Waldorf Astoria New York review: The Midtown hotel where Frank Sinatra once partied and the salad of the same name was invented emerges from a decade-long renovation

‘The Waldorf at 7’, I texted my romantic interest, advancing the arrangements for our drinks date. I’d recently moved to New York City, and to my mind, suggesting Manhattan’s grandest hotel for cocktails signalled refinement. We settled into its ‘Peacock Alley’ lounge, the Art Deco marvel that drew international high society for most of the 20th century. ‘Frank Sinatra had his birthday parties here’, I said. ‘Did I mention Grace Kelly?’

I had a vague hope one of the hotel’s rooms might be required that night; one wasn’t. But I’m glad to have seen the public spaces, if only to better appreciate the results of the nearly decade-long renovation that was to come.

Back at the reopened Waldorf Astoria on a recent evening, I see that Peacock Alley (above) has been reconfigured — the check-in desk moved out of it — and gloriously taken back to its 1931 aesthetics, based on archive research. The finishes dazzle — the walls panelled with maple burl, the fluted columns black marble. At the center of it all, achingly restored, is Queen Victoria’s over-the-top 1893 World’s Fair clock. Also: longtime resident Cole Porter’s piano.

The house martini now costs $35. It’s perfect.

Much like the recently unveiled renovation of another cultural landmark further uptown, The Frick Collection, the mind-boggling, multibillion-dollar Waldorf project was a matter of bringing the place back to its former glory — restoring untold amounts of metalwork, stonework, artwork — while making necessary concessions to modernity.

That former glory, as it happens, is best glimpsed in the hotel’s event spaces, chiefly the three-story, opera-inspired Grand Ballroom. With its curtained, silver-leafed balcony boxes, it was home to the early Met Galas and the first Tony Awards. Have your wedding here.

The guest rooms, meanwhile, have been thoroughly redesigned and modernised. Before its closing, the hotel, which takes up an entire block — Park to Lexington Avenues, 49th to 50th Streets — had 1,400 guest rooms. It now has 375 (plus 372 residences). As a result, the rooms feel positively expansive by Manhattan standards. The interiors, by Pierre-Yves Rochon, are all muted neutrals; this hotel has not gone all-in on the maximalist approach being embraced elsewhere across the hospitality landscape.

A Guerlain Wellness Spa will soon open — all 20,000 sq ft of it.

For dining, the hotel’s Park Avenue lobby is given over in the evenings to Yoshoku, a high-concept, kaiseki-ish affair. (I’d as soon have taken in the surrounding Louis Regal mosaic and murals, another focus of the restoration, during the day, and for dinner, had a burger at P.J. Clarke’s.) The signature restaurant, Lex Yard, is led by Michael Anthony, of Gramercy Tavern fame. You almost have to order the Waldorf salad; the fruit-and-nut curiosity was invented at the hotel. Lex Yard’s Waldorf plays up the key components of the original, with smart tweaks for modern tastes. Perhaps there’s a metaphor there.

Rooms at the Waldorf Astoria New York cost from about £1,100 a night. Visit the hotel’s website for more information and to book.