Chinese Terracotta Warriors

Posted on August 30, 2010 by appsscraps

1) the (fake) terracotta warriors in the Royal Ontario Museum gift shot

We crashed at the Park Hyatt this weekend to celebrate G’s half birthday and the end of the conferencing for me. Our stay included a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum‘s exhibit – straight from X’ian – of the famous terracotta warriors from the Qin dynasty. The exhibit, while small, is very good and I would recommend a visit.
 

2) looking down to the entrance; 3) up in the new dinosaur exhibit space

4) where the ROM crystal meets the old building; 5) me in the gift shop


At the Hyatt we had a “Park Suite” overlooking Avenue Road and the Eurotrash that hang out at the Four Seasons across the street. We enjoyed lunch at the infamous “Roof Lounge”, site of so many adventures during the Toronto International Film Festival (which is but 10 days away). The bartender there is great and we were lucky to have his undivided attention Saturday for lunch. He regaled us with stories of the (mis)adventures of installing umbrellas on the patio and Sean Penn’s behaviour when in residence.


6) the Park Hyatt; 7) our bathroom


  8 & 9) our bedroom and living room – the Hyatt since our last visit has removed the big armoires and ancient TVs and replaced with flat screens in both the living and bedrooms


10) the view down Avenue Road to the Ontario Legislature from the patio at Roof Lounge (with ROM in foreground); 11) the bar at Roof Lounge


12) my Park Hyatt burger – okay but with thoroughly lousy french fries that were both soggy and oil laden; 13) G’s excellent crispy chicken pizza

We used the Hyatt e-concierge service to preorder a half birthday cake for G and a couple of massages at Stillwater, the Park Hyatt’s spa. The cake was plain awful and came with neither the chocolate cake, vanilla cream icing nor blue wording requested. The cake was vanilla with sickly blue icing and brown wording. Lesson learned! Worse, it truly was as dry as the Sahara on a good day – a dreadful faux pas noting the (many) wonderful desserts we’ve enjoyed at Annona, the Hotel’s excellent restaurant. I supposed they left the pastry chef duties to the bellhop on Saturday?! We did take breakfast in Annona and it restored our faith. Chef Joan Monfaredi still has control of the kitchen.

We took supper in the room; the food did make up a tad for the dreadful cake and the arrival of complementary cream scones with an excellent cherry and plum jam – and handwritten note from management welcoming us and hoping we had a good time at the terracotta exhibit – was a nice touch. 
 


14) G’s half birthday cake at least looked good; 15) G poses for the half birthday shot with Yorkville in the background


16) our room at the bottom centre of the map; 17) the wee welcome gift


18) looking across to the Four Seasons; 19) dinner arrives in room


20) my simply excellent Cobb salad; 21) G’s Lobster Club Sandwich

With the arrival on the Toronto hotel scene of a new Four Seasons; new Trump Hotel; new Ritz Carleton and new Shangri-La, the Park Hyatt Toronto will need to pull-up its socks or risk losing the business of travelers in the coming months. While we will return for half birthday celebrations, we will take our birthday business elsewhere me thinks.
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3 Responses to Chinese Terracotta Warriors

  1. ElusiveWords says:
    August 31, 2010 at 23:30

    I’m planning to hit the ROM soon for that exhibit.

  2. CurryPuffy says:
    August 30, 2010 at 23:56

    The birthday cake was a cutie! Too bad we could only catch a glimpse his darker side. :(

  3. christao408 says:
    August 30, 2010 at 22:11

    That looks like a relaxing little vacation. Thanks for sharing.

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