits basket. Nothing else, not even a welcome note (although I was just Discoverist at that time) from the front office, and no, bottled water is not an amenity in India. The small glass work desk was placed against one of the two windows of the room at an angle, along with a reasonable revolving chair. The only TV could be swivelled to face the sofa, the work desk or the bed. The king bed was comfortable enough (although I've seen better Hyatt beds) which also had a foot bench, while a green fabric chair and ottoman combo was next to the second window along with a small round table. We had specifically requested for a Nespresso machine in the room which was there with enough supplies.
The Italian marble-clad bathroom looked renovated, which had a large shower area and a built-in bathtub. The glass-themed single wash basin was again from the past. Similar designs are found in the earliest Hyatt Regencies, all owned by Asia Hotels and its subsidiaries. An unlockable sliding door separated the bathroom from the room. There was a walk-in closet too, only accessible from the room. We found the room and its furnishings to be quite dated while it was rather small for our requirements. The moment extra beds were placed, the living area was almost unusable. The absence of an extra powder room was also a big negative while travelling as a family.
The Regency Lounge was open 24 hours and the first thing we did after checking-in was to have breakfast there. The lounge appeared to be recently renovated; it was located at a quite spacious area with excellent views of the area around. There was a limited buffet spread for the breakfast, which was understandable. But the a-la-carte menu was equally limited with only very few options. The staff appeared to offer to get other things from the kitchen but my podi idli really took a very long time. The ambience and seating of the lounge was nice. They had cocktail hours in the evening which we were actually looking forward to. While the food selections were decent (it changed during our two nights), the made-to-order cocktails were just okay and definitely not the highlight. The wine options were from the usual local brands which according to me are still mostly unpalatable. Kids were allowed throughout. Tea, coffee, soft drinks were available at all other times. We had breakfast at The Cafe on other days. Of course, it was very crowded, while the food selections were standard. They didn't have anything beyond the ordinary.
Hyatts in India have been known to focus on F&B since their inception. In fact, the China Kitchen here is well-regarded as one of India's finest Sichuan restaurants. Although we decided to try Syrah, their Middle-Eastern restaurant and TKS grill, their teppanyaki restaurant. We found the decor at Syrah to be very weird for a 5-star hotel restaurant. The service was also real slow in spite of only two tables eating dinner that night. We just went for the 5-course mezze selection which turned out to be more than enough for the four of us. We opted for the kibbeh, hummus topped with lamb mince, rubian harra which was crispy fried prawns, shawarma pide, the Turkish flat bread. Except the hummus, where the addition of ghee had made it too heavy, everything else hit the mark. Now the fifth mezze we ordered didn't appear for a while. This was the djaj bel Khyar, chicken in yogurt sauce. On reminding, it finally came and immediately we noticed the extra sourness of the yogurt, which was absolutely inedible. We had to send it back to the kitchen and our server offered to replace it with another mezze. To which we requested a replacement dessert as we were too full for another appetizer then, but this was flatly refused.
Next night we stuck to the basics at the Oriental Grill. A salmon avocado sushi roll, a tiger prawns curry based stir fry and a tenderloin steak based fried rice was all we ordered. Here, we had no complaints and were also impressed by the live performance of the teppanyaki chef.
We opted for our complimentary drop-off while checking out which was a smooth experience. Except for the club lounge and the restaurants, this property needed a major overhaul to bring it in sync with the times. We found the service standards to be mixed and not uniformly consistent either.
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