Star Chefs' New Room Service Recipes

The Standard, West Hollywood, CA

Angelenos were overjoyed last year when Ari Taymor brought Alma restaurant back to life in this jet-age throwback on the Sunset Strip. The chef’s in-room menu—with dishes like housemade granola and crushed cabbage and avocado salad—delivers Alma-style favorites right to your door. “I wanted to elevate the food you’d eat at home, even though you’re far from it,” Taymor says.

The Diplomat Beach Resort, Hollywood, FL

A lobster roll is exactly what you crave when you’re relaxing on your private terrace at the recently refurbished Diplomat resort, watching the waves crash on Hollywood Beach. But any old version won’t do: At Point Royal, which just opened beachside, Geoffrey Zakarian’s has insanely tender meat that’s poached in butter and served on toasted brioche buns, making it truly decadent. Go ahead, make it a double order.

Las Alcobas, St. Helena, CA

You can order this OMG grilled cheese, filled with gooey Taleggio and topped with honey and flaky salt, at Chris Cosentino’s new restaurant, Acacia House, in the dreamy Las Alcobas hotel—but eating it in your robe feels like the ultimate luxury. “Each room has a balcony overlooking vineyards and mountainscapes,” says the chef. “Since you have the unbeatable view, why not have a beer and the best grilled cheese of your life while you’re at it?”

The Line, Washington, DC

If the a.m. scene at Erik Bruner-Yang’s restaurant in the lobby of this new DC hotel is too much, never fear: You can have your loose-leaf Taiwanese tea and hearty Cambodian breakfast noodle soup delivered to your room. Bonus: You can also order specialty dishes from a rotating cast of visiting chefs, like Edward Lee and Pichet Ong.

Hotel 50 Bowery, New York City

The old adage that certain foods don’t travel well is a cop-out. At Rice & Gold, Dale Talde’s soon-to-open restaurant in this new Asian-inspired hotel, everything on the menu—whether it’s scallion pancakes or buttermilk pancakes, sticky coconut-rice bread or rice noodles—is available to be delivered and designed to arrive piping-hot and delicious.

21c Museum Hotel, Nashville 

Sure, there’s a fantastic restaurant at the newly opened 
21c hotel in the historic, art-filled Gray & Dudley building downtown, but chef Levon Wallace is happy to send the party to your suite. Invite friends over for big-batch cocktail carts, buckets of fried-to-order chicken and pints of house-churned ice cream with toppings for a sundae bar.

Ace Hotel, New Orleans

Not only can you order to your room the pastas Michael Hudman and Andy Ticer are serving at Josephine Estelle, their new osteria in the Ace Hotel, but you can also fix yourself a proper cocktail—the minibars are stocked with bitters, fresh fruit and other essentials. Dishes change seasonally; right now there’s pasta with Gulf crabmeat and asparagus. “There’s nothing like digging into a bowl of comforting spaghetti in bed,” Hudman says.  

The Durham Hotel, Durham, North Carolina 

Even if you’ve booked a table for dinner at The Durham, chef Andrea Reusing’s restaurant in the hotel, consider having this meringue-topped baked Alaska with housemade strawberry ice cream sent up to your room for dessert. While you’re at it, ask for the snack board, piled high with spicy red-skinned peanuts, chicharrones and roasted pecan-chocolate toffee. All of it will hit the spot when those late-night cravings strike. 

Chef Marcus Samuelsson makes incredible biscuits, adding a little bit of nutty brown butter to amp up the flavor. He serves them warm, spread with tangy-sweet tomato jam, fried ham and perfectly scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese.

Kimpton Glover Park Hotel, Washington, DC 

“Life is too short for cookie-cutter,” says Michael Schlow, whose in-room menu from Casolare, his new coastal Italian restaurant in the recently renovated Kimpton Glover Park Hotel, is anything but. “Room service should be a treat,” the chef says, “something surprising and truly decadent.” Case in point: this outsize chicken Parm, made of seasoned chicken breasts pounded flat, fried with breadcrumbs, and topped with sauce and melted cheese. Cut into slices, it easily feeds a crowd.