Review: Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad (Modern, With Great Dining)

We recently had to be in New York for a couple of nights, and decided to stay at the 250-room Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad. This property opened in 2022, so it’s one of the newer luxury options in the city.

I’ve gotta be honest, I had fairly low expectations going in — I find Ritz-Carlton to sort of be a “cookie cutter” luxury brand that’s having a bit of an identity crisis with modernizing, and I also have fairly low expectations of service in the United States.

With that in mind, this property exceeded my expectations, and we had an excellent stay. The hotel is modern, with exceptional food and beverage outlets in partnership with José Andrés, beautiful views of the city, and responsive service. While the hotel isn’t perfect, it’s definitely one of the better city hotels I’ve stayed at in the United States in quite some time, and I’d gladly return.

Bigger picture, I think this property is a great prototype for how the Ritz-Carlton brand can be modernized. It feels like on the luxury side, Marriott is leaning heavily into the EDITION brand for growth, and to pursue younger guests. The problem is that EDITION has luxury pricing and a heavy emphasis on dining outlets, but that’s about it. This property almost felt like a hybrid between a Ritz-Carlton and EDITION, in a good way.

Booking the Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad

I redeemed Bonvoy points for our stay at the Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad, at the rate of 103,000 points per night. For what it’s worth, I value Bonvoy points at 0.7 cents each, so that was the equivalent of paying a little over $700 per night, based on my valuation.

Nowadays Bonvoy has dynamic award pricing, and looking at the current calendar, I see rates ranging anywhere from 94,000 to 156,000 Bonvoy points per night for a standard room. If you’re staying longer, keep in mind that you get a fifth night free on award redemptions.

If paying cash at the Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad, rates typically range anywhere from $750 to $1,500 per night for a standard room, depending on the time of year, what’s going on in the city, etc. The pricing is of course steep, but definitely one tier below the city’s top properties, which now regularly retail for over $1,500 per night.

If you are going to book a cash stay here, I’d recommend doing so through the Marriott STARS program, which offers extra perks, like complimentary breakfast, a room upgrade subject to availability, a $100 property credit, and more. I find that booking through Marriott STARS is especially useful for Ritz-Carlton properties, where Marriott Bonvoy elite status doesn’t offer complimentary breakfast.

Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad location

The Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad is located in the North of Madison neighborhood, as the name suggests. Specifically, it’s at 25 W 28th Street, so it’s on 28th Street, right near Broadway, between 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue.

People will have differing opinions on the North of Madison neighborhood, and everyone has different preferences as to where they like to stay. Personally, I quite like this area, simply because it gives you pretty easy access to the rest of the city, whether you’re looking to go uptown or downtown. Given that the weather was beautiful, we were able to walk just about everywhere. There’s also a subway stop literally next to the entrance to the hotel, so public transport is excellent.

The Ritz-Carlton is in a newly constructed 40-floor high rise — the 250 guest rooms and suites are on levels 14 through 37, while there are 16 penthouse residences on levels 40 through 43 (as you can tell, some floors are skipped).

There were some barriers set up in front of the hotel during our stay. That’s because the Boston Celtics were staying at the hotel, so some fans lined up before they’d get on their bus to the games. I’m not into organized sports, so I had no clue about this until someone mentioned it to us. I had wondered why we were the only people staying here who weren’t approaching seven feet in height!

Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad lobby & check-in

The Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad has a modern and stylish lobby, though it’s definitely on the small side (since most of the public spaces are food & beverage outlets). As you enter the hotel, there are some nice plants, a cart with flowers, and then a large couch straight ahead.

Then when you turn left, you’ll find four podiums, which is where the front desk staff and concierge stand, and assist guests.

A couple of other things to note. For one, there was a ton of security in the lobby at all hours, though that might’ve partly been a function of the Boston Celtics staying at the hotel. Second of all, the lobby definitely gets crowded in the afternoons and evenings with non-guests, given the number of outsiders visiting the hotel’s food and beverage outlets.

Anyway, we arrived in the early afternoon, and were immediately helped at check-in. We were offered water or prosecco, and went with the former. I was thanked for my Bonvoy Ambassador status, and we were told we had been upgraded to a Manhattan Room (slightly bigger than a standard room, and on a high floor).

I had tried to apply a Nightly Upgrade Award for this stay, but it didn’t clear. In fairness, it’s my understanding that the hotel is usually pretty good with upgrades, but there was nothing better for sale on the nights of our stay. Of course since the elite breakfast benefit doesn’t apply at Ritz-Carlton, elite benefits are more limited than at other brands.

Our room wasn’t quite ready, so the bell staff held onto our bags. About an hour later we received a call that our room was ready, so we headed back and picked up our keys. The elevators are just down the hall from reception.

With this elevator system, you have to select which floor you want to go to before entering the elevator (and you need to swipe a key card, if it’s not a public floor), and then it tells you which elevator to use.

I don’t mind this system, but if you ask me, the hotel should do a bit more to restrict the number of times an elevator stops on one “ride,” given that it has this setup. In one case we made five stops, and the elevator was uncomfortably crowded.

Ritz-Carlton New York NoMad guest room

We were assigned room 3006, a Manhattan Room on the 30th floor. The hotel is more vertical than it is horizontal, so each floor has a fairly limited number of rooms. Our room was very close to the elevators.

The Manhattan Rooms at the property are marketed as being 420 square feet (38 square meters). This is slightly larger than the entry level rooms here, which start at 400 square feet (36 square meters). The room was modern and nicely designed, given the limited space.

As you enter the room, there’s a closet to the right, and then the bathroom entrance just behind that, with the rest of the room straight ahead.

The main part of the room consisted of a king size bed, an “L” shaped couch with a table, a wall-mounted TV, and a minibar setup. I thought the room design was quite elegant, from the lighting fixture, to the wall treatments. It’s certainly quite a contrast to the Ritz-Carlton Turks & Caicos room design *shudder*.

The king bed was soft and very comfortable, perfectly in line with my preferences.

The seating area in the room was multi-functional. While I appreciate when hotels have a proper desk in a room, this did the trick, as it was sufficient for working, dining, hanging out, etc.

As you can see, the TV was awkwardly positioned, but it could swivel a bit. This location choice is for good reasons, since you don’t want to obstruct the room’s amazing views.

The minibar is in its own console to the side of the window. It had a Nespresso coffee machine and tea, plus a variety of drinks and snacks for purchase.

The highlight of the room was the views, no doubt. Our room faced downtown, and on a clear day, it was possible to see the Freedom Tower and Statue of Liberty.

The view was even better in the mornings and evenings, and almost didn’t look real. It’s rare to find a luxury New York City hotel with views this nice, so that was a treat.

When it comes to tech in the room, there were outlets (AC and USB-A) next to the bed, as well as light switches. I found it a bit cheap that the curtains and blinds were manual rather than automatic, but I guess I’d rather that they save on costs there than elsewhere.

The bathroom was back near the entrance, and was surprisingly spacious for a non-suite. The bathroom had double sinks, a soaking tub, a toilet, and a walk-in shower. A modern bathroom is a nice feature of a newly built property, since so many of the city’s best hotels are historic, and often bathrooms don’t get a full refresh.

The shower had both a rainforest shower head and a handheld wand. Water pressure was decent, but the stream wasn’t very concentrated.

Toiletries were from Diptyque, and in reusable containers. There was also a box with other amenities, ranging from cotton swabs, to a dental kit. I always appreciate when hotels have that in the room, rather than making it by request only.

A couple of hours after checking in, a welcome amenity was delivered, with two bottles of Saratoga water (that’s really in nowadays, eh?), plus a sweet apple pastry.

The “apple” was delicious, though since they’re presumably handing this out to many guests, they may want to check the “world renown” verbiage.