I have been visiting Palm Beach and the surrounding areas for years, both on business and for pleasure. In the past I have enjoyed some of the larger resorts in the region - Breakers/Boca Resort - but wanting a change I decided to check out the Omphoy. First off, there is nothing like this hotel in Palm Beach or for that matter anywhere until you reach Miami. It has a sense of design and aesthetic taste as opposed to the musky smell and antique look of some of the other Palm Beach resorts. The dark woods mesh beautifully against the ocean backdrop and the rooms, a generous size but not the largest I've stayed at and about average for the area, are simply gorgeous. I don't know what the floors are made of but it is almost like you are walking on copper. Then there is the food. I was not familiar with Michelle Bernstein prior to my visit but when checking the hotel out I saw that she won a James Beard award. Obviously that piqued my interest. I had breakfast and dinner at the hotel and both were fantastic. Service at breakfast was on the slow side but they made up for it with the food. Dinner was fabulous. I had the lobster pasta and a colleague had the short ribs. The service at the dinner restaurant, one floor up from the breakfast and lunch restaurant, was perfect. The pool was a nice change from the beach in the afternoon. The pool is very nice, lined by a row of palm trees, and above the pool and a water wall are these very cool private cabanas, one of which I rented for an afternoon. It was the perfect place for a quiet nap. The morning that I left, instead of working out, I took a class at Exhale - the spa in the hotel. My wife goes to Exhale in New York and raves about it so I figured I'd try it out. It was an intense workout and everyone in the class was in significantly better shape than I, but it was still fun. Generally, the service in the hotel was very good.
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