First-Class Cuisine Is Yours At Hyatt House LAX

The food at the Hyatt House LAX is so good, well, I recommend you take any trip – just so you can be at this airport. The hotel just opened this past November 2021 and it is brand spanking new, with a lot to like — especially the cuisine.

My husband Bill and I were enroute to Hawaii, and we always “crash” in Los Angeles on the way there, so we can rest-and-recover from the agony of flying to the West Coast. (We are really not as young as we look – LOL.) The Hyatt House was an ideal pre-Hawaii rest-over. The smoke-free hotel, situated on West Century Boulevard would be a good choice, no matter its location – but it just happens to be just minutes from LAX, with free shuttle service every 20 minutes. We also like the location as it’s just a short walk to Ralph’s Supermarket, where we stocked up on goodies.

Typically, airport hotels and great meals usually don’t go together, but we were very impressed with the food at their in-house dining venue, Shores. The rooftop restaurant is the only such eatery at LAX, and it’s on the top floor penthouse, also where the outdoor heated pool is located. At dinner one night, the first thing we ordered was the vegan offering: All types of mushrooms, with edamame, peas and parmesan cheese, complemented with potato gnocchi. Wow, the combination was a hit and we vowed to order this again on our next visit.

Just a simple salad of avocado and tomato, was simple and very good – fresh little tomatoes with chunks of delicious avocado. My entrée was an order of quinoa with a honey-glazed salmon. I’m a terribly fussy/finicky eater, so for me to be wowed like this, by everything, was unusual. My husband Bill had a beautifully arranged Cobb salad with cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes and more, with a sweet balsamic dressing.

After that we were too stuffed to eat another bite, but we did manage to sample the vanilla panna cotta, which was light and creamy. The only real distraction from the fare were the three television screens channeled to basketball – we felt that it took something away from the upscale dining experience. Nonetheless, we went out of our way to give our compliments to the chef.

After a meal like that – well, you’ve got to work out, and the 24/7 fitness center at the Hyatt House is a gym dandy. It is quite large (1,874 square feet), filled with a wealth of equipment that will let you eat guilt-free. There are treadmills, stair steppers, free weights, kettle bells, yoga mats, and a slew of Life Fitness machines. (You can forget what Marilyn Monroe said about diamonds. In my humble opinion, the Leg Press Machine is girl’s best friend.) I’ve worked out in gyms all over the world, and this is right up there with my other favorites.

Breakfast was another very good experience here. It’s complimentary and served in Greenleaf, the hotel’s floor-level restaurant. For a complimentary breakfast, it was excellent – similar to what you would find in Europe, where bountiful breakfasts are typically included with your room rate. It featured bananas, apples, and fruit salad, along with Le Creuset offerings of scrambled eggs, bacon, bacon, and more bacon, hash browns, several types of juices, and a good selection of breads and bagels that can be toasted. Yummy bran muffins come individually wrapped. Fresh, hot oatmeal is complemented with dried cranberries, golden raisins, brown sugar, flakes of coconut and more. It was very good and I recommend it.

Now I’ll tell you what I’m not crazy about at the Hyatt House LAX. My husband and I both found the rooms to be decorated in an austere style. The lobby is welcoming, but the guest rooms feel sparse and dark. The guest-room walls are black/dark gray, the carpeting is pitch black with splotches of white, and the walls contain minimum black-and-white artwork. It felt very ultra-modern, too stark, and lacking personality – but maybe it’s just us. The rooms have coffeemakers, hair dryers, and eco-conscious shampoo – but no shower caps. During our stay, someone at the front desk was having a bad day, because after we were settled in for a couple of hours, a couple came to our door with keys showing that they, too, were staying in Room 1405. But I have to say, the front desk staff was very friendly and helpful, even though just getting a clean coffeemaker took tons of efforting and lots of phone calls to the front desk. The service was inconsistent.

Aside from that, here’s a great tip you may want to use: We always travel with an HDMI cable, so that we can stream Netflix and Hulu through my laptop in any hotel room. (We found that trying to access the hotel’s streaming services going through Hyatt’s app downloaded through your phone was clumsy.) We enjoyed this entertainment bolstered up in the hotel’s comfy beds. If you want to get snacks, there is a small store on the lobby level, but we always prefer to take the 15-minute walk to Ralph’s Supermarket, to buy cheese, bread, and yogurt and snacks. There is a fridge in the room, but it is hotel-standard small.

In sum, Hyatt House LAX is a positive experience that we can highly recommend. We think that the aesthetics could be a little warmer, but for most people this shouldn’t be a deal-breaker. Make sure to bring your appetite!

For more about my Wanderlust Travels, please Follow me on Instagram at @DebbiKickham.