A few minutes’ walk from Somerset train station, this hotel is conveniently situated amongst the popular malls along the Orchard Road shopping belt. Previously Mandarin Orchard Hotel, it was rebranded and given a major, much-needed facelift to become the largest Hilton hotel in the Asia-Pacific region.
I was pretty excited to see what it had to offer as photos of the refurbished spaces looked promising. Wanting to check out the new club lounge as well, I had to do some promo code camping and offsetting with Trip coins on Trip.com to bring the eventual room cost down as it was originally a rather expensive amount. If you’re new to Trip.com, you can sign up with my referral code here and receive up to $20 worth of new user promo codes (:
- Inclusions:
- 1-night stay in King Executive Room
- Executive Lounge access
- Breakfast, afternoon tea and evening cocktails (as part of club lounge access)
- Spent: SGD$32.06 + $393.64 in Trip coins
Check-in
On the day of check-in, my husband and I had a late check-out from another stay at Fairmont Hotel just two train stops away. As such, I decided to pop over to get us registered first and see if our room was ready.
Arriving at the reception counter on level 5, the staff did a quick check and upon noticing that our room had lounge access, suggested to walk me to the Executive Lounge on level 6 to complete the check-in there. Joey and Claire from the lounge then took over and offered me a drink while I waited. I ordered a yummy hot chocolate that wasn’t too sweet (I didn’t fancy the marshmallows inside though). Shortly after, they informed me that the room was ready and passed me the key cards (:
Room
Our room was nestled on the 30th floor (out of 32 guest room floors) of the Mandarin Wing while the Orchard Wing was still under renovation during our stay. In terms of design, the room had a clean, contemporary aesthetic with neutral tones, very reminiscent of Japanese minimalism. I especially liked the comfy and inviting sofa by the window to enjoy the city view from.
I was able to request for a firm pillow but it was too squishy, providing minimal neck support despite me stacking two of them together. The bed was nice and solid though. Soundproofing wasn’t fantastic either as we could hear thumping music later in the evening that probably came from some bar nearby. This wasn’t too much of a bother for us but it might be a point of consideration for those who prefer a more silent environment.
In the bathroom, there was a decent-sized tub and a separate shower. However, upon opening the shower door, I was hit by an off-putting dank smell like it hadn’t been ventilated in a while. On top of that, the plug in the tub couldn’t fully stop the water from draining so we were unable to fill it up for any soaking. Oh well, at least the towels and surfaces were clean.
Facilities
The hotel’s sole swimming pool can be found on level 5 just opposite Ginger.Lily Bar & Lounge. Compared to its Mandarin Orchard Hotel days, it doesn’t appear very much different structurally, save for some surface touch-ups.
On level 6 across the Executive Lounge is where you’ll find the massive, well-equipped gym. It smelled really new and some equipment didn’t even look like anyone had used them before.
Curious to see how the dining establishments have changed since, I did a little exploration of the various restaurants. A few of them have been completely replaced except for Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro on level 35 and Chatterbox on level 5. Chatterbox, however, did get a very pretty makeover with a refreshed, contemporary look and more natural light drawn into its spaces.
The new restaurants and bars are mostly located on level 5. These include Ginger.Lily Bar & Lounge (serving tea, cakes and craft cocktails), Osteria Mozza (an Italian restaurant) and Estate (an all-day dining restaurant).
A large part of level 6 in the Mandarin Wing is taken up by the Executive Lounge so I sort of expected it to be fairly spacious. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a closed-concept, highly segmented space, making it feel much smaller than it actually is. Also, despite its clean and chic interiors, the atmosphere somehow felt cold and distant (I chalk it up to the predominantly pale hues and the lack of warmth in interactions with the staff). Having said that, the modern sofas and chairs did entice me to try sitting on every different type (though this compulsion was much less intense than the one I had at Swissotel The Stamford‘s club lounge).
Afternoon tea was served between 3pm and 4.30pm at the dining section (turn right upon entering the lounge). This comprised an extremely tiny selection of small bites that weren’t particularly impressive.
Later on, we returned for evening cocktails and canapes (served from 5.30pm to 7.30pm). Similar to afternoon tea, the canapes were equally unmemorable. In fact, there were some items that made an impression for the wrong reasons, such as the black custard bun that had a solidified crumble as its filling. The dumplings were practically tasteless and came with a thick, chewy outer skin that was just unpleasant to eat. With such hefty prices for a room with lounge access, I honestly couldn’t figure out where the budget was going to.
With the option to have breakfast at the lounge or Estate on level 5, our choice was clear given the disappointment we faced with afternoon tea and evening canapes. Alas, we weren’t spared from hiccups at the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant either. The staff there initially informed us that our reservation didn’t come with breakfast and wouldn’t allow us in, which was baffling. After waiting for them to check on this, they eventually apologized and ushered us to a table.
Just like the lounge, the restaurant was equivalently segmented into various compartments. This design did help with noise control as the levels remained manageable despite the increasing crowds inside. As for the food, some items were a hit while others were a miss. The ones we liked were the French toast (moist and flavourful) and the nasi lemak (fragrant rice and sambal chilli). Live stations with chefs whipping up made-to-order eggs and noodle soups were available too.
Breakfast at the lounge was a much smaller affair, with the items being a minuscule subset of the spread at Estate, though there was also a live station for freshly prepared eggs. I definitely recommend having breakfast at Estate instead.
My overall rating of the experience: 3 out of 5 stars. There’s no denying that the hardware here is clean, modern and slick but somehow, there wasn’t any warmth both in the ambience and in our interactions with the staff. Our bathroom also had some problems, such as the musty smell in the shower and the tub plug that wouldn’t do its job. Forking out extra for the Executive Lounge wasn’t worth it at all in my opinion given the lacklustre offerings for all three meal presentations. In addition, there were major gaps in their general systems and communications, like indicating that our stay didn’t come with breakfast and how the reception and housekeeping staff seemed oblivious to the fact that we were accorded a late check-out. I’m not certain how much of it can be attributed to teething issues of a new hotel but it inadvertently created a significant enough inconvenience to impact our experience here. All in all, I wouldn’t completely write this hotel off but I highly doubt we’ll be back any time soon.
If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (:
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