After my flight to YYZ on Air France I spent the night in Toronto, choosing the Hyatt Regency. Although the hotel is dated, I found it perfectly suitable for my short stay.
Note my stay was in February 2020…the pandemic may alter your experience at this hotel.
Hyatt Regency Toronto Review
Location
I took the Union Pearson Express from the airport to Union Station, then walked about one kilometer from the station to the hotel. It was icy out with snow flurries and I wasn’t wearing the right shoes, but after sitting on a plane all day it was almost exhilarating to get some fresh air. The hotel is located in an area of town that appears to be rapidly gentrifying.
Check-In
An agent named Keshor checked me in, warmly welcomed me, and let me know I had been updated to a suite. He thanked me for my Globalist status and loyalty to Hyatt and told me to call him at reception if I ran into any issues in my room.
Suite
My suite included a large living room with kitchenette, one bathroom, and bedroom. I must say, the dark carpet and dark wood looked quite sterile, but the most important thing was that I had plenty of room to spread out.
The room was cold, but I cranked up the thermostat and it heated right up.
Pharmacopia amenities were in the bathroom–standard for Hyatt Regency.
As I said, I was quite tired and did not feel like even going downstairs. For dinner, I ordered dinner from Mi Taco Taqueria via Uber Eats. I’ve had better, but it did the job nicely and I was soon asleep.
View from my room:
Fitness
In the morning, I dragged myself out of bed early to do a workout prior to breakfast. I had been traveling all week and done plenty of walking, but no strength training. The gym included LifeFitness equipment was fairly crowded (I came back later to take the pictures).
Sauna + Pool
The outdoor pool was closed for the season, but I was surprised to find a sauna…it is not listed anywhere on the hotel’s website.
Breakfast
This Hyatt Regency does not have a Regency Club. As such, Globalists can use their breakfast benefit in the King Street Social Kitchen in the hotel’s ground level. The restaurant offers both a buffet an a la carte menu (or at least did prior to COVID-19). The buffet included the biggest cereal selection I’ve ever seen, omelet bar, pastries, fruit, salads, bagels and salmon with capers, and hot items including bacon, sausage, potatoes, and oatmeal.
Today, however, I decided to order huevos rancheros off the a la carte menu. Honestly, the kitchen did a great job and it made for a nice breakfast with a bowl of berries and cappuccino.
Here’s the full menu:
The highlight of breakfast, though, was my waitress Suzanne. She was so pleasant (in a motherly sort of way) and took great care of me. I appreciated her smile and warm personality.
As a Globalist, the entire charge was removed at check-out.
CONCLUSION
In retrospect, I got to the hotel in the evening, worked, slept, and went right back to the airport the next morning. In that sense, I should have just stayed at the airport. Next time I return to Toronto I hope the Park Hyatt remodel is complete. I prefer the Yorkville neighborhood anyway. But I enjoyed the suite upgrade and warm hospitality at this hotel by Suzanne and Keshor.
It appears this is a pre-pandemic stay? I don’t think it’s a problem to go back and write posts for older stays, but it would be nice somewhere near the top to mention when this stay was from.
This is part of an ongoing trip report from Feb 2020.
Right. That makes sense. All I was suggesting was that for me at least as a reader, that would be useful information to have near the top of the review since one would assume that your experience in February 2020 is much difference than one’s experience if they were to stay today. (Buffet breakfast, fitness center, pool, etc).
Will do! And the day was printed on the receipt! 😉
Very adventurous of you going for a taco in Toronto, especially as an LA native.
Any news about whether Hyatt will reverse course on their elimination of individual toiletries? It’s just like how California went from “save the trees, use plastic bags!” to “save the fish! use reusable bags!” back to “save yourself from covid! don’t use reusable bags, use plastic bags!” When personal health runs into virtue signalling, personal health always wins, so I suspect Hyatt will at a minimum delay that initiative.
Their amenity bottles are the tiniest of any major chain, so the ratio of plastic to product is the highest. Either use bigger bottles that don’t need to be replaced as often, or use some biodegradable material for packaging, but please no bulk toiletries, Hyatt.
I hope they’ll backtrack, but with cost in play, they’ll call it an “enhancement” we’ll like.
Good review of a ho hum looking Hyatt. Breakfast looked solid at least. Like you, I’m excited to see the newly imagined Park Hyatt as Toronto really is a lovely city.
Park Hyatt Yorkville can’t re-open soon enough. Perhaps it’ll even be completed by the time US citizens are allowed to travel into Canada again…
Yeah, I stayed here with my dad a few years ago and we were not impressed at all. Definitely would like to check out the Park Hyatt when it opens again.
Canadian bacon on the eggs Benedict? In Toronto?
There’s no such thing as Canadian bacon in Canada.
Just another “farm to table” marketing ploy! 😉
More like a menu designed in the US for US customers. Local language usage apparently isn’t their thing.
The outside of that building is absolutely horrendous! Goodness me.
This was built as a Holiday Inn, opening in 1990. It represents some of the worst of ‘80s architecture!
Review, about Grant Hyatt 42nd and Lexington New York is under construction, reopen, or what? Thanks
In these times, “sterile” is a good thing rather than a statement about decor. We can only hope.
The range of cereal: sure, but it’s not really a true range, because they’re all loaded with sugar , in order to get, and keep, people addicted. Those companies are very clever in the way they disguise it.