With a longtime South Beach resort, Loews Hotels debuted its second Miami property in the heart of Coral Gables in 2022 as part of a new mixed-use development. Designed in the Mediterranean Revival style, the hotel boasts a rooftop swimming pool, plush guestrooms and a global tapas-style restaurant.
Location 8/10
Known as the City Beautiful, Coral Gables is a residential neighborhood southwest of Miami’s downtown area and about a 20 to 40 minute away drive, depending on traffic. Master planned in the 1920s, it’s known for wide, tree canopied avenues and Spanish-inspired architecture and plazas. The Loews Coral Gables Hotel anchors a new mixed-use development, Plaza Coral Gables, which also includes offices, a condo and an assortment of restaurants and bars, including CVI.CHE 105 for upscale Peruvian fare in a clubby setting. With its proximity to the nearby University of Miami, it also caters to visiting families.
Design 8/10
A new build development in the Mediterranean Revival style typical of the area, Loews Coral Gables features a tower reminiscent of The Biltmore Hotel, which has been a neighborhood landmark since the 1920s. Inside, the lobby is spacious and high-ceilinged, flowing seamlessly into the Americana Kitchen restaurant and bar. With haloed chandeliers, columns and curvilinear seating areas, the interiors are reminiscent of Miami’s signature Art Deco and mid-century modern design aesthetics.
Amenities & Hospitality
Service is friendly and professional with helpful attendants at the valet, front desk and concierge. The rooftop pool features a restaurant and bar and there’s also a gym and small spa.
Rooms 8/10
Rooms are spacious, anchored by a big comfortable bed and designed in a mostly neutral color palette with accent furniture in jewel-toned pops of cerulean and raspberry. While they’re plenty comfortable, there’s nothing particularly captivating about the design and they feel like standard, although luxuriously, appointed hotel rooms. Bathrooms are equally spacious with rainfall showers.
“We needed Perrier water and tea to drink when we were working. We needed bourbon on the rocks and Shirley Temples to drink when we were not. A kind of irritable panic came over us when room service went off, and also when no one answered in the housekeeping department. In short we had fallen into the peculiar hormonal momentum of business travel…”
Joan Didion, ‘The White Album,’ 1979
Food & Beverage 8/10
The hotel is anchored by Americana Kitchen, which serves global small plates and entrees, many with a Latin American flair. Standouts include charred plantain and ropa vieja empanadas, hamachi taquitos and steak frites. There’s also a menu of wood stone oven pizzas. It’s home to a large and convivial lobby bar with indoor and outdoor seating, perfect for a pre-dinner drink. Breakfast is also served here with traditional items ranging from omelets to pancakes and more creative concoctions, like the hash “a lo Cubano,” made with roasted pork, plantains, mojo aioli and a fried egg.
The rooftop pool restaurant Phineas makes a mean quesadilla, as well as other lunchtime fare. There’s also a grab-and-go café near the lobby entrance.
Value 9/10
Rates from about $269 in low season and $429 in high. Book
The Bottom Line
A shiny new hotel in Coral Gables.
Contact
2950 Coconut Grove Drive; 786-772-7600; loewshotels.com/coral-gables
