The St. Regis Mexico City Review

Service

The doorman downstairs wanted to know where we'd been the day before, and then told us where a local would have gone instead. It was like that for the whole stay. The lobby is up on the third floor, and getting to the lifts means walking past the front desk and the concierge, so someone greets you every time you come or go. Honestly, it made me a little self-conscious, and if you like to slip in and out unnoticed, this isn't the place.

It started well before we arrived. The concierge and the butler team worked through a list of requests with four emails in a single day, and when I asked for a table at Handshake, the cocktail bar, three days out, they had it booked within half a day. Every room has a butler around the clock, and two items a day are pressed for free. At turndown the ice bucket was topped up and there were earplugs and Lindt chocolates by the bed, and one evening the lady who did our turndown left us a Hamleys teddy bear.

What stays with me is how they handled a letdown. The hotel was busy and there was no finished suite to move us into, so the next morning a bottle of rosé and a dessert came up to the room. On the way out, the director of rooms showed us round the newly finished rooms. I left happier than I'd arrived, which is a strange thing to say about a room that wasn't what I'd hoped for.

Rooms

Our suite was a little over 100 square metres, with floor-to-ceiling windows straight onto the Paseo de la Reforma and a fresh orchid by the sofa. It was caught halfway through the renovation. The old carpet had gone for cream marble with a pale green tint, the wallpaper was new and a big round rug in swirls of pink and sand sat under the ottoman. The place felt much lighter for it. The furniture was still the old set, heavy and formal, and the desk and chairs looked worn, though the drinks cabinet behind them was new.

The bathroom hadn't been touched, and honestly it didn't need to be. It's all marble with green mosaic tiles, kept so well I'd never have guessed the hotel opened in 2009, and the taps still look sharp. The shower switches to a steam room, which I've rarely seen in a hotel, and the toiletries ran right down to cleanser, make-up wipes and mouthwash. There were petals scattered in the tub, and our welcome was a whole pot of red roses, which I'd never been given before, with a bottle of cava and a chocolate-dipped strawberry.

On the tour I saw what the finished rooms look like. The entry rooms have new bedside lamps, a bench at the foot of the bed and a metal screen, with a corner that reminded me of the St. Regis in Hong Kong, and the finished version of our suite had a far more stylish sofa, though the pictures weren't all on the walls yet. The terrace suite on the fourth floor was the best of the lot, open plan, with a huge terrace and a bathtub outside. The work on all 189 rooms was due to finish in September 2026, so when you book, get it in writing that your room is one of the finished ones.

Food and drink

A pianist plays through breakfast at Diana, on the third floor, and the restaurant manager stopped at our table for a chat every morning, which I've rarely had anywhere. The buffet is very good, with a big spread of fruit, two or three Mexican hot dishes and sparkling wine that keeps coming. The menu is full of local dishes and the plates are enormous, so go easy at the buffet if you're ordering too. Oddly for a busy hotel, only three or four tables were taken each morning, so anything we asked for came at once.

At six every evening the lobby bar holds the sabrage, when a bottle of Champagne is opened with a sabre. On one of our evenings a small classical ensemble played first. The snacks that come round with the glasses are good as well. I made sure we were back from the city by six most days. Diana also serves afternoon tea, if you're back early and want something while you wait for the sabre.

The King Cole Bar is where to order a Bloody Mary, the drink every St. Regis bar claims as its own. One of the hotel's bars has lime-green stools under a surreal mural of a desert, a spiral tower and a man on a black horse, with rows of tequila lit up behind the counter, and it was my favourite corner of the building. For dinner, though, I'd go out, with Handshake and the rest of Mexico City's restaurants a short ride away.

Setting

From our window the Diana the Huntress fountain sat right below, with the towers of Reforma behind it, and if I leaned against the glass I could just make out the Angel of Independence down the avenue. That's about all the view you get. The hotel takes the lower part of a glass tower of more than 30 floors, with apartments above the 15th, so the rooms sit fairly low for Reforma.

You can't do much better for location, though. It's a few minutes' walk along Reforma to the Angel, or the other way into Chapultepec Park, and the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton are both close by on foot. Down by the drop-off there's a pastry shop, and an old-fashioned shoe-shine stand I didn't expect to find in a glass tower. The atrium has strings of coloured glass hanging from the ceiling, white orchids in painted Talavera vases and, while we were there, a giant football painted in blue and white like Talavera pottery.

The pool and gym are on the 15th floor, the top of the hotel, with floor-to-ceiling windows over Reforma. The pool is heated, about 15 metres long, and runs right up to the glass, with a small tiled hot tub beside it, and it was almost empty whenever I went up. A soak there was how I shook off the altitude at the end of a long day. The gym is open around the clock but cramped, two small rooms of Technogym machines, one for cardio and one for weights.

Value

Sitting on that old green sofa, I kept thinking about the price. A night here usually costs about $783 to $900, while the Ritz-Carlton is about $906 and the Four Seasons about $850 to $1,100, so the St. Regis matches them or comes in a little under. A butler for every room and free pressing are part of that rate, and for service like ours I didn't begrudge it.

The room is where the money feels less certain. Ours mixed new floors with tired furniture, and at these prices you want the finished version I only saw on a tour. Las Alcobas in Polanco costs about $540 to $630 a night, so if the room matters more to you than being looked after, that's a lot of money saved. If you do choose the St. Regis, choose it for the staff, and only once they've promised you a finished room in writing.