Hotel Review: Fairmont San Francisco

We chose to stay at the Fairmont San Francisco because they were offering a really good deal for the time that we were in town.  Our flight landed early and we arrived at the hotel before 10:00am to drop off our bags before grabbing a snack at Café Centro and heading out to explore the streets of San Francisco. 

One thing to note is that the Fairmont is located at the top of Nob Hill.  If you plan on walking to and from the hotel, be prepared to climb up a very steep incline.  From the hotel, it is about a 20 minute downhill walk to Union Square in one direction and a 20 minute downhill walk to Fisherman’s Wharf in the opposite direction.  

All 3 cable car lines run past the hotel.  The California line stops at the corner of the main hotel entrance.  The Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines stop at the back of the hotel right outside Cafe Centro.  We rode on the Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde lines much more often than the California line and the cable cars are always full coming up the hill.  In fact, the line up at the terminal station (at Powell & Market) for the cable car ride up the hill is insanely long and you can easily wait more than 30 minutes for a ride.  

Fairmont Room
We booked a standard room and was pleasantly surprised with the size of the room.  I found out later on that the room we were in was part of the older section of the hotel which is why we had such large rooms.  The standard rooms in the newer section of the hotel are smaller. Our room also included a huge walk-in closet that was about the same size as the bathroom.

 

Laurel Court
We had made reservations to have Afternoon Tea at the Laurel Court on Saturday afternoon.  It turns out reservations were not really necessary for that time of day as the restaurant was pretty much empty. 

You can make reservations online at the Fairmont San Francisco’s website, where you can also view the menu for their Afternoon Tea set.  The cost is currently $39.00USD. 

The sandwiches and pastries were all very delicious and the atmosphere was very relaxing.  I really was surprised that it wasn’t busier since it was a Saturday afternoon in July, but it was a very nice day, so perhaps people preferred being outside.

Tonga Room
Upon checking in, we found out that the hotel had a Hawaiian style dinner buffet every weekend.  We tried making a reservation for Saturday night, but they were already full so we settled on Sunday night instead.

Truthfully, neither of us thought the food was great.  I felt that the buffet lacked selection as well.  There was only one very short row of food choices. The chicken, fish and pork were all quite dry as well.  The atmosphere and the wait staff definitely made the night worthwhile though.  The buffet worked out to be about $65.00USD before drinks, tax and tip.