We four, parents and two older teens enjoyed a wonderful stay at the Orchard Garden Hotel recently. Two attractions led us there. One, we stayed at the Orchard Hotel up the street, which is it's 'parent hotel', several years ago which was rated #1 at the time on tripadvisor and two, the Orchard Garden claimed to be the first 'green' hotel in California. For me, that counts and being an architect, I was curious to find out how this was achieved. Also, with the popularity of the Orchard and the time that has passed since we were last there, the rates at the Orchard were somewhat higher than at this new hotel.

First, the location. It's close to the parent hotel, being on Bush St. and literally two doors down from the Chinatown Gate on Grant. That puts the hotel about 2 1/2 blocks from Union Square. Having stayed at a few hotels in the area, I would have to say this is a particularly good location as it is quiet being away from the tourist madness and cable cars of Powell St. yet close enough to find good places to eat and of course shop. Plus the street front itself is not congested with tourists.

The hotel itself is quite tastefully done with interiors designed in a contemporary style with light coloured wood panelling and flooring. It was very clean throughout. The Ground Floor has the reception area, business centre (two computers), a small windowless exercise room with 3 machines, elevator lobby (2 elevators), but is largely occupied by the Roots restaurant which is also where the complimentary breakfast buffet is served (more on that later). We arrived early and staff were more than happy to check our luggage and called us when the room was ready. They provide to the room the SF Chronicle and at the front desk, the Wall St. Journal.

We landed the top, 10th floor with a view down to Grant Street and adjacent towers, but not much else. The room however was very nice, but not large by any means. Again in light coloured finishes, there was a useful, long built-in shelf along the flat screen TV wall which also incorporated several drawers and the mini bar. The TV selection also included high def channels. Internet connection is wireless and free. There were two queen beds with nice bedding and appointments. There was also enough room for an armchair. The bathroom was quite nice, using a space saving sliding door, and was adequately lit. Toiletries included Aveda shampoo and Thymes conditioners and lotions which come in biodegradeable containers. Towels were nice cotton towels, but I thought should have been bamboo if "green" was the intent. All in all, a very comfortable room, but maybe not quite as well appointed as the rooms in it's parent, the Orchard Hotel.

The 'green' aspects of the hotel don't jump out at you and perhaps that's how it should be. However other than sourcing building materials from the region, using some recycled materials and minimizing landfill debris, there are few unique aspects of the hotel that make it green. It's no Federal Building, a new very green building near Civic Centre, but then hotels don't really lend themselves well to being truely green without spending alot of money on which it would be very difficult to realize a profitable return. And as it turns out, on the LEED scale of rating green buildings, it just barely qualifies.

Finally, the complimentary breakfast. Nothing to write home about and perhaps for me the least impressive/most disappointing 'feature' of the hotel. While the fare was certainly adequate, the choice, variety and inventiveness was quite pedestrian, especially given the effort made to make this a sustainable hotel I would have expected the breakfast to be more interesting. There's the regular juices and coffee. One selection of cold cut (ham) and sliced cheese, some fresh fruit, usually watermelon and cantaloupe, baked goods like bagels, sliced bread, small muffins and I think small croissants, although they were akin to those you might find in a supermarket. Cereal and hard boiled eggs pretty much rounded it out. The plates provided were rather small, perhaps limiting the take one might have. It was pretty much the same every day during our 4 days there. We did not have dinner here.

Perhaps I'm dwelling too much on the breakfast and it is certainly not a deal breaker for this hotel. We had a very enjoyable stay here and would definitely recommend anyone to seriously consider the Orchard Garden. We would definitely come back here, but not because it's 'green'.