The Lap of Luxury in Houston's Galleria Area...
Written: Jun 26 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Luxury, service, recreational facilities...
Cons: Can't walk to Galleria mall, mediocre quality hotel bar...
The Bottom Line: Total first class in Houston's Galleria area? Try the Omni!
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Omni Houston Hotel |
There's plenty of high-dollar, high-class hotels in Houston's bustling Galleria district, and if you don't have to be right next to the Macys or Nieman Marcus, then the Omni gives you a very upscale experience in a location that's a bit quieter, and more lightly trafficked than the constantly buzzing Westheimer and 610 intersection. The rooms are great, the service is top notch, and the recreational facilities blow away 97% of what your big corporate chain hotels can usually do. It's a great place to stay.
Resort Quality Amenities
Woo-Hoo!! Break out the suntan lotion, margaritas, and pool toys, because the Omni's pool is one of the best darn hotel pools you'll find north of Cancun! The thing is Huge! In fact, it's like two full-size olympic pools, joined at a corner --- either one could be used as a lap pool, or as a play pool. Your choice. The only real choice you have to make is whether to jump into the one that's heated or the one that's not (as if anybody could ever tell the difference at this time of year in Houston...)
Omni pools are better than most hotel chains to begin with. They usually provide a bin of floaties and stuff for the kids, which is totally awesome (until the little tykes try takin' 'em away from me). That's okay, while the little folks play, Dad can kick back in one of the many, many comfy wrought iron chaise lounges and order icy cold margaritas from the attentive waiters. Am I at the freakin' beach, or what!?!?!
This particular Omni dots their eyes and crosses their tees all across the board though. Every perk is significantly better than your average hotel. The fitness room is freakin' huge, and it's nice...not crammed into a basement someplace. In fact, the fitness center also includes whirlpool tubs and saunas...so you can go soak yourself and get all steamed up about it.
And I love those tennis courts. Ingenious design too. You step out of the hotel and look down the driveway, and you could almost miss 'em, since the four impeccably maintained courts are the top level of a parking garage that is mostly hidden below surface level.
Of course there's a gazillion square feet of meeting space too, just in case you're in town for some kind of confabulation or whatever. There's also a small business center in the lobby area --- couple PCs, a printer, a fax machine, a copier --- your usual business center perks (but in a much nicer, more comfortable space).
Room with a View...
Now THIS is a five-star hotel room!
It's big for one thing. It's quiet. It's luxurious. But what sets it apart from the whole pack of "near-5-star" upscale hotels is the insistence on going beyond the minimum. Of course there's a closet...but at the Omni Houston, it's lighted, it's deep, and it's thoughtfully stocked with not just one robe --- but two. And not just an iron and an ironing board, but also a brand new bottle of starch, because, somebody likes things stiff.And you don't just get hangers, you get a selection of different kinds of hangers, because guys might like those stout wood hangers for flannel shirts and manly kinds of things, but they sure as heck ain't going near the satin hangers with the little bows.
The bathroom is way excellent. Very large, very nice. Marble everywhere too. Marble floor, marble vanity top, marble shelf around the bathtub. Upscale toiletries, and there's even a nice ceramic jar full of Q-tips and cotton balls. And of course, there's a telephone next to the toilet. "Hey, Dad! Happy fathers day! I'm shopping at the Galleria today, trying to pick out just the right gift." FALOOOOOOSSHHH!
Tons of pillows on the bed, big fluffy pillow-top mattress, down comforter. All the perks of today's upscale premium bed.
I've stayed in so many mediocre corporate chain hotels lately that I'd forgotten that really good hotel rooms always have nicely stocked mini-bars (whoops! Forgot that they slam you $8 for one of those little mini Bacardis...plus a service charge, plus a 20% restocking fee, plus tip, plus incidentals, plus labor, plus tax....I think each bottle usually adds about $283,389.83 to your bill. Hmmm. Maybe I won't complain about the lack of mini-bars anymore...
If you gotta work, this is the hotel room you want to work in. Outstanding work surface. Huge and clean. It's great to find a room that's not full of table tents admonishing you to order the Smiley Face Breakfast Pancakes or to join their frequent guest program. It's also great that the work desk has an extra phone and oodles of power connections plus three ways to hook into the internet, if you choose to do so. (And beware --- using the Internet will cost you.)
Service with a Smile...
Service is getting so rare in today's cut-corner "hospitality industry" (an oxymoron if ever I heard one), that I've given up on talking about it in most reviews. It almost comes as a shock to me now when I stay in a hotel that really does have good service, but that's exactly what you find at the Omni.
When I pulled up to register, there was a whole platoon of valets, ready to whisk my rental wheels away for me. Bellmen were equally Johnny on the Spot when it came to loading up the luggage for the trip up the elevator. Of course there's concierge services as well, and they'll shine your shoes if you set 'em outside overnight. Now I have the shiniest Crocs on the block!
But you don't get five star AAA ratings just with those things, because other folks have those services too. Now if you go stay in those other hotels and you tell the front desk that you want to exercise in your room, they'll shrug and say, "Knock yourself out. No jumping jacks though. You'll tick off the folks downstairs." That doesn't happen at the Omni. You tell 'em you want to exercise in your room, and they show up with portable exercise implements of destruction, free weights, a pad, even a treadmill! Man!
The Finer Side of Dining...
There's two restaurants in the Omni: the casual, open air Cafe On the Green, and the more formal, Noe. And just because Cafe On the Green is casual, don't expect bargain prices --- an omelette for breakfast is still going to set you back a good $12. Of course that's chump change when you consider that Noe's entrees run between $25 and $35, appetizers will run about $15, and even a small cup of soup is going to set you back $12-15.
Because I've lived in this part of town for several years, I'd already tried most of the local faves, but never the Omni's dining room. So, high prices or no, I did dinner there. I'd asked for my New York Strip to be done medium well. What came out was decidedly rare --- red to the core and running scarlet when sliced --- yep, it's rare. Not even medium rare. Rare. Sigh.
The soup of the day was an asian seafood gumbo. Sounded interesting. Made with coconut milk, the waiter told me. What I got was a decent enough thin soup, but a portion small enough to have an anorexic teen begging for seconds. One piece of shrimp, lost in a splash of yellow broth, with a tiny bite of salmon floating nearby. Tasted okay, but I'd have kind of liked to have had enough in the bowl to get a second spoonful....
I'm not particularly excited by this dinner, and I'm downright depressed by the strictly low-class beer selection. They had nothing good to speak of. No local beers. No quality micros. No quality imports. I asked if they had anything Belgian, and the waiter nodded, "Stella," he said, and with those two terrifying syllables, ruined my night.
After dinner, I adjourned to the Noe bar. The bartender confirmed the waiter's message: nobody in this Omni Hotel has any clue as to what a quality beer is. They could, perhaps, take a taxi over to the Hilton Americas and see how a real classy hotel bar is stocked.
Since the beer was undrinkable, I opted for a mojito. Usually don't drink 'em in the U.S. Partly because I strongly prefer the generally unobtainable Havana Club rums, but also because too many bartenders don't know how to make them.
The bartender in the Omni is a perfect example, as he timidly twirled the mint leaves in the drink, oh so delicately, lest he bruise their tender flesh.
Bonehead! CRUSH them leaves! MASH the lime into 'em! TWIST the leaves into the sugar! That's how a REAL man makes a REAL mojito --- not the wimpy poseur thing that Omni's bartender thinks is a mojito. Aye, carumba! (And to think I had to pony up $12 for this thing!)
Bustling Location
The Omni is located in the Galleria area, to the west of downtown Houston. Unlike most of the hotels in this area, which cluster near the shopping centers along Westheimer, the Omni is almost a mile from the mall itself. It's in the quieter, more mixed office-condo area along Woodway (towards Memorial / I-10). That can be a pro or a con.
A lot of visitors come to this part of town because it's got the biggest mix of retail stores in the region, and folks want to be where the stores are. It would be a royal pain in the tookus to hoof it to the mall and back from the Omni, but fortunately, you don't have to. The hotel has a fleet of Lincoln Town Cars that will whisk you there and back in luxury and style.
Bottom Line...
The Omni Houston is one of a very small handful of true top-tier hotels in Houston. I already like Omni hotels, but the Houston location is noticeably better than their already very good standards. This is the real deal.
Recommended:
Yes
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