Hilton Norfolk The Main — Hotel in Norfolk

Let me start at the end... The 1 bedroom suite with partial river view was a wonderful room. It was well appointed.

Now let's start at the beginning. Called to confirm digital key would work from parking garage. Was assured it would. It didn't. 3rd floor door would not open although digital key was activated. Shared key with my guest in case it was a my phone problem. Didn't work either. Being handicapped this was a problem. Another couple who was checked in walked up and tried their digital key. It didn't work either. Fortunately a family leaving opened the door. We immediately went to front desk, not an easy feat because the location is on the 2nd floor but no signs in the elevator nor the vestibule while waiting for the elevator indicated that. Naturally we went to the 1st floor and valet directed us to the second floor. Leaving the elevator we didn't see a sign directing guests to the front desk. The restaurant hostess directed us. Let me state again that I'm physically handicapped. At this point my feet are in pain.

Explained to gentlemen at front desk. He profusely apologized and said the digital key didn't work on the parking garage at all We needed to insert our parking ticket in order to gain access. In no place was that noted from the website to any signage at the 3rd floor parking deck door. He also told us that the physical key would work so gave us hotel key cards. No problem!. Went to room. I'll get further in the room issues next. Back to parking garage access issues.

We went to room, unpacked and rested a little bit then down to car. We knew the key cards would work because we were told it would. It didn't. We have 3 key cards and none of them worked. Tried the digital key again. It didn't work. Now I'm frustrated! I CANNOT walk to the front of the hotel. Decided hey, maybe it's just this door so drove to 2nd floor. Fortunately handicapped space was available. Digital key did not work. Key card DID work! Went to front desk. Explained situation to front desk person, a woman this time. My apologies I did not get the names of either of the staff. She explained to me that the digital keys would not work at all from the parking garage. I told her and I'll say it here for you: Not having this information prior to checking in on the app is simply unacceptable. Other guests like myself, who check in on the app expect to park and go straight to our rooms with no interaction with anyone. This was impossible in this situation. There should be a note on the app or online for app check in guests to check in at the desk before going to their room or app check in for this location should be disabled until this parking garage situation is fixed.

The room. As stated the room was beautiful. Unfortunately there were a couple of issues. It's assumed, in today's modern techno world that a phone in the room is there for one purpose, to make it easy for guests to contact the front desk, engineering, house keeping and/or room service as seamless event. It's not when the phone doesn't work, which it did not. I called from my cell phone to guest services to let them know. I then went to put my medication in the fridge. It was warm. It had been turned up so we turned it down to the lowest temperature and went to the ice machine. The ice machine didn't work. My thought? Are you kidding me! I called the front desk (cell phone) to tell them. They apologized and said said we'd would have to use ice machine on the floor above or below. Ugh.

Engineer comes up, does whatever engineers do and determined the fridge (which is very very tiny) needed repair and went to get another fridge. He returned quickly but alas, I'm assuming there are 2 sizes of fridge: Tiny and extra small. Unfortunately (3rd time using that word) he returned with the Xtra small unit so had to get another tiny fridge instead. In the meantime I told him about the ice machine. He said they hadn't told him about it but thanked me. He returned a short time later with the correct fridge. It worked EXCEPT it remained much too warm for my medication....

Grain restaurant in downtown Norfolk Virginia. The restaurant is on the 5th floor of the Hilton hotel building downtown. The restaurant has food and many beer and alcohol drinks. There is parking but you do have to pay if you are not a Hilton guest or if you park on street. Our visit to the Grain restaurant was on Thursday June 29, 2023.

As you walk up to the Grain restaurant, You wouldn’t know that the restaurant was there if it wasn’t for Google since the location is on the 5th floor like I stated above in my previous comment. I believe it’s a roof top bar but the restaurant isn’t on top the roof but it’s on the 5th floor roof of Hilton Hotel if that make sense. As you walk into the building, You to the elevators and and get off the 5th floor. You walk into the restaurant and get waiting to be seated for the table by the host. After the host take you to your table. You can sit outside or inside. We sat outside since it was good views of the city. The waiter named Rachel then give us our menu and we start to order our food. I ordered the chicken tenders and Hash Brown side (Forgot the name). My group wanted drinks but they was unavailable since something has happen with their machine to make them. I believe it was the margarita machine and other alcohol that they couldn’t make either. It just kinda a bummer to not get what you want in my opinion but what can you do.

The food was good. My meal was good but I was very disappointed with my chicken tenders. These tenders was so small. I was thinking I was getting a full size tender but the tenders was little. The food didn’t feel me up. The sauce was good though and the hash brown (Forgot name) side as well. I just hope they can fix the size of the tenders in the future or at least let the customer know how small they are. You get a choice of six or twelve chicken tenders but I picked six since I thought they was going to bigger then they was. (Photo of the tenders at the bottom) The wait to get our food was about 15-20 minutes.

The staff was ok, The host was trying to get us to sit inside because they didn’t have shade outside but we wanted to be outside since it was a nice day. We did appreciate it but he kept saying it over a couple times. Rachel our waiter was good. She had a smile and good attitude. She came and checked on us during our dinner. She made us laugh a couple times here and there. Thank you Rachel for being a good waiter. It made our experience a little better.

The place was clean and very nice setup. You have outside seating that is facing the city and inside if you don’t want to be outside. You have a full size bar and everything. I didn’t get to use the bathrooms. So I don’t know if they was cleaned or not.

I did not drink any alcohol. You do have to be 21+ to drink. My group did order some drinks and they enjoyed the drinks they got that was available during our visit. You can tell that they was not happy that they couldn’t get margaritas for their drink though.

Grain restaurant was ok. I just wasn’t impressed. I did like the view though. It was amazing but the host customer service might need to get a little better and more welcoming. The chicken tenders need to get bigger and not those small ones. I felt like I ate a kids meal but they was good to eat. I paid almost $30.00 (Including $5.00 tip) for small chicken tenders and a side. The prices kinda pricy but it’s a roof top bar. It’s going to be pricy.

I do recommend Grain restaurant but maybe get the tacos as my group said that the tacos was the best tacos for your buck during your...

Ok so I read all the reviews. I always do. This one had rave reviews so I chose this hotel over all others in Chesapeake, VA beach and Norfolk. Oh boy was I wrong.I will mention I am a Hilton honors member since early 2000’s. I’ve been a member because Hilton has always had a higher standard. Not anymore! I paid so much more than those other hotels because I figured, you get what you pay for. Well not so with this hotel.

parking is confusing. Make sure you ask up front what to do. DO NOT and I mean DO NOT get a room on the 10th floor. You will be right above a nightclub that pounds base music until 2am. I wish I would’ve read this in reviews before I booked. Used the pool on my second day here only to notice no towels. I called the front desk and 20 mins later still no towels. This is a 4 star hotel? Could’ve fooled me. A Motel 6 would’ve been better equipped. Their text message to make sure your stay is great, is BS. They don’t care…AT ALL. It’s just a T to cross and an I to dot. I got that text message and after 20 minutes with no towels I texted them and said that I expected better for a four star hotel and all I got was excuses that housekeeping was busy. Really? I also mentioned about the pounding base of the nightclub and was pretty much told. “Yeah there’s a nightclub”. Really? No one else has ever complained? How about you move the nightclub to 4M and make level 5 the admin offices. Oh. And floor 10 is really floor 6. It’s right above floor 5. Sheets had stains, headboard was scratched up, hair dryer was loaded with previous guests hair. Nauseating. Upon returning to the room on Saturday, after the maid cleaned it ( I had left a tip), I go into the bathroom. The seat of the toilet is up. A huge black hair is draped across the bottom of the seat ( my daughter and I are blonde) and remnants of feces is sitting in the toilet. The best I can gather is that the maid had to go and used our toilet. Maybe it made a splatter so she cleaned the seat and under and I guess it didn’t flush all the way? Maybe the tip I left wasn’t enough? I don’t know - I just never experienced anything like that before. I paid $800 for 2 nights. I surely expected better than the above. Oh and apparently $400 a night warrants a roof top parking lot view. Not the nice views they boast on their site.

To sum things up, I do not recommend this hotel. It is no where near the hype it has. Yes, location is nice and restaurants are good ( although drinks are a bit watered down) but expensive. I wrote Hilton headquarters about this and I called the complaints lines and left a formal complaint. Enjoy the $800 you got because it will be the last money you ever get from me. I’m throwing away this membership and the Hilton Amex card I have. There are plenty of other hotels I can choose from now on.

I hope I save someone from making the same mistake I made by choosing this hotel. IT IS NOT WORTH THE...