Charm and Service at the Hotel Mallory
Written: Aug 15 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent and responsive service. Pet friendly.
Cons: A bit removed from downtown. Slightly dilapidated areas.
The Bottom Line: A good choice for a Portland stay with excellent service. Not the most downtown-centric location, but close to the metro.
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| philipchu's Full Review: Mallory Hotel |
Baltimore is nicknamed "Charm City", but I think Portland, Oregon merits that designation, at least on the West Coast. Downtown Portland, along with the surrounding neighborhoods, features a diverse assortment of restaurants, shops and cultural attractions packaged in a walkable perimeter, facilitated by an excellent light rail that provides free travel within "Fareless Square".
The Hotel Mallory embodies that coziness. The hotel is one of those old city hotels on the exterior and interior. On my early August visit there, I found the hotel well-furnished, with immaculate bed and linens. The hotel is advertised to be pet friendly (I did see another guest walking his little dog up the carpeted lobby stairs), but seems to be none the worse for wear - no lingering doggie smells.
The Mallory could use some refurbishing here and there, e.g. the sink and medicine cabinet in the bathroom looked aged and had some paint chipped off. The air conditioning is adequate but a bit warm on the upper floors during the badly-timed heat wave (over ninety-five degrees just before I left) The only serious disrepair I encountered was in the vending machines - the one on my floor wouldn't take dollars, and the one on the floor below took my dollar but jammed up on my quarters ($1.50 for a bottle)
But the hotel staff came through with flying colors - when I asked at the desk for my change, they gave it to me and also got me a drink from the hotel restaurant. There's no gift shop in the hotel but the room does have a mini-fridge, so I recommend stocking up on the slightly cheaper drinks at the convenience store a couple of (very short) blocks north.
The staff is also very helpful in providing walkabout tips. I overhead a variety of dining suggestions at the desk, none of which involved the hotel restaurant - I had a fine breakfast there, but no reason to restrict yourself. Instead of a twelve dollar corned beef hash and eggs, you can get a pretty good breakfast burrito for three dollars down he street (I think it was called the Sunshine Cafe).
Technically, the hotel is a bit west of downtown, so the nearest rail stop, PGE Stadium, is just outside of Fareless Square. The rail can take you just about anywhere, but it's an easy walk to and through downtown - I got all the way across to Chinatown in twenty minutes, leaving plenty of time for dim sum and a visit to the Chinese Garden.
Note the visitor map is not to scale - I found that out the hard way when I sweated my way to the amazing Rose Test Garden, located in a western part of the city including the zoo, forestry museum and Japanese garden. (I learned my lesson and took the rail there the next day) Apparently commercial establishments have to pay for a listing on the map - there's no other way I can explain the omission of the aptly named Powell's City of Books, the most impressive bookstore I've every seen and one of the reasons Portland is on my list of favorite cities.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
philipchu
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Member: Phil Chu
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Reviews written: 60
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
writer of software and prose
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