Review: Grand Hyatt Chengdu

Great review, Lucky! I stayed at this hotel for a month earlier this year and really loved it. The Wi-Fi was certainly not that bad during my stay but it was indeed not fast enough. The bar was also very good with live performance. One thing I want to point out is, in summer, the air conditioner in the room at night was not cool enough and made me wake up sweating occasionally.

I worked with some Chinese girls this summer through an exchange program. Most of them were from Chengdu and recommended hotpot as well, and I promised I would try to visit them in China sometime and we could do it then. It also seems quite similar to Japanese Shabu-shabu, which you should absolutely try if you haven't before.

Why is the shower “rainforest”? Does it play sounds of tropical birds while you shower?

lol I bet this hotpot is not the kind that most local people would enjoy. Nothing judgmental. The "real" hotpot soup in Chengdu is at least red.

Hot pot is definitely a fun, sharing experience with colleagues or friends.

The spicy one is great, ask for extra hua jiao peppers, which ur lips tingly and numb but not painful and it goes away quickly.

And much better in specialty restaurants than hotels.

On my first trip to Asia, way before I got into miles & points, I arrived in Hong Kong jet lagged and exhausted after flying over from JFK in CX Y. I was starving and immediately found myself lost wandering around in Kowloon. Dipped into the first little hole in the wall that had signs of life and sat down to order. Realized quickly it was a hot pot restaurant and all the other tables had at least 4-5 people sharing a meal. Undeterred, I ordered and then stuffed myself silly for the next hour or so. I'm sure I looked like a lunatic.

Wow you stayed at the same suite as we did two days before you. We left on nov. 17. I have to say the suite size is not as large and nice as st. Regis’s so they set up so many mirrors inside the rooms to make the rooms look larger but at the same time make people confused during nights when using stool while the lights were dim. Structure wise the shower room is too big but the stool room is too small. By the way the stool cover was a bit out of place when we checked but we didn’t report it.
All in all this is an excellent hotel but next time I am in town I would choose st. Regis hotel over grand Hyatt for almost the same room rate.

Correction. When we checked in.

Right now my wife and I are in Doha waiting for ny flight at 8am. Solute to your information! Thanks to this we flew from Shanghai to Saigon to Doha then to New York.
What a trip, altogether 48 hours plus from hotel to hotel (out of Shanghai to ny hotel)

Re: Hotpot. "Grand Hyatt Chengdu #8 Restaurant hot pot" is a westernized version of "hotpot" and should be avoided because it is #fakeHotpot.

There is only one kind: the spicy kind in, literally, large hotpots.

A large cauldron filled with sizzling hot oil mixed with very (spicy) hot peppers [giving the content its characteristic 'red' color], into which anything that one wants to eat is thrown in, from vegetables to any part of an animal or fowl [I put my foot down when it came to eating cow brain thrown in there]. One has huge chopsticks for fishing the stuff out of the hotpot and putting it into a small bowl or plate that contains spices (garlic, salt, herbs, peppers) to flavor what one fishes out of the hotpot.

I craved hotpot so much I decided to include Chongqing (second largest city after Chengdu) in my 2015 Year-end Asian Escapade just to have the experience again 🙂

I am going to try to "embed" a picture of an AUTHENTIC Chengdu hotpot below (if picture does not post as I suspect, I will just a provide a link in the post):

Okay no picture "embedded" as expected so here the link to a picture of an AUTHENTIC Chengdu hotpot: https://goo.gl/qMekpB

Looks like a great hotel to stay at if you are a Globalist. Since most mere mortals cannot easily attain such status, especially given Hyatt's limited worldwide footprint, I will stay at Marriott/SPG/St. Regis/.

@DCS - Agreed that the hotpot Lucky had was fake, fake, fake. But there are in fact two major types of Chinese hotpot: the extremely spicy Chongqing-style 火锅 huoguo (as the version that dominates Sichuan is usually known - hotpot is definitely associated with Chongqing more than Chengdu; even in Chengdu, most hotpot restaurants identify themselves as Chongqing-style) and the northern style, including Mongolian 火锅 (where you can often choose between a spicier, though still less spicy than Chonqing, version or a chili-free version, or, frequently, a split-pot) or the 涮肉 shuanrou of Beijing (to which I have a deep emotional connection), which generally has no chilies and is almost always served with sesame paste for dipping, along with other delectable side dishes like picked garlic (糖蒜 tangsuan) and 烧饼 shaobing, a small flatbread.
There are in addition a few more regional styles with which I'm somewhat less familiar, but it is definitely not the case that there is only "one kind."

@David --Like I said, "authentic" Sichuan hotpot, which one finds throughout the province. Elsewhere, including here in NYC, you'll find "hotpot", but not Sichuanese "hotpot" (perfected in Chongqing as you stated), which is uniformly spicy hot. I had "hotpot" in Beijing and it was something else altogether...

Chinese hotpot can be spicy and non spicy, chongqing Sichuan style is the popular spicy type, however there’s also herbal style hotpot and clear broth. It’s down to the preferences of individual, whether they like to have the spicy soup that will overpower the food flavors or non spicy which you can taste the delicious soup at the end of the meal. Personally I like the half and half, 1 pot that’s split in middle with one side spicy and the other side non spicy. Not all food taste good when it’s spicy, especially if it’s fresh seafood, it be a waste. It’s very enjoyable to eat during the cold weather and with friends/family as it’s like an activity that you cook your food together with good company. As a chinese we should remember why back in old days the people enjoy the hot pot, a good tradition to keep and continue, to have a good time with our friends and family.

@Yvonne -- There is no argument here at all. The post is about Chengdu and Sichuan "hotpot". One would be hard pressed to find non-spicy "hotpot" in a province that's known worldwide for its spicy (pepper-hot) food. Some people, present company included, believe that spicy soup open up the taste buds to bring out, rather than to "overpower", food flavors, but to each her/his own 😉

Bet Andrew would have loved joining you for some Sichuan hotpot, the kind that looks like a vat of boiling chillies with extra chillies on top

@Lucky Try connect to a Chinese website when test speed in China. It is often to see internet is slow when try to connect to a foreign website.

China has tighten their internet censorship policy recently, as it try to put more restriction on accessing the website. The rationale for Chinese gov is since there is a Chinese alternative for all foreign internet application, why would Chinese people even bother to access foreign network?

There are several types of hot pot in China. To be honest, I'm surprised Lucky hasn't had it before given how often he's been to China. It's better in winter, when the weather is more suitable for it. It is the type of thing best eaten as a group, though there are restaurants that offer individual servings of hot pot (Xiabu Xiabu 呷哺呷哺 is a popular chain of these restaurants).

Sichuanese/Chongqing style would definitely be spicy, though this isn't the only way to have hot pot. A common sight in hot pot restaurants is a half and half bowl for the soup (often in a "Ying and Yang" symbol design) which can hold two different flavours of soup, such as one spicy one and another milder one for wimps like myself.

@seanpodge sez: "Sichuanese/Chongqing style would definitely be spicy, though this isn’t the only way to have hot pot."

You want "authentic" hotpot, you go with the Sichuan style. You want "hotpot" styles that were created to accommodate "wimps", yu go with non-Sichuan style. It is a common phenomenon: dishes are modified all the time from their original styles to make them palatable in different regions or for others peoples or cultures not accustomed to the "authentic". Just order Sichuan- or Hunan-style dishes in a "Chinese" restaurant in the US and compare with the original dishes in China!

There are multiple kinds of hotpot, DCS. Stop making yourself look like a fool. And by saying there's only one kind, you disrespect other parts of China and Asia (Japan, Korea, Vietnam, or literally almost any other Asian country) that have their own style of hotpot. Your statement is simply ignorant.

@James -- Whatever. I am done here since the unhinged elements are coming out of the woodwork to launch gratuitous attacks, ignoring the context. This post about Chengdu in the Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China, and their trademark "hotpot", which is absolutely unique. I was there, married there, learned about their ways, and roamed the province. Got that? Chicken is cooked in different ways across the globe, so what is your point?

G'day.

The hotpot restaurant at Grand Hyatt Chengdu is famous in town.

I was in the hotel just now (2018), the wifi was just fine. The personal's service was above and beyond. They did all their power to make sure I had a great stay. I recommend the hotel deeply.

WiFi seems fixed