COMO Metropolitan Singapore is a 156-room wellness-focused hotel located on Bideford Road in the heart of Orchard Road. Officially opening its doors in September 2023, the hotel forms part of the integrated lifestyle offerings here at COMO Orchard, which include international dining concepts, curated retail collections and wellness facilities.
Being fairly newly opened at the time, the hotel was offering promotional rates that were quite attractive. I made the reservation via Trip.com as I was able to combine a promo code with accumulated Trip coins for an even better deal (:
- Inclusions:
- 1-night stay in Emerald Room
- Breakfast
- Early check-in 12pm and late check-out 3pm
- Complimentary mini-bar (once per day)
- Spent: SGD$118.10 + $160.79 in Trip coins
Check-in
Arriving at the COMO Orchard building for our 12pm early check-in, my husband and I took the lift up to level 6 where the reception area was located. Kyle, a reception staff, invited us to take a seat in the Lobby Lounge and enjoy complimentary coffee made by cool robot arms (like those at the Bionic Bar on Royal Caribbean cruises) while he completed our check-in process. The drink options on the menu were pretty unique too – I got a vanilla latte while my husband had the salted caramel latte.
Room
As the corner room we requested for wasn’t ready yet, we were assigned one right next to the lift lobby on the 14th floor (out of 18 guest room floors). This property was previously a serviced apartment so the layout reflected that, with a dedicated pantry space by the door. It was also roomy enough to comfortably fit a couch by the window.
The bathroom was a little narrow and compact though, plus the floor tiles looked awfully scuffed. Having said that, at least everything, including the towels and sheets, seemed clean.
As part of our stay package, the mini-bar snacks and drinks (replenished once per day) were free for the taking.
Since we were celebrating an occasion, there was a nice surprise waiting in the fridge for us: A beautifully presented Cedric Grolet chocolate coconut flower dessert made from coconut croustillant, coconut dacquoise, creamy chocolate, coconut gel and chocolate ganache. This was super yummy!
Our eventual corner room was located on the 15th floor and felt a lot brighter since there were additional windows instead of a wall at the far end. Alas, my request for a firm pillow couldn’t be fulfilled as they apparently had all been given out (first time encountering this in a 5-star hotel). Well, at least the bed was firm the way I prefer it. Turndown service was also provided upon request.
The bathroom here had a different configuration from the one in our previous room. The shower area had natural light streaming in, with the backdrop of the city in the background. However, we had major ponding issues during our showers as the water drained at an extremely slow rate.
Facilities
The swimming pool and Sky Bar can be found on level 19, the top floor of the hotel. This area is designed such that all the lounge chairs are situated at one corner instead of along the pool perimeter itself, likely due to space constraints.
Some features of this pool include a small jacuzzi section and a glass-bottom lane along the length of the pool. If you want to add a bit of thrill with heights to your laps, swim at the outer edge.
On level 4 is where COMO Shambhala, a holistic wellness centre offering a wide range of programmes and treatments, is located. The friendly staff, Jeremy and Jolin, gave me a brief tour of the facilities.
First, we popped into the large, well-equipped gym that even has a red light therapy room for guests to warm themselves up before exercising. Jeremy shared that this hotel is apparently the first of its kind in Singapore to be equipped with a competition platform that can absorb weight slams of up to 300kg.
Sadly, the gym is the only facility on this level that in-house guests have complimentary access to. The use of other facilities entail a very hefty additional fee. One of them is the set of contrast therapy rooms fitted with Sunlighten mPulse smart saunas and Brass Monkey ice baths, both of which are self-cleaning.
Another facility with state-of-the-art equipment is the oxygen therapy space, which is fitted with Hyperbaric AirPods that deliver pure oxygen while you sit or lie in the enclosed chambers. Jeremy shared that this technology is more typically seen in medical settings but this hotel is the first to offer it for commercial use.
Our stay package included breakfast, which was served at COMO Cuisine, the hotel’s all-day dining restaurant, between 6.30am and 10am. The ambience here was bright and breezy but the space it occupied was fairly small (unlikely to comfortably accommodate all their guests during breakfast service). Anyway, breakfast was a semi-buffet situation where we were limited to one main per person but other items like pastries, yoghurt and fresh juices were free-flow.
As my husband had an early appointment, we arrived for breakfast at around 7am. We were warmly greeted by Eileen, who recognized me from the day before while I was at the restaurant. She was the one who strongly recommended us to come for breakfast before 8.45am as there tends to be an awfully long queue after.
We ordered the eggs royale with smoked salmon and Teochew fish porridge with red grouper, both of which came almost instantaneously. The Hollandaise sauce on my eggs royale tasted pretty yummy and I liked that the muffins were thinner with a slightly crispy texture. Unfortunately, the supposed star of the dish wasn’t executed well as the egg yolk inside wasn’t runny as it should be. Similarly, the red grouper in the porridge was wonderfully tender but my husband found the overall dish a little bland and had to add some extra seasoning.
As for the croissant and pain au chocolat in our bread basket, these were perfectly flaky and buttery (but not oily). They were so delicious that we suspected that they must have come from Cedric Grolet’s kitchen downstairs!
Officially, we could only order one main each but Murali, one of the wait staff, very kindly allowed us an additional order of ricotta hot cakes with honeycomb butter ❤ This was one of the fluffiest, non-dry pancakes we’ve had at a local hotel breakfast! Although the pancake batter itself didn’t taste of much (which was easily remedied with all the sweet ingredients on the plate), the texture was super on-point. Upon noticing that we had some leftovers on our plate, Murali proactively offered to help us pack it in a takeaway box – fantastic service!
Cedric Grolet, a cafe opened by the award-winning pastry chef of the same name, is located on level 1. One perk of being an in-house guest is that you get priority to reserve a dine-in table here (I heard that reservations here can be difficult to secure).
I came to check it out after breakfast (they only open at 8.30am) and there was already a line forming outside. A staff was walking around giving out cute little madeleine samples and oh my, it was simply divine! A slight crisp on the outside and unbelievably moist on the inside, it was probably the most exquisite madeleine I’d tasted.
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. On top of its convenient location along Orchard Road, I find that this hotel also offers unique, high-quality dining options and facilities. It was our first time watching robot arms make us aromatic coffee for free in the Lobby Lounge, with an interesting menu selection to boot. The COMO Shambhala wellness centre boasts state-of-the-art therapeutic equipment that I’ve rarely seen in a hotel setting too (albeit with an equivalent price tag should guests want to use them). In addition, it was nice having the Cedric Grolet cafe situated right downstairs for easier access to their delectable, one-of-a-kind pastry creations. With that said, some aspects of our stay weren’t particularly ideal. For instance, although the rooms were clean and spacious, its aesthetic seemed purely functional and largely uninspired – there wasn’t much about the decor or ambience that made it inviting to linger in. Also, limiting guests to one main each for breakfast and providing just a small buffet selection was a tad disappointing. In fact, out of all the items we tried, only the dessert and pastries really made an impression. But the lovely restaurant staff, Eileen and Murali, definitely made our breakfast experience better with their warmth and generosity (:
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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