We stayed at the Sorella one night for a little b-day getaway on the recommendation of a good friend. I love the interior of the hotel and the decor, very pretty. Check in was fast and the desk attendant was very polite. The room was very roomy with modern decor. We decided to walk around the City Center area for a bit that afternoon...I guess I didn't realize how new the whole area is, but there are still very few retail stores occupying the spaces, however there are several restraunts, and there is still construction going on around the area. We decided to have a cupcake at Sweet and then a drink at Yard House. Later in the evening we walked over to Brio for dinner. The general area around the hotel outside was just swarming with people...and was still equally packed when we came back over 2 hours later after dinner...lots of kids running around too which I thought was strange since it was after 10pm and it doesn't strike me as a kid or family oriented area. After dinner we decided to go up the the hotel bar, the Monnalisa, for drinks and some live music. The music and drinks were great...but unfortunately we didn't stay too long because it was absolutely packed in there and there was no seating available by the time we got there...very little offered to begin with. We would have been ok to stand for a while and enjoy the music, but for some reason there is a large fire pit in the center of the room. While it looks really cool, it's still fire and it really heated the place up! That heat combined with the muggy and hot Houston air flowing in and out as people walked out onto the patio just made it uncomfortable in there. Next time I'll make sure we get there early so we can get a table...far away from the fire! We weren't ready to turn in for the night so decided to go over to the large lounge area near the lobby...there was ample seating there inside as well as outside and only a few people over there. We ended up sitting for a while on the patio (2nd floor) and people watched below. When we returned to our room we found a bottle of champagne waiting for us on ice! Neither one of us ordered it and there wasn't a note (and we weren't charged for it) so I'm assuming it was just a gift from the hotel...Nice :) I do have to say that the walls are paper thin. I was unfortunately kept up several hours throughout the night because of some drunken fools banging and screaming. From what I could hear, I believe they were asked to keep it down several times either by hotel staff or other guests, but that seemed to only fuel their behavior. So, while the bad behavior of others certainly isn't the hotel's fault, the walls provided VERY little noise buffer! I booked the room package that included sunday brunch at the hotel restaurant, Bistro Alex. The food and service here are great. I highly recommend this package for the value. The brunch included in the package is not buffet, but on a normal menu and you can just order to your content as many courses as you like...even dessert! One adult beverage per person is included too. I recommend the steak migas...soooo good! There were also musicians playing jazz music throughout brunch with was great! Also, we did not use the pool, but walked by it several times and were surprised at how super-tiny it is! the lounges by the pool look really nice, but I was just really surprised at how small the area is as well as the pool itself. If you are planning on some pool time during your stay, I'd get down there early to claim a spot! All in all, we had a good expreience, minus the noisy drunk idiots of course, and will definitely consider this hotel again.
