On a recent trip to New York, I was looking to pay a cash rate on a hotel room as my points stash was dwindling. Of course, hotel rates in the Big Apple are comically inflated and at some point, you just have to bite the bullet unless you want to stay in some flea-ridden, dripping closet. In instances where saving a few hundred bucks is more important than getting a free breakfast, I’ll put aside my loyalty to Marriott, where I’m a Titanium member and would likely get a decent upgrade on a two-day stay. This is how I found myself staying at the Hyatt Centric Midtown New York, which was a perfectly fine option for a weekend in the city. For a two-day stay over the weekend, I paid $667 ($333.5/night) which earned me 6,669 Hyatt points due to the Discoverist 10% bonus and a “Bonus Journeys” promo Hyatt was running.
The room at the Hyatt Centric Midtown New York
New York City hotel rooms are known for being comically small but you don’t feel too squished into the rooms at the Hyatt Centric, all of which are over 300 square feet. However, perhaps one of the tradeoffs of the decent-sized room is that it’s laid out in a bit of a strange manner. Although I was there over the weekend and didn’t need to do any work, the desk is shoved in the corner behind the television along with the closet.
When I entered the room, the air conditioning was blasting so hard it was like stepping into the Arctic. Progressively though, over the next few hours, it stopped working as well so I called maintenance and someone came up to work on it. The air conditioning went back to full power but the side effect was that it started dripping quite a lot of water from the ceiling in the bathroom. I put a towel under it to soak up the drips but by the end of the stay they were completely soaked.
The bed was comfortable, the chair was comfortable, the water pressure and heat in the shower was great, and the blackout curtains worked well. The wall-to-wall windows were a nice touch and they were soundproofed as well. I enjoyed the overall décor of the room as well, and thought the painting above the bed was a nice touch.
The neighborhood around the Hyatt Centric Midtown 5th Avenue New York City
As the name of the hotel should make clear, it is located in a quite central part of town. It’s just a block away from the lovely Bryant Park, within walking distance of Broadway shows and steps from some fantastic dining options. I did all three of these things – had a coffee in Bryant Park, had an early dinner at my favorite pre-Broadway restaurant, and saw The Lion King.
My favorite pre-Broadway restaurant? That’s the Japanese chain Ootoya, which offers traditional Japanese meals ranging from tonkotsu to fish, rice, pickle and soup sets to oyakodon. Although there are a couple of rolls available, it’s doesn’t specialize in sushi and I would recommend against ordering it there, although that’s just me being a sushi snob.
Perhaps my favorite thing about Ootoya is that they serve beer brewed in Japan. Next time you are at the grocery store, if you carefully inspect the label of an Asahi, Sapporo or Kirin, you will see that it was brewed in the United States under the supervision of those companies. It is incredibly rare to find Japanese-brewed beer in the United States and the restaurants that do so have to make a special effort with their distributors to acquire it. I should know – I used to work in a Japanese restaurant where my chef was hellbent on getting his kegs from Japan. I used to think this was a bit over the top, but I swear there is a huge difference. It’s more expensive, but it also has a much cleaner and purer taste and is more refreshing than Japanese branded beer brewed in the United States. Anyway, this is one of the few mid-price restaurants that I know of in the United States where you can get a truly Japanese beer.
Another great thing about Ootoya is that the tips are built into the price of the food on the menu and your bill as they are in Japan.
Unless you want to grab a slice of Joe’s Pizza or Shake Shack (both totally acceptable options if you’re in the mood!), the restaurants around the theater district are somewhat lacking. Ootoya is a bright spot in the neighborhood and because they don’t take reservations and the secret is getting out a bit, I recommend going to line up to snag a spot right when they open.
And for lunch, I went to Tacos No. 1., a traditional taqueria with a handful of locations around New York. If you haven’t heard of it yet, don’t worry, you will soon, because I would be shocked if this place has not expanded across the country in a few years.
The bottom line
The Hyatt Centric Midtown 5th Avenue is an extremely well located hotel which is perfectly comfortable for a short stay. We were in the room so little that we didn’t have much time to explore the rest of the hotel but there did appear to be a rooftop bar as well as a restaurant on the ground floor and a gym as well. It’s a worthwhile stay no matter whether you are paying cash or points (29,000) and I would happily return on my next visit to New York City.
