Dining with Preferred Hotels & Resorts

There was an unfortunate spray across the table as I bit into my dumpling and I immediately wanted to bury my head in embarrassment. I failed to realize it was of the "pork soup" variety before chowing-down, and at that point, we were all lucky not to be wearing its delicious contents.

The good news is that it wasn't a first date nor my first encounter with the two women I was dining with, so we had a good laugh and moved on.

Along with Caroline Michaud and Vanessa Gromer of Preferred Hotels & Resorts, I was enjoying one of the best meals I've ever had in Toronto at Susur Lee's Luckee, which is located at the SoHo Metropolitan Hotel, one of 11 Preferred properties across Canada.

The restaurant and bar features a "nouvelle Chinoise" menu, offering classic dishes and dim sum from the culinary traditions of Guangzhou, Hunan and Szechuan regions, enhanced by the celebrity chef's delectable signature, presenting "Chinese cuisine at its most sophisticated levels."

Our selections included har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai (chicken and shrimp dumplings with scallops) and the notorious xiao long bao (pork soup dumplings), in addition to a house favourite, Luckee duck, which is made up of steamed Chinese pancakes, apple, cucumber and leek with cranberry relish.

Needless to say, you ought to try this place the next time business brings you downtown Toronto.

Note: You might even spot a celebrity – Will Smith was walking out as we sat down.

The SoHo Met is part of Preferred's LVX Collection, which was introduced with the launch of Preferred Hotels & Resorts in March, a move that consolidated Preferred Hotel Group's multi-branded business model into this single brand.

Other Collections include Legend, LVX, Lifestyle, Connect and Preferred Residences, each encompassing a particular need or desire of travellers.

Michaud explained that the collections offer "a more intuitive way to organize our properties," while on the trade side, all member hotels are now represented under one common chain code – PH – on the GDS to streamline the process.

A new website allows travel agents and clients to search for a hotel by collection or by other preferences such as hotel name, experience, location and price point. .

"You might have no idea where you want to go, and that's OK," Michaud said. "We're saying, 'Roll the dice; spin the globe!' If you want to go to a spa or you're feeling adventurous, plug that in and pick a hotel."

Preferred's portfolio continues to expand, now with 650 hotels in 85 countries.

Michaud noted that recently, they have been welcoming new builds to the brand, such as the Condado Vanderbilt in Puerto Rico, Art Hotel in Denver and Temple House in Chengdu, though many existing properties continue to take-up the Preferred brand as well. Other new openings joining Preferred in the coming months are The Dewberry Charleston, South Carolina (opening December 2015), EAST Miami, Florida (opening December 2015) and The Monument Hotel in Barcelona, Spain (opening January 2016).

For more information, visit PreferredHotels.com.