The Drake Oak Brook, Autograph Collection — Hotel in Oak Brook

(short version) It is unlikely you will find a better hotel, that can meet, or exceed everything The Drake does. There is to much to list, and if I try to do a short summery I will exceed the character limit. Please read below; but in short overall truly 5/5.

(long version) BEST IN CLASS! The Drake Oak Brook is the new standard for rating hotels in my book. I served in the Navy for 20 years, have been in several countries, staying in many hotels, including "5 star" hotels in Dubai, and The Drake made those look like Holiday Inn expresses. (Not to throw too much shade on Holiday Inn). To the point; starting with the staff. I do not think you will find a more friendly staff, with a higher sense of duty to customer service. The staff at The Drake hotel made my wife and I feel like we were friends of the owners, or family. A particular shout out to a few of them:

Krystal was amazing when she checked us in, we arrived earlier than expected and she was able to move somethings around so we could check in and start our Chicago adventure right away.

Ricky is an amazing valet and doorman, if you want to know something about The Drake, Chicago or the local area, go see Ricky.

Walter (the night doorman) was always friendly and remembered us every time we came by, he was the 'key' in finding out one of the fun not so secret, secrets of The Drake hotel.

Tina (or Lisa? Sorry!) The night front desk (manager?/staff) was great, she helped us understand the layout, was extremely friendly, and provided excellent advice for our return trip to O'Hare.

Last but not least Rigo our bar tender was top notch, very charismatic and friendly, listened well and remembered our conversations. I am confident this isn't just a job for him and he truly enjoys what he does. I hope you go to Japan Rigo, and let me know if you try that Gin drink we talked about!

That was just the staff that stands out via memory, all of the staff was amazing!

The lay-out of The Drake is top notch, the room we stayed in was spacious, with hard wood flooring in the main room, very comfortable chairs, and a bed that was perfection for both my wife and myself (around a 65-70 sleep number scale) not too hard or too soft. Very comfortable robes, (I can see why some guests have tried to wear their robe to breakfast lol) solid marble bathroom floor/wall. Most importantly a snack / drink bar! It is so infuriating when I stay at a "high end" hotel when this feature is not there in the room, I understand it often is not used, but if I am paying that price at least give me the option to decline. Thank you The Drake management for not pulling any punches on class!

The cocktails in the bar and tapas restaurant were exquisite, the Sangria is second only to two places I know (but fully worth the price) one is in the UK, the other is Texas De Brazil here in Detroit/Ann Arbor. The food was very enjoyable and if I had any complaint at all (which I don't) I would say that the menu is a slight bit pricy. However, if you are eating at a three star hotel (in my opinion 5 star), you have to expect to pay those prices. Ok if I had to criticize anything, anything at all I would say that the eggs benedict (I am a snob for this because it is my favorite breakfast) was not as good as the Double Tree Hilton in Alana Hawaii. The eggs were made perfectly on day one, but unfortunately day two one was broken, and one was undercooked. The hollandaise sauce is a bit mild for my taste but all in all this just means I'm looking forward to seeing if it improves the next time I stay! Please keep in mind I am VERY nit-picky about eggs benedict and this is not a negative criticism.

In summery what can I say, it was an amazing stay, The Drake (staff/hotel/experience) you made a normal vacation to Chicago into essentially a 2nd honeymoon, and we didn't even use probally 50% of what was available on site. There is no other hotel I want to stay in if we ever go back to Chicago for any reason. Please continue the outstanding quality of service and we wish you every success...

Update to my review: So I stayed here a few years back pre-Marriott and loved the charm of the hotel and great service received. This 3 night stay did not disappoint and I must say the refurbished rooms are lovely and and incredibly comfortable. Charm and historic vibes still here along with the fantastic and friendly service.

I have been going to Oak Brook for work a LOT and always saw this hotel pop up on our corporate booking tool. This trip I decided to try it out, given I had stayed at almost all the other Oak Brook hotels prior. I was very, very pleasantly surprised.

From the moment I checked in, I felt welcomed and comfortable. The hotel itself is old -- historic feel to it, but truly lovely. It was like stepping back in time and I loved it. My room was spacious and comfortable, and for those of you who travel a ton -- the water pressure was fantastic. A/C works GREAT (sometimes a problem at older hotels) and my sleep quality was wonderful. All of the staff I interacted with were so nice and friendly. They had tons of parking, and the grounds/trees made you feel tucked away from it all. The only thing I would call out as a negative is this very subtle 'old' smell. I could not quite put my finger on it, could have been the age of the building?

The guy at the front desk shared with me that they are renovating and will become an Autograph hotel (Marriott). I hope that does not change the true charm of The Drake.

• Updating my review to showcase the dining room!

I will start with Wow. I say that because given the construction here in the hotel and based on first impression walking in you would never guess that they have an amazing restaurant with delicious food.

We were staying here for several nights for work (I had stayed in the hotel before and found the service to be excellent and the rooms very comfortable) and decided to have dinner in their lovely dining room.

We were very well taken care of by Oscar (I believe that was his name) and his first class service and the delicious food made for a great culinary experience. Our table ordered the Caesar Salad for 2 (but it definitely feeds 3 maybe even 4), Stuffed Portobello, Salmon and the Seared Chicken. Everyone loved their food, the presentation was wonderful. The Caesar was fresh and the dressing made to order (perfecto!). I had the seared chicken and it was absolutely delicious and perfectly cooked. It came with these creamy amazing mashed potatoes and I usually don't get excited about mashed potatoes.

I have to say, I will likely dine here again when I am in from out of town even if I am not staying here... yes, it was that great. When they have completed the renovations associated with the hotel, it will really add to the overall ambiance...

We ate at the igloo restaurant and I would have rated it higher perhaps a 2 or 3 but the attitude of the manager made me lower it to a 1 star.

Let me explain…. First off they started by taking us down this set of stairs to this unfinished basement area that had the ceiling torn apart and literally had dangling wires all over and pallets of construction materials. Not exactly what I would call an upscale hotel experience. I brushed that off and we were taken to our igloo. Granted the igloo was unique we were expecting great food and great service. Especially from a high end well Know hotel such as the Drake. Well the waitress took over 10 minutes to even come greet us and take our drink orders. It then took another 15 minutes to get our drinks. We immediately put our entire order in including the appetizers and entrees. The appetizers came out somewhat quickly as did the entrees. However the waitress was yet to be seen again and I kid you not, it took well over 40 minutes to check in after we got our food. We then didn’t see her again for another 20 minutes when we asked for a dessert menu. She took her sweet time bringing that to us. We ordered our desserts which yet again took way too long to arrive. Something along 15 minutes or so. And then they brought out the wrong dessert. We immediately informed her the dessert was wrong and she said she’d be right back with the correct one. This is when we had enough. We literally sat there for 35 minutes waiting for her to bring the replacement dessert and nothing. So we finally got up and went back upstairs to the main dining room and I asked for a manager. A young lady maybe 20 years old comes over and I said she’s the manager. Well I started to explain what happened with the slow service and the first thing she says is “Did the server tell you that you can leave” followed by “oh you should have asked for me downstairs and not come up here”…. Excuse me??!?!! What absolutely terrible service. Why a manager would ever say those things is beyond me. She didn’t apologize to me. She just repeated herself yet and said something about how we can get our check downstairs and now she has to go down and get it. I was without words. Never have I had this type of poor service at a high end property. I’m sorry but this manager should not be one or at least retrained. Then on top of that she says oh I took off the dessert on your check. Again excuse me?!!? We didn’t even get our dessert of course it should be taken off. How about an apology. Now I’m not looking for a free meal or anything. The main thing I wanted was to inform a manager of how badly we were treated. But the manager was just as bad or even worse...