I recently spent a few days in Miami for Miami Music Week and decided to book in to the luxury boutique hotel, Esme Miami Beach, for my first two nights there. The hotel was a bit hit-and-miss for me (although mostly a hit, with just a couple of misses), so I thought it would be useful to put together an in-depth review to help anyone else who is thinking of staying there!
The hotel is located on the charming and historic Española Way in South Beach, and is absolutely stunning.
It really is beautiful and I completely fell in love with the design of the hotel. With a rooftop pool, a moody and seductive bar, and a restaurant that’s a favourite with celebs, there isn’t much to dislike about Esme…
Esme Miami Beach’s Rooms
Village Rooms vs Matanza Rooms
The first thing to note is that the rooms at the Esme Hotel are split between two different buildings. I was staying in a ‘Village Room’, which is located in the main Esme compound/village on Española Way, whereas my friend Pia was staying in a ‘Matanza Room’ in Casa Matanza, which is in a standalone building a short walk down the street, at the bottom of Española Way.
The two separate buildings have a slightly different design style, but both are beautiful and well appointed, and the rooms at Casa Matanza are slightly cheaper than the rooms in The Village!
My room in The Village
My room was the prettiest, girliest room I’ve ever stayed in! Peachy pink walls in the bedroom, and matching pink tiles in the bathroom, with a luxuriously large dark-wood bed with crisp white linens and a pink and green bolster.
The bathroom was compact, but had a large walk-in shower and gold finishes. I loved the full-size Grown Alchemist amenities – Grown Alchemist is one of my favourite Australian brands and I just love when hotels provide full-size products. I have really long hair so the mini bottles are never enough, and it’s far more sustainable and eco-friendly to have the refill bottles.
The only downside of the bathroom, was that for some reason it took a good 5+ minutes for the hot water to come through. Standing there waiting for it to heat up was a bit disappointing given the price of the hotel.
The only downside to staying in ‘The Village’ was the noise. The first night was fine, but the second night there was a private party on the rooftop and the noise was unbearable.
The music was horrendous, the bass was so loud it reverberated around my room, vibrating the walls, and my entire body felt as if it was pumping with the bass despite me putting my earplugs in. It was physically painful and impossible to sleep. It got to 12:30am and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I called reception to ask when it would be turned off.
They said it would be another hour until the party finished, but assured me they would ask the DJ to turn the sound down a bit.
The sound wasn’t turned down at all, but they did then phone and offer to move me to a different room for the night – which I declined as the last thing I wanted to do was pack up and move when I was in my PJs and trying to get to sleep. Instead, the Esme did give me a £50 refund as a gesture of goodwill though, which was nice.
The other disappointments were that the room was really dark because it overlooked the internal courtyard and smelled a bit musty, and my room wasn’t serviced at all.
I’d arrived late at night on the Thursday and was hoping it would be serviced the following morning so I could take photos with my DSLR in the daylight for you all, but sadly it wasn’t serviced, so you’ll have to just put up with the phone photos above that I took the night I arrived.
Amenities
Amenities-wise, there isn’t a huge amount, but there’s enough for a short stay or a stay where you’ll be out for much of the day. There’s no gym, but the rooftop pool and lounge deck is lovely and is exclusive to hotel guests during the day, opening up to the general public in the evenings.
It’s a beautiful little haven with big, comfy sun-beds directly next to the pool, and a bar and lounge further down the deck. The pool is small, more of a pool for taking a quick dip rather than doing laps, but it’s perfect for relaxing next to with a quick dip to cool off from the Miami heat.
Just a 5-minute walk to the beach, beach access and two beach chairs in the Esme area are provided daily. I woke up just before dawn on my first morning, and being able to walk two streets over to the beach to watch the sunrise was magical. I loved sitting on the sand and watching the sun rise over the water!
Food & Drink
The food & drink at Esme Miami Beach was really quite impressive. For such a small hotel there is a lot of choice.
With just two nights at Esme and other restaurants in Miami booked in for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I only managed to dine at two out of the five dining spots here.
The Roof is one of the places I didn’t dine at, but desperately wish I had. I spent some time on the rooftop at the pool, but each time I was there it was an awkward time around mealtimes, so I sadly wasn’t hungry enough to order food. However, the menu is rather enticing. If I had been hungry, I 100% would have ordered the tuna tartare, strawberry watermelon feta salad, Fried chicken po’boy, and Key lime pie!
The two restaurants/bars onsite that I did eat at – The Drexel, and El Salon – were exceptional.
Thursday evenings at El Salon
Pia and I enjoyed cocktails and food at El Salon on the Thursday night when I arrived, and were thrilled with the live music that accompanied our dinner of cocktails and small plates of beef sliders, roasted cauliflower, and charcuterie and cheese. They have live music every Thursday from 9pm to 11pm!
We stayed for hours in the moody, darkly lit salon, switching between Pina coladas and Singapore slings, chatting and making friends with the other guests seated beside us. The band even stayed an extra half-hour past the usual 11pm cut-off as it was Music Week.
We loved every minute, and it was worth staying up late for when I was jetlagged and tired from travelling.
Weekend Brunch at The Drexel
The Drexel was Esme’s beautiful, sunny cafe where I enjoyed a rather hungover brunch on the Saturday morning.
My friends were supposed to join me, but sadly they were too hungover from the Miami Music Week pool party we’d attended the night before to get out of bed and eat. So I was all on my lonesome until they managed to emerge from their beds later in the afternoon.
No matter though, fortunately I enjoy my own company and had plenty of entertainment – Penn Badgley (aka, Dan Humphrey/Joe Goldberg himself) was sat on the table next to me with his wife, their children, and his wife’s parents, which meant I had incredible people-watching the entire time I was there!
I almost completely missed them, though. I walked into the cafe and chose a spot tucked away in the corner on the other side of the room. The waiter suggested I move by the windows…and gave me a cheeky wink as he noticed me clock Penn. Thank you for your service, sir! 😛
I chose the Zucchini pancakes with aged feta, herbs, garlic yoghurt, and aleppo pepper, a green juice, and a Mimosa (hair of the dog and all). The Zucchini pancakes were incredible.
I was seriously impressed, so much so that I decided I needed to try something else.
The waiter persuaded me that the poached eggs with garlic yoghurt, burnt butter and aleppo were a solid choice, so I trusted him and went with it. Once again, divine. My mouth is watering just thinking of that brunch!
And the best part? You don’t need to be a guest of the hotel to dine here. In fact, if you walked past it on the street you wouldn’t even know it was part of the hotel, as it sits perched on the corner of Drexel Avenue and Española Way, underneath Casa Matanza.
Service
The service was quite hit-and-miss. In The Drexel it really was exceptional, but the rest of the hotel was a bit ‘meh’, to be honest.
In addition to the lack of room service and the ridiculous noise from the private party until 1:30am, it took about 20-minutes to get my bags from the bell hop when checking out.
Twenty. Minutes. Not ideal when you don’t have a lot of time and are in a rush.
Thoughts on Esme Miami Beach
I really did love Esme Miami Beach, and I would stay there again (unlike the Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club, where I stayed after the Esme). Disappointing service and ridiculous noise aside, I thoroughly enjoyed my stay and adored the hotel’s interiors, rooftop pool area and dining options. The location was also absolutely incredible as it was so close to everything in South Beach! I’d probably just make sure there were no private parties booked in for the duration of my stay 😉
Watch the room tour
Catherine Lux is a veteran travel blogger by night and the Head of SEO at Havas Media Group by day. Originally from Surrey, she spent four years living in Australia (2007-2009, and 2016-2018), and now lives in London. An ex-party girl sometimes prone to relapses, she loves nothing more than sharing her fine dining and luxury travel experiences with her loyal readers.
