Having attended many a wedding here, sometimes as a guest and sometimes as a performer, the St. Regis has left an indelible mark on me. From its elegant hallways with fancy chandeliers and innumerable art pieces, to the tantalizing gourmet dishes plated by its kitchens, this hotel easily made its way onto my die-die-gotta-try list of hotels. I took the plunge when Trip.com released a package that included dining goodies at a rate that would’ve been near-impossible to find in the pre-covid era.
Situated just off the main Orchard shopping district and a stone’s throw from the Singapore Botanic Gardens, this hotel is the very first St. Regis within Southeast Asia. Its exterior may come across as rather unassuming, with extravagant sports and luxury cars on its driveway as the only clue to what lies inside, but make no mistake, you’re in for a lavish treat!
- Inclusions:
- 1-night stay in Lady Astor Larger Guest Room (upgraded from Grand Deluxe Guest Room)
- Breakfast
- 3-course dinner at Brasserie Les Saveurs
- Spent: SGD$300
Check-in
There were two groups of guests in the process of checking in at the reception counters when my husband and I arrived, but we didn’t have to wait long as we were next in line. When it came our turn, we found out that the wrong package details (Executive Deluxe Guest Room with $75 dining credit) had been attached to my account, yikes. The staff attending to us had to call someone to get that sorted out while we sat there and waited for some time. She explained that it might have been a glitch when the booking transferred from Trip.com’s database over to theirs (do take note if you’re booking via this platform!).
As a gesture of goodwill, she offered us a late check-out at 2pm and a choice between our original booking for the Grand Deluxe Room and an upgrade to the larger Lady Astor Room. What a tough choice, the upgrade would come at the expense of the Botanic Gardens view! We ultimately succumbed to the idea of having more space so we went with the Lady Astor Room (:
Room
Out of a total of 20 floors, our Lady Astor Larger Guest Room was located at the corner of the 12th floor. More space indeed! The room comfortably fits an entryway, two queen-size beds and a plush L-shape sofa sitting area. Not to mention its luxurious embellishments, complete with wainscotted walls and gold-trimmed storage furniture. My favourite part of the room has got to be the bathroom, tiled with French marble no less. My word, it looks absolutely royal! One interesting feature that was a first for me was the jet-massage shower (basically multiple water jets shooting high-pressure streams of water at you), what a way to jazz up your shower routine (:
To take the stay experience a notch higher, guests from all room categories have access to the 24-hour signature St. Regis butler service. You can engage their services to help pack and unpack your luggage, press your garments, arrange for complimentary beverages to be sent to your room and possibly much more. Although the impeccable service standards were comparable to that of the Raffles Butlers, I would’ve preferred to have the same butler attend to us throughout as with Raffles so that there’s more of a personal touch (but I also understand that St. Regis has almost thrice the number of rooms, making this option highly challenging). We still enjoyed our cups of hot chocolate with cookies and the nice bubble bath one of the butlers drew for us. He was really professional and detail-oriented, from creating robust bubbles out of regular liquid soap to wiping down the water spills from the sides of the tub once he was done. Two thumbs up!
Turndown service was provided and we were pleasantly surprised to return from dinner to classical music playing in the background, adding a touch of sophistication to the room ambience. The blinds were drawn and towels laid on the floor as well, on top of the usual clearing of trash and replenishment of items.
There were some extremely minor issues for the record. Prior to our arrival, I put in a request via the Marriott Bonvoy app (join it, it’s free :D) for my usual firm pillow but because we changed rooms, I only received it much later. The bed was also a lot softer than I would’ve liked. Other than these nitpicky things, everything was brilliant.
Facilities
Reservation of facilities like the pool and gym, as well as breakfast slots can only be made upon check-in via a QR code on your welcome letter. We attended to this immediately, sending in our bookings the moment we got to our room. Unfortunately, when we reached the pool and gym entrance at level 2, the gatekeeper staff stationed there said that our bookings weren’t reflected in the system. She was just as puzzled as we were, so she fiddled away on her computer while we twiddled our thumbs. Eventually after she refreshed the system, our booking finally showed up and we were granted access (but that left us questioning the integrity of our breakfast booking…).
There are many dining options within the hotel: Brasserie Les Saveurs, Yan Ting (loads of good reviews), The Drawing Room (ie. lobby lounge) and Shinji By Kanesaka. Astor Bar was temporarily closed and La Brezza has been permanently closed for a while already (the concierge staff shared that there are plans to transform it into a Japanese restaurant).
After a light lunch nearby and a lot of lazing in the room, we headed down to Brasserie Les Saveurs for our 3-course dinner. We had a complimentary basket of bread to start us off before digging into our appetizers. My tuna salad was fresh and light and my husband’s French onion soup was very flavourful (chock full of onions but actually not much soup). For our mains, we had the pork loin (quite dry and plain) and the barramundi (soft and moist but tasted quite herby, clam velouté sauce was delicious). Finally, our dessert comprised an excellent Guanaja 70% dark chocolate tart (creamy and smooth, not overly thick, tart base was wonderfully crumbly) and a crème brûlée (nice texture and flavour but could’ve afforded to be less sweet). Generally, the food tasted pretty good but the only sore point was that the portion sizes were a bit lacking and we didn’t leave feeling entirely full nor satisfied.
The next day, we came back to Brasserie Les Saveurs for our breakfast. Given the mini-saga we had yesterday with our disappearing pool and gym bookings, we were half expecting to be stopped and informed again that our reservation wasn’t in their system. Thankfully, that situation stayed in our overactive imagination and never materialized.
During our slot at 9am, the restaurant was already packed to the brim with guests but amazingly, that didn’t impact the speed of service. Our orders were taken as soon as we were seated and the food was served within the next 10 to 15 minutes, very impressive. Everything tasted quite good here, even our least preferred dishes on the table were of an above-average standard. The ones I especially enjoyed were the Epicurean Omelette (fluffy eggs with not-the-real-deal caviar), Singapore Laksa (very savoury broth) and Brioche French Toast (soft and warm with bananas and cinnamon sugar).
Now this was the real kicker for me: The Remède Spa facilities. The reception staff explained that prior to covid, usage of the wet spa facilities was complimentary for all hotel guests but due to current restrictions, the facilities’ limited capacity resulted in the implementation of a $30++ entry fee per person for 2 hours of usage (SAD but I was totally willing to pay for it). Those holding a status of Marriott Bonvoy Platinum and above can actually enjoy these facilities for free. However, when I enquired about the availability, the spa staff mentioned that Saturdays are usually packed as they have to prioritize guests who booked treatment packages. They were very apologetic and suggested that I give them a call again tomorrow morning to check for available slots.
Lo and behold, I managed to snag a slot right after breakfast from 10am to 12pm! Jaz, the same kind staff who spoke to me yesterday, warmly welcomed me and gave me a brief tour of the incredibly comprehensive facilities (check out the videos here). There are two jacuzzi pools (one indoor, one outdoor), heated marble benches, a Finnish sauna and a 3-zoned steam room (mind-blown!) with increasing temperatures fragranced with eucalyptus oil. She explained that guests are meant to gradually move from the cooler outer zone into the hotter inner zone. Each element here even has a label clearly stating the minimum and maximum temperature ranges, a thoughtful gesture that I personally appreciate as it offers me much-needed predictability. The sensorial lounge (ie. the locker area) was playing calming nature sounds of trees rustling and birds chirping, simply relaxing. Needless to say, I stayed for the full duration and tried out just about everything, plus I had the whole place to myself! Seems like the Trip.com glitch turned out to be a blessing in disguise. If it weren’t for the late check-out as part of service recovery, I probably would’ve missed out on this awesome experience ❤
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. The whole experience felt extremely pampering – an insanely spacious room (two double beds?!), yummy and thoughtfully plated food, top-notch butler service and fantastic wet spa facilities! Almost every member of staff we encountered was very welcoming and quick to extend help to us. Even amidst the busy-ness at the reception counter, one of the counter staff kindly and promptly helped to reactivate my key card as I was stuck in my bathrobe and slippers without access to my room. One aspect that hindered how smooth this experience went was the technical issues we faced throughout our stay. First, it was the reported transfer error of our reservation details from Trip.com to the hotel’s system. Second, the supposed lag in their internal facilities booking system resulting in our bookings not showing up. Both instances involved quite a bit of waiting time that I felt could’ve been avoided. Other than these glitches, our stay was a really enjoyable one (: Hopefully the prices don’t go back up to their usual exorbitant range (wishful thinking?) so that we can come back here again!
Dania Experiences 