By the end of a long travel week in mostly rural Missouri, all I want is an actual luxury hotel with great service, clean bathrooms, good linens, and decent food and wine. The Raphael is not only a beautifully appointed, historic hotel, but it also has an exceptional restaurant (Chaz), the halls are quiet (at night), offers free valet (if that's important to you), has an excellent (small to medium-sized) gym, and superior staff service. The staff is absolutely the best in the city. I usually walk over to the massive country club plaza area for dinner, but I was donezo this week. I noticed that the Chaz offered a $40 two-course in room dining option which includes wine or a cocktail. My general rule is to never order room service, but they gave me a beautiful 2-room suite and I had a lot of work to do. I felt like enjoying this place a little. Long story short, they brought a beautiful salad (ate it too fast to picture), beef tenderloin cooked perfectly, and a glass of red wine which I figured would be whatever happened to be open in the bar, but was surprisingly delicious. And they brought me a creme brûlée for free!
I have stayed here three times for work; sometimes it's too pricey to expense. Got lucky this week. I was all-in on this place based on previous experiences based solely on the free breakfast for Marriott Gold members. I'm assuming that will be equally amazing tomorrow morning. Be sure to save 30-45 minutes to enjoy it before you check out.
It really ISN'T all about the food, but between that, the service, and quality of the hotel itself, this is my favorite hotel in Kansas City. Hope you have the same experience. ---Meredith