Four Seasons Hotel Toronto at Yorkville

A Glass Tower at the Corner of Yorkville and Bay

Yorkville was a village of coffee houses and record shops before Toronto’s money arrived, and the corner of Yorkville Avenue and Bay Street is where the two versions of the neighbourhood still meet. The Four Seasons holds that corner in a pair of towers drawn by Peter Clewes of architectsAlliance, the taller one residential, the shorter one the hotel, both in the clear glass that has become the city’s signature. The lobby is smaller than the scale outside suggests, which is deliberate: arrival here feels like coming home to a good building rather than checking into a landmark. Two hundred and fifty nine rooms and suites sit above it.

Why It Works

We keep this one for travellers who want a full hotel rather than a beautiful room, and because it does the unglamorous parts properly. Café Boulud puts a chef of international standing in the building, so dinner becomes a reason to stay in rather than a fallback. The spa runs over two floors and holds a Forbes Five Star rating, which is harder to earn than a good review. The rooms are laid out like apartments, with full kitchens in the upper suites, so a week here works as well as a night, and dogs are welcome throughout.

Why This Location

Bloor Street’s luxury windows start a block south, and the Royal Ontario Museum stands at the far end of that same stretch, so an afternoon fills itself without a car. Yorkville Avenue keeps the low brick houses of the old village, now galleries and restaurants, which makes the walk out of the lobby unexpectedly gentle for a district of this standing. The Bay subway entrance is at the corner, and it is how most guests reach the financial district and the waterfront. North of the hotel the streets turn residential quickly, which is why the upper floors are quiet.

Fast Facts

• Price: Luxe

• Vibe: Polished, residential, unhurried, city facing

• Rooms: 259 rooms and suites, from Yorkville Premier up to the Bellair Suites with full kitchens and the Royal Suites on the twenty first floor

• Best For: Couples on a city weekend, long stays that need a kitchen, travellers bringing a dog

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The Bellair Suites on the nineteenth floor, apartments in all but name

• Dining: Café Boulud by Daniel Boulud, modern French with a signature rotisserie, and d|bar for cocktails

• Amenities: Two storey Forbes Five Star spa, wellness and bio bar, fitness floor, sauna and hot tub, on site parking, pets accepted

• Attractions: Bloor Street shopping one block south, the Royal Ontario Museum at the end of Bloor, the galleries and brick houses of old Yorkville at the door

Suites Built Like Apartments

The categories climb from Yorkville Premier through the Premier One Bedroom Suites to the Yorkville Suites, and the two that matter most sit high. The Bellair Suites on the nineteenth floor carry a full kitchen, and the Royal Suites on the twenty first take the corner with the widest reach across the skyline. Everything is glass from floor to ceiling and marble in the bathroom, and the residences next door set the standard the hotel rooms follow. Ask for a high floor facing south if the skyline is the point, north if sleep is.

Café Boulud, and the Bar That Comes With It

Daniel Boulud’s Toronto room is the reason a good many people book here without ever seeing the spa. The cooking is modern French, the rotisserie chicken is what regulars order without reading the menu, and the tasting menu runs to five courses when the kitchen wants to show its range. Brunch fills the room with people who are not staying in the hotel, which is always a good sign. Next door, d|bar handles the cocktails and keeps later hours, and it is where the neighbourhood turns up.

Two Floors Given Over to the Spa

The spa takes two storeys of the hotel tower, which is unusual downtown where floor space is the expensive thing. It works the way the best hotel spas do: massages and facials done seriously, a couples’ room for people who want the treatment to be an event, and a wellness and bio bar for what comes after. The fitness floor, sauna and hot tub sit alongside, and none of it closes for a season.