Review - Park Hyatt Washington DC

Park Hyatt Washington DC

September 8th, 2025

Enroute:

Due to my partner’s work travel, we were in DC often this year and checked out a few properties around town. We stayed at the Park Hyatt the most, so I figured it’s time for a review. Our go-to hotel in DC used to be the St. Regis, which I’ve reviewed before. I think I prefer the Park Hyatt to the St. Regis. The St. Regis is more centrally positioned, if you’re in DC for work. The Park Hyatt has spacious accommodations and a wonderful restaurant, if you know the right items to order. I’ll get into that in detail shortly.

Check-in:

I went to school in DC, so I know the neighborhood around the Park Hyatt very well. Located in the West End, Park Hyatt is close to Georgetown, Arlington and Dupont. However, if you need to get over to downtown or the Hill, it’s a bit of a haul, even without traffic. I like the residential feeling, which beats staying near Metro Center or the White House.

The drive from DCA usually takes around 15 minutes. Ugh, I love how convenient DCA is. The hotel exterior was rather nondescript, as was the case with the neighboring Fairmont and the Westin. They all kind of just blended together with the apartment buildings on the same block.

I’d been to the Park Hyatt when I was still in school, and I remembered the public spaces being nice, while the rooms left a bit to be desired. Well, that certainly is still the case, since the rooms were never renovated.

Aside from the hotel’s signature Blue Duck Tavern restaurant, the lobby floor really didn’t have much else going on. There was a nice enough staircase leading down to the conference rooms.

Unpack:

So, here’s something odd about the Park Hyatt Washington DC - I believe there technically were base level rooms. But they were, without fail, sold out every time we booked. Therefore, we had always stayed at a junior suite or above, which were frankly quite reasonably priced. Obviously, it all depends on what’s going on in DC that week, but I recall the lowest rate being lower than $500/night.

In this review, I’ll cover both the junior suite and the Georgetown suite. Let’s first start with the junior suite.

The most important thing you need to know about the junior suites here is that not all of them are created equal. On the website, you can either book a junior suite or a junior suite with city view for a slight premium. What’s not available to book directly on the website is the corner junior suites. Standard junior suites were marketed as 544 sqft. However, the corner junior suites must have been at least 50% larger.

Upon entry, there was a foyer with an étagère to the right.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Park Junior Suite Foyer

The living room in a standard junior suite was probably half the size of this one. I thought it was nice how the sunlight was pouring in through the shutters.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Park Junior Suite Living Room

Before you get to the bedroom, there was a small desk.

Next to the desk was a fully stocked minibar, along with coffee and tea setup. I forgot to take a picture of the minibar menu, but I had the half bottle of Moët, and it was $60.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Park Junior Suite Minibar

Since this was still a junior suite, there was no partition between the living room and the bedroom.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Park Junior Suite Bedroom

Coming up was the bathroom. The rooms here could really use a refresh at this point.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Park Junior Suite Bathroom

Customary at all Park Hyatt properties, toiletries were from Le Labo, which hasn’t been cool for at least 5 years.

Next up we have the Georgetown suite, marketed as 1,022 sqft. The only time we stayed in this room was because it was the only room left for sale. Subsequently, we were offered a paid upgrade to this suite for $175/night. We didn’t take it, since the junior suites were big enough.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Foyer

For the Georgetown suite, there’s a half bath to the right of the entryway.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Half Bathroom

The living room was quite spacious, complete with a dining table.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Living Room

The fridge in the living room just had water in it, while the one near the bedroom was fully stocked.

This was one of the better charcuterie boards I’ve had as a hotel welcome amenity. Funny enough, I wasn’t planning to eat any of this. But I had breakfast the next morning on this table, and it was not great. So I looked over and nibbled on the cheeses instead, and they were much better😂.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Welcome Amenity

Separating the bedroom from the living room was a small study.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Study

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Minibar

Tucked all the way in was the bedroom.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Bedroom

Similar to those in the junior suite, the bathroom and closets were an extension to the bedroom. The bathrooms were pretty much identical.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Bathroom

Park Hyatt Washington DC Georgetown Suite Closet

As I’ve discussed earlier, I hope they would update the rooms soon. Honestly, even just small touches like new carpeting/wallpaper, reupholstered seating and lighter marble in the bathroom would make for such an dramatic improvement. The bones of the rooms were good.

Rewind:

During our first stay at the Park Hyatt, we were told that there’s no spa on property. As I’m looking at the website now, it shows spa and gym in the gallery, but there’s no mentioning of them elsewhere. Allow me to investigate this further on my next stay, lol.

Refuel:

There’s only one restaurant at the Park Hyatt, the Blue Duck Tavern. It’s commonly regarded as a pretty good restaurant in DC both by locals and out-of-towners. To be real with y’all, I thought it sucked until like my 3rd stay here. It wasn’t until I tried every single thing on all of their menus had I realized that you got to know the right things to order here.

First, for breakfast, the juices and smoothies were okay. The nice thing about breakfast here was that you could have it in-room. If it’s included in your rate, it’s just a $90 per room credit. You can check out all of the menus here. The hotel had a workable wine list, you can also check it out here. Coming from Miami, I found the markup on wines to be rather tamed in DC.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Room Service Breakfast

The coffee cake tasted like dish water, so I do not recommend it.

The French toast and yoghurt parfait were safe options.

My favorite was the 10 grain porridge. I would get this every single day. The pumpkin sunflower seed streusel and banana brûlée were such a creative touch, and personally I love the texture of millet. The matcha was good too. This was the perfect breakfast.

The duck confit hash sounded good, but it was just kind of gross in real life.

I had room service lunch one time. It was better than breakfast, since everything was edible. I started with some royal ossetra. It was okay. The menu didn’t say what brand it was. The freshly squeezed orange juice was great and not too sweet.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Room Service Lunch

I didn’t try the blinis or the accompaniments, so I can’t tell you. But the blinis were properly fresh and warm.

I’ve had their crab cake a few times. It’s not the best crab cake. But I feel like when you want crab cake, you just want crab cake, you know🤷‍♂️?

The homemade pasta, with wilted kale and house cured guanciale, on the other hand, was delicious. I love greens in my pasta like kale or broccoli rabe, so this was right up my alley. And I’m not one of those people who has an ardent scorn for heavy cream in their pasta sauce. After all, I have enjoyed TGI Friday’s cajun jambalaya pasta on quite a few occasions. This garganelli had heavy cream but not too much. It was oh-so-yummy.

Moving onto the actual Blue Duck Tavern restaurant. I like the space. It felt very much Japanese.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Blue Duck Tavern Restaurant

Again, for breakfast, stick with the sweets. Random tangent - is it just me or do all the grocery store berries always come rotten? I’ve never bought berries, especially raspberries, that didn’t have some rotten ones in them? Is it like this in other parts of the world???

Park Hyatt Washington DC Blue Duck Tavern Restaurant Breakfast

The only time I had breakfast in the restaurant, I ordered scrambled eggs, a side of mushrooms and a side of chicken sausage. My partner got the eggs with bacon.

These were the driest, saddest and most tasteless eggs I’ve had in my entire life, not to mention the presentation, or lack thereof. I have to imagine the eggs at a Hampton Inn can’t be much worse.

I don’t want to make non-PG jokes but, how shriveled were these sausages… How many glasses of whiskey did the chicken have..?

The mushrooms, they were fine. They were about as bland as the people who cheer when Sweet Caroline comes on.

For lunch and dinner, I would just share with you my hits and not the misses. The quality of the oysters was consistently good, but get it without their mignonette.

Park Hyatt Washington DC Blue Duck Tavern Restaurant Dinner

I love bone marrow, so I normally get them if I see them. These were pretty good, a bit heavy on the breadcrumbs, but overall enjoyable.

My absolute favorite dish of this restaurant was the hay smoked kanpachi with cucumbers and miso lime cilantro. Popularly served as nigiri, Kanpachi (aka amberjack) is a clean and light fish. I was surprised that the smoking process did not overpower the subtle flavor of the fish but enhanced it. The thinly dressed cucumber salad added an ideal crunch and freshness to the dish. It was superb.

For a restaurant named Blue Duck Tavern, you’d expect a duck dish on the menu. And I was not disappointed. The limited availability BDT whole duck was sensational. The skin was expertly lacquered, and the meat was deeply rich. I ate the leftover cold the next day, and it was like eating candy. Decadent doesn’t do it justice.

For the sides, I highly recommend the white corn grits - velvety, cheesy and fills your soul (if you have one) with warmth. It’s one of those things that seems simple but takes a lot of effort to perfect.

Depart:

Overall, Park Hyatt Washington DC is a comfortable hotel. The suites were sizable, albeit a bit dated. The restaurant was wonderful if you know what to order. Service was friendly and prompt. I’ve got to get his name next time, but we always had this tall, dark and handsome waiter in the lounge area of the restaurant. He was so friendly and attentive. The front desk in particular, was very proactive with late checkout. It’s always nice to not have to extensively litigate the late checkout benefit with dishonest or misinformed front desk staff…

I have a few more DC hotel reviews coming up, including the now-Waldorf Astoria, so subscribe and stay tuned!

Review - Park Hyatt Washington DC

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