Aman Tokyo and Suiboku (Niseko) - short trip report
Mar 5, 2015, 7:36 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: CX DM
Posts: 125
Aman Tokyo and Suiboku (Niseko) - short trip report
We recently went to Tokyo for a few days followed by skiing in Niseko (via a flight to Sapporo and 1.5 hour road transfer) for 5 days, staying at Suiboku. We had another couple, our son (3) and our nanny with us.
Aman Tokyo
This is a beautiful property with stunning hardware, subject to your taste in décor. It's not clear yet how well it will be differentiated from other high end options in Tokyo or if it will really have the special "Aman" feel in the long term. But it is certainly visually striking.
Public Areas
The lobby is striking upon entry with a huge airy atrium. Bar, restaurant, library, fumoir are around the sides. We particularly liked the library here. The pool is very large for Tokyo and in a stunning high-ceilinged space (although I found the lighting in the pool a bit cave-like).
Rooms
Our friends had a regular room and we had a suite (at Aman’s suggestion) with beds made up for our nanny and son at one end of the living room (they had initially made up a baby crib about half the length of our son but quickly rectified this by making up a perfectly-sized daybed when we mentioned it). The suite was beautiful with large floor-to-ceiling windows throughout, huge bathroom and nice sitting area in the master, good closet space, and a large living/dining room with a small attached study (a large desk behind a sliding door) and powder room. It also had some kitchen amenities (sink, dishwasher etc). Décor you will have seen on the website and other TRs, modern minimal Japanese; we really liked it.
We also looked at our friends’ regular room; I liked the master configuration here with the large windows at the foot of the bed (rather than way off to one side as in the suite). Longer, narrower bathroom than the suite, but still a lovely big japanese tub in the window.
Service
Greetings were pleasant and we had champagne and lovely bento boxes with snacks in our room on arrival, along with special treats and a traditional Japanese toy for our son. They had also provided a pack of child bathroom amenities, which seem to be of high quality based on my brief investigation of the brand using google translate…
Basic requests like room service and suggestions of places to go etc, were handled quickly and effectively.
We did encounter a few glitches. Nothing too bad; hopefully all just teething problems that will be quickly ironed out.
-We had to chase up arrangements for our departure (that we had been told we would be informed about) and there seemed to be a lot of confusion over what basically consisted of getting us 2 taxis 5 minutes to Tokyo station (for the Narita Express – their recommended quickest way of getting to the airport). When we went over to the front desk to confirm that arrangements had been made, they hadn’t; and three times the lady looking after us tried to tell us that since our flight was domestic it would depart from Haneda despite us assuring her it was ex Narita. She then asked if we had booked taxis. Which was odd since booking taxis was what we were asking her to do for us.
When it came to our actual departure, the Aman doormen talked to the 2 taxi drivers, we assumed telling them both where to take us for most convenient access to the Narita Express. However the two taxis proceeded to take the two halves of our party to completely different parts of Tokyo station, resulting in two of us having to schlep a bunch of luggage and a toddler on a rather long trek to the train, and ultimately missing the train by about 5 seconds. Didn’t cause major problems as we had lots of time, but I don’t think it was too much to expect the doormen to have told the two taxi drivers to take us all to the same (correct) place. I could have excused this if we were heading somewhere obscure but surely the Narita Express at Tokyo Station is a fairly popular destination...?
Dining
Dining was the other area that still needs some optimizing. Room service for our son and nanny was prompt and high quality. However dinner service for the four of us in the restaurant was clunky, with quite a lot of confusion over our order (which wasn’t that complicated, nothing off-menu). Several servers didn’t understand questions/clarifications we had; the original server who had taken our order had to be tracked down and dispatched to our table to clear things up. Then dinner itself was slow.
The menu had Japanese, European and Asian choices, but given that it is billed as “Mediterranean” I would have expected more Mediterranean options. Our food was good but not great (tough city to compete in..). The dessert menu only features 4 items.
Breakfast was a buffet/a la carte combo (I think the first buffet I have ever seen at an Aman..? I guess necessary with so many rooms). It was pleasant. We had a very early departure and had left 40 mins for breakfast before leaving. We were advised on arriving for breakfast that we should just do the buffet as a la carte may not be quick enough for our schedule. But I would have expected something along the lines of “if you would like items from the a la carte please allow us to take your order promptly so we can ensure we serve you with enough time before you leave” to be more appropriate.
Urban Aman experience
One note for Aman regulars – the usual Aman afternoon tea is in a different guise here – it is a full afternoon tea set that you order from their day dining menu; it is not some complimentary pastries/cakes and tea as is usual. Complimentary tea would be tough to execute in a city where people can just wander in off the street, rather than in a remote resort, and it is certainly nice to have the option of a full tea set. But, for example, if you have had a recent lunch and/or are planning an early dinner, just a small nibble with some tea to enjoy the view would be nice (to be fair, once they have their dining capabilities pulled together, I’m sure it’ll be easy to order just that. I’m just not that confident in their ability to handle off-menu orders yet)
At one point during our stay, in the afternoon, the bar beside where we were sitting was full of a large group of people (maybe 30). I assume some private celebration. This was the greatest number of people I have ever seen at an Aman. It just felt very like a regular city hotel, not very Aman. And with only a third of rooms operational thus far, I guess this “normal hotel” feeling will be difficult to avoid going forward.
One last thing on the Aman experience – there are not many excursion experiences up and running yet, but they are working on it, and if they can make these truly distinctive I believe it could really help differentiate Aman Tokyo.
Overall the property is lovely and has potential to be wonderful if they can iron out a few glitches (it is heresy to suggest they maybe just hire a concierge or two from one of the other big hotels to deal with practicalities in an efficient manner...?) It’s probably never going to feel like a true Aman “hideaway” given the realities of being in the city and catering to a larger number of guests (although I have to admit that when we visited Aman Delhi several years ago it did feel like more of a retreat). But it can certainly be an excellent urban option.
After Tokyo we took a 1.5 hour flight up to Sapporo and a scenic 1.5 hour drive up to Niseko.
Suiboku (Niseko)
Suiboku is a building of 10 apartments, individually owned but centrally managed. We stayed here for 5 nights for skiing in Niseko.
Pre-arrival
The Suiboku concierge was incredibly responsive over a long period of time and took care of every aspect of our trip very efficiently (private airport transfers, equipment rental, ski school bookings for our son and nanny, lift tickets, and restaurant reservations). They had a folder with the paperwork pertaining to all our arrangements ready for us on arrival
Location
The location was excellent. The (very pleasant) boot room was a 30 second walk from the base chairlift of Grand Hirafu. Also across the street/round the corner from a few equipment rental shops, and 30 seconds from the ski school and lift ticket counter. We were max 10 mins walk from all the (excellent) restaurants we visited. Suiboku also have a shuttle that operates on a first come first served basis, for rides to restaurants/other ski areas etc.
Apartment
We had a 3-bedroom apartment (or “loft” as they call them). Décor is “alpine minimal” (lots of board-formed concrete and fur throws). Bedrooms were very comfortable and bathrooms well equipped. The heating was (almost too) effective, and quite difficult to turn down, to the point that we comfortably slept with our bedroom window wide open at night. The kitchen/living area was large with huge picture windows and balcony overlooking Mt Yotei; beautiful as the sun rose over it in the mornings.
The kitchen was very well equipped and there was a large basket of basic food and drink items in our apartment when we arrived (teas, breakfast cereals, treats, sake, olive oil, soy sauce…)
Each apartment has a well-equipped laundry room within it, which is great when everyone is skiing all day.
Each apartment also has its own large walk-in equipment closet in the basement, with a large boot room, again with lots of fur throws, and a table setup with bubbly, coffee and hot chocolate. As I mentioned, there is an exit straight out of here a short walk to the lift.
Not a hotel…
Suiboku is not a hotel so there are some differences that you need to be aware of if you are considering it, to manage expectations. As an aside, I believe the following is probably true of most of the other high-end lodgings in Niseko (the Vale, Setsumon etc) as they are all this “apartment style” rather than hotels.
-There is no round-the-clock attention – the front desk staff leave at 8pm and after that you only have an emergency phone number. Not a problem for us but may be for some.
-Housekeeping was twice (one “minor” and one “major”) during our 5-night stay. Although in practice the front desk staff were more than happy to give us plenty of extra towels etc when we asked. But again, a bit of a shock if you’re expecting hotel-style housekeeping.
-No room service, obviously. But with a very well-equipped kitchen and numerous great restaurants so close, this wasn’t a problem for us.
I had one pet peeve here – soundproofing (intra-apartment, not inter). First, the wood flooring within the apartment is very creaky so you can hear everyone walking everywhere within your own apartment (not in others above or anywhere else though, thankfully). Secondly the doors are thin, so you can hear, e.g., a living room conversation from within a bedroom 15 feet down the corridor. A bit irritating, depending on the sleep/other habits of your co-travelers.
Overall Suiboku provided an excellent and very comfortable base for our Niseko skiing.
And I should also mention – this was our first time skiing in Japan (we grew up skiing in Europe/USA and in recent years it has all been USA). The powder here is incredible, like nothing any of us had ever seen anywhere. It’s not a huge mountain, but definitely had enough varied stuff to keep us all happy for several days.
Aman Tokyo
This is a beautiful property with stunning hardware, subject to your taste in décor. It's not clear yet how well it will be differentiated from other high end options in Tokyo or if it will really have the special "Aman" feel in the long term. But it is certainly visually striking.
Public Areas
The lobby is striking upon entry with a huge airy atrium. Bar, restaurant, library, fumoir are around the sides. We particularly liked the library here. The pool is very large for Tokyo and in a stunning high-ceilinged space (although I found the lighting in the pool a bit cave-like).
Rooms
Our friends had a regular room and we had a suite (at Aman’s suggestion) with beds made up for our nanny and son at one end of the living room (they had initially made up a baby crib about half the length of our son but quickly rectified this by making up a perfectly-sized daybed when we mentioned it). The suite was beautiful with large floor-to-ceiling windows throughout, huge bathroom and nice sitting area in the master, good closet space, and a large living/dining room with a small attached study (a large desk behind a sliding door) and powder room. It also had some kitchen amenities (sink, dishwasher etc). Décor you will have seen on the website and other TRs, modern minimal Japanese; we really liked it.
We also looked at our friends’ regular room; I liked the master configuration here with the large windows at the foot of the bed (rather than way off to one side as in the suite). Longer, narrower bathroom than the suite, but still a lovely big japanese tub in the window.
Service
Greetings were pleasant and we had champagne and lovely bento boxes with snacks in our room on arrival, along with special treats and a traditional Japanese toy for our son. They had also provided a pack of child bathroom amenities, which seem to be of high quality based on my brief investigation of the brand using google translate…
Basic requests like room service and suggestions of places to go etc, were handled quickly and effectively.
We did encounter a few glitches. Nothing too bad; hopefully all just teething problems that will be quickly ironed out.
-We had to chase up arrangements for our departure (that we had been told we would be informed about) and there seemed to be a lot of confusion over what basically consisted of getting us 2 taxis 5 minutes to Tokyo station (for the Narita Express – their recommended quickest way of getting to the airport). When we went over to the front desk to confirm that arrangements had been made, they hadn’t; and three times the lady looking after us tried to tell us that since our flight was domestic it would depart from Haneda despite us assuring her it was ex Narita. She then asked if we had booked taxis. Which was odd since booking taxis was what we were asking her to do for us.
When it came to our actual departure, the Aman doormen talked to the 2 taxi drivers, we assumed telling them both where to take us for most convenient access to the Narita Express. However the two taxis proceeded to take the two halves of our party to completely different parts of Tokyo station, resulting in two of us having to schlep a bunch of luggage and a toddler on a rather long trek to the train, and ultimately missing the train by about 5 seconds. Didn’t cause major problems as we had lots of time, but I don’t think it was too much to expect the doormen to have told the two taxi drivers to take us all to the same (correct) place. I could have excused this if we were heading somewhere obscure but surely the Narita Express at Tokyo Station is a fairly popular destination...?
Dining
Dining was the other area that still needs some optimizing. Room service for our son and nanny was prompt and high quality. However dinner service for the four of us in the restaurant was clunky, with quite a lot of confusion over our order (which wasn’t that complicated, nothing off-menu). Several servers didn’t understand questions/clarifications we had; the original server who had taken our order had to be tracked down and dispatched to our table to clear things up. Then dinner itself was slow.
The menu had Japanese, European and Asian choices, but given that it is billed as “Mediterranean” I would have expected more Mediterranean options. Our food was good but not great (tough city to compete in..). The dessert menu only features 4 items.
Breakfast was a buffet/a la carte combo (I think the first buffet I have ever seen at an Aman..? I guess necessary with so many rooms). It was pleasant. We had a very early departure and had left 40 mins for breakfast before leaving. We were advised on arriving for breakfast that we should just do the buffet as a la carte may not be quick enough for our schedule. But I would have expected something along the lines of “if you would like items from the a la carte please allow us to take your order promptly so we can ensure we serve you with enough time before you leave” to be more appropriate.
Urban Aman experience
One note for Aman regulars – the usual Aman afternoon tea is in a different guise here – it is a full afternoon tea set that you order from their day dining menu; it is not some complimentary pastries/cakes and tea as is usual. Complimentary tea would be tough to execute in a city where people can just wander in off the street, rather than in a remote resort, and it is certainly nice to have the option of a full tea set. But, for example, if you have had a recent lunch and/or are planning an early dinner, just a small nibble with some tea to enjoy the view would be nice (to be fair, once they have their dining capabilities pulled together, I’m sure it’ll be easy to order just that. I’m just not that confident in their ability to handle off-menu orders yet)
At one point during our stay, in the afternoon, the bar beside where we were sitting was full of a large group of people (maybe 30). I assume some private celebration. This was the greatest number of people I have ever seen at an Aman. It just felt very like a regular city hotel, not very Aman. And with only a third of rooms operational thus far, I guess this “normal hotel” feeling will be difficult to avoid going forward.
One last thing on the Aman experience – there are not many excursion experiences up and running yet, but they are working on it, and if they can make these truly distinctive I believe it could really help differentiate Aman Tokyo.
Overall the property is lovely and has potential to be wonderful if they can iron out a few glitches (it is heresy to suggest they maybe just hire a concierge or two from one of the other big hotels to deal with practicalities in an efficient manner...?) It’s probably never going to feel like a true Aman “hideaway” given the realities of being in the city and catering to a larger number of guests (although I have to admit that when we visited Aman Delhi several years ago it did feel like more of a retreat). But it can certainly be an excellent urban option.
After Tokyo we took a 1.5 hour flight up to Sapporo and a scenic 1.5 hour drive up to Niseko.
Suiboku (Niseko)
Suiboku is a building of 10 apartments, individually owned but centrally managed. We stayed here for 5 nights for skiing in Niseko.
Pre-arrival
The Suiboku concierge was incredibly responsive over a long period of time and took care of every aspect of our trip very efficiently (private airport transfers, equipment rental, ski school bookings for our son and nanny, lift tickets, and restaurant reservations). They had a folder with the paperwork pertaining to all our arrangements ready for us on arrival
Location
The location was excellent. The (very pleasant) boot room was a 30 second walk from the base chairlift of Grand Hirafu. Also across the street/round the corner from a few equipment rental shops, and 30 seconds from the ski school and lift ticket counter. We were max 10 mins walk from all the (excellent) restaurants we visited. Suiboku also have a shuttle that operates on a first come first served basis, for rides to restaurants/other ski areas etc.
Apartment
We had a 3-bedroom apartment (or “loft” as they call them). Décor is “alpine minimal” (lots of board-formed concrete and fur throws). Bedrooms were very comfortable and bathrooms well equipped. The heating was (almost too) effective, and quite difficult to turn down, to the point that we comfortably slept with our bedroom window wide open at night. The kitchen/living area was large with huge picture windows and balcony overlooking Mt Yotei; beautiful as the sun rose over it in the mornings.
The kitchen was very well equipped and there was a large basket of basic food and drink items in our apartment when we arrived (teas, breakfast cereals, treats, sake, olive oil, soy sauce…)
Each apartment has a well-equipped laundry room within it, which is great when everyone is skiing all day.
Each apartment also has its own large walk-in equipment closet in the basement, with a large boot room, again with lots of fur throws, and a table setup with bubbly, coffee and hot chocolate. As I mentioned, there is an exit straight out of here a short walk to the lift.
Not a hotel…
Suiboku is not a hotel so there are some differences that you need to be aware of if you are considering it, to manage expectations. As an aside, I believe the following is probably true of most of the other high-end lodgings in Niseko (the Vale, Setsumon etc) as they are all this “apartment style” rather than hotels.
-There is no round-the-clock attention – the front desk staff leave at 8pm and after that you only have an emergency phone number. Not a problem for us but may be for some.
-Housekeeping was twice (one “minor” and one “major”) during our 5-night stay. Although in practice the front desk staff were more than happy to give us plenty of extra towels etc when we asked. But again, a bit of a shock if you’re expecting hotel-style housekeeping.
-No room service, obviously. But with a very well-equipped kitchen and numerous great restaurants so close, this wasn’t a problem for us.
I had one pet peeve here – soundproofing (intra-apartment, not inter). First, the wood flooring within the apartment is very creaky so you can hear everyone walking everywhere within your own apartment (not in others above or anywhere else though, thankfully). Secondly the doors are thin, so you can hear, e.g., a living room conversation from within a bedroom 15 feet down the corridor. A bit irritating, depending on the sleep/other habits of your co-travelers.
Overall Suiboku provided an excellent and very comfortable base for our Niseko skiing.
And I should also mention – this was our first time skiing in Japan (we grew up skiing in Europe/USA and in recent years it has all been USA). The powder here is incredible, like nothing any of us had ever seen anywhere. It’s not a huge mountain, but definitely had enough varied stuff to keep us all happy for several days.
Mar 5, 2015, 9:13 am
#2
Moderator: Luxury Hotels and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Palo Alto, California,USA
Posts: 17,846
Great report. You want to be on the Maronouchi side of Tokyo station which should be a flag-drop fare from the Aman. From there to the Narita Express can be done with bags by taking two lifts -- which are not so easy to find. I would have expected the hotel to send someone with you to help, other luxury hotels near Tokyo station do that. That was poor service indeed, there is no reason to ever go to the other side of the station, it is a much longer walk.
Last edited by RichardInSF; Mar 5, 2015 at 2:15 pm
Mar 5, 2015, 10:17 am
#3
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Baltimore MD
Posts: 3,457
Aman Tokyo and Suiboku (Niseko) - short trip report
Thanks for the review. I've always wondered about the urban aman experience. Doesn't sound like they've done a lot to separate themselves from the other luxury options in Tokyo. How did you find the location.
Re: Buffett/ a la carte breakfast combo, we were just at amangiri and they had a similar setup (but they called it a chefs table.)
Fdw
Re: Buffett/ a la carte breakfast combo, we were just at amangiri and they had a similar setup (but they called it a chefs table.)
Fdw
Mar 5, 2015, 1:35 pm
#4
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Denver
Programs: AMEX Cent., Relais & Chateaux, LHW, SLH
Posts: 427
Thanks for the trip report! I was in Niseko couple years ago and agree that the powder there was simply amazing.
Did Suiboku help you with restaurant recommendation/bookings too?
Did Suiboku help you with restaurant recommendation/bookings too?
Mar 6, 2015, 2:03 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: CX DM
Posts: 125
For us it was fine, nice walk over to the Imperial Palace and reasonably short walk from Ginza; very close to Tokyo station. Although we have visited Tokyo a couple times (at FS and Grand Hyatt) and explored quite a lot of it in the past from those locations so we didn't have a long "hit list" of must-visit places to get to. I would defer to more experiences Tokyo-visitors (and residents) regarding how good the location really is.
Yes; a couple months before our trip they sent me a long list of restaurants with descriptions, then made all but one of the reservations for us. But then, a bit oddly, they emailed and apologized that "due to company policy, we will no long be able to book restaurants on behalf of our guests" so I would have to make the last one myself (that restaurant didn't accept reservations until a month out which is why they hadn't booked it yet). It was easy for me to make that reservation myself, but it was a bit weird the way they just suddenly stopped making them for guests. Glad you reminded me of that - if I were booking again in future I would confirm they will help with restaurants before booking, as it can be a bit of a pain making reservations at some of them for a non-Japanese speaker.
One other pet peeve I realized omitted from my thoughts on Aman Tokyo. Yes this will seem nit-picky but I found it really annoying (and I'm not even that fussy). In the rooms, all the light-switch buttons, including those right by the bed, have little blue light surrounds that are illuminated when the relevant light is off (so you can easily find the switch to turn it on in the dark). Fine. But when it's dark, as soon as your eyes have adjusted, these lights are incredibly bright. I know lots of hotels have illuminated light switches but I have never been bothered by them before - these really are exceptionally bright. Problem solved by propping up an iPad against the light switches on both sides of the bed. But surely this shouldn't have had to be solved. I often wonder if hotel-room designers ever actually spend a night in one of their masterpieces before releasing them to guests...
One other pet peeve I realized omitted from my thoughts on Aman Tokyo. Yes this will seem nit-picky but I found it really annoying (and I'm not even that fussy). In the rooms, all the light-switch buttons, including those right by the bed, have little blue light surrounds that are illuminated when the relevant light is off (so you can easily find the switch to turn it on in the dark). Fine. But when it's dark, as soon as your eyes have adjusted, these lights are incredibly bright. I know lots of hotels have illuminated light switches but I have never been bothered by them before - these really are exceptionally bright. Problem solved by propping up an iPad against the light switches on both sides of the bed. But surely this shouldn't have had to be solved. I often wonder if hotel-room designers ever actually spend a night in one of their masterpieces before releasing them to guests...
Mar 6, 2015, 6:35 am
#6
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Barcelona
Posts: 3,317
Something about this hotel is NOT drawing me to it. If I want an 'urban Aman' experience, sheesh, sounds like I'd rather be at the Siam in BKK....or the MO/Pen/Shangri-La/etc in Tokyo.
Too many hiccups at this property. A lot of them head scratching.
Too many hiccups at this property. A lot of them head scratching.
Mar 6, 2015, 8:02 am
#7
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Here there and everywhere
Posts: 6,303
Totally agree with you!
Mar 6, 2015, 10:33 am
#8
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 119
I believed the breakfast buffet at Aman Tokyo is new as when we stayed in December, they only had A la carte option. I agree with pricesquire that Aman Tokyo doesn't really stand out compare to other luxury hotel in Tokyo such as MO or PEN.
Mar 6, 2015, 1:02 pm
#9
Moderator: Luxury Hotels and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Palo Alto, California,USA
Posts: 17,846
...Yes; a couple months before our trip they sent me a long list of restaurants with descriptions, then made all but one of the reservations for us. But then, a bit oddly, they emailed and apologized that "due to company policy, we will no long be able to book restaurants on behalf of our guests" so I would have to make the last one myself (that restaurant didn't accept reservations until a month out which is why they hadn't booked it yet)....
Mar 7, 2015, 5:39 am
#10
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Join Date: Mar 2013
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Posts: 10,050
We recently went to Tokyo for a few days followed by skiing in Niseko (via a flight to Sapporo and 1.5 hour road transfer) for 5 days, staying at Suiboku. We had another couple, our son (3) and our nanny with us.
Aman Tokyo
This is a beautiful property with stunning hardware, subject to your taste in décor. It's not clear yet how well it will be differentiated from other high end options in Tokyo or if it will really have the special "Aman" feel in the long term. But it is certainly visually striking.
Dining
Dining was the other area that still needs some optimizing. Room service for our son and nanny was prompt and high quality. However dinner service for the four of us in the restaurant was clunky, with quite a lot of confusion over our order (which wasn’t that complicated, nothing off-menu). Several servers didn’t understand questions/clarifications we had; the original server who had taken our order had to be tracked down and dispatched to our table to clear things up. Then dinner itself was slow.
The menu had Japanese, European and Asian choices, but given that it is billed as “Mediterranean” I would have expected more Mediterranean options. Our food was good but not great (tough city to compete in..). The dessert menu only features 4 items.
Breakfast was a buffet/a la carte combo (I think the first buffet I have ever seen at an Aman..? I guess necessary with so many rooms). It was pleasant. We had a very early departure and had left 40 mins for breakfast before leaving. We were advised on arriving for breakfast that we should just do the buffet as a la carte may not be quick enough for our schedule. But I would have expected something along the lines of “if you would like items from the a la carte please allow us to take your order promptly so we can ensure we serve you with enough time before you leave” to be more appropriate.
Aman Tokyo
This is a beautiful property with stunning hardware, subject to your taste in décor. It's not clear yet how well it will be differentiated from other high end options in Tokyo or if it will really have the special "Aman" feel in the long term. But it is certainly visually striking.
Dining
Dining was the other area that still needs some optimizing. Room service for our son and nanny was prompt and high quality. However dinner service for the four of us in the restaurant was clunky, with quite a lot of confusion over our order (which wasn’t that complicated, nothing off-menu). Several servers didn’t understand questions/clarifications we had; the original server who had taken our order had to be tracked down and dispatched to our table to clear things up. Then dinner itself was slow.
The menu had Japanese, European and Asian choices, but given that it is billed as “Mediterranean” I would have expected more Mediterranean options. Our food was good but not great (tough city to compete in..). The dessert menu only features 4 items.
Breakfast was a buffet/a la carte combo (I think the first buffet I have ever seen at an Aman..? I guess necessary with so many rooms). It was pleasant. We had a very early departure and had left 40 mins for breakfast before leaving. We were advised on arriving for breakfast that we should just do the buffet as a la carte may not be quick enough for our schedule. But I would have expected something along the lines of “if you would like items from the a la carte please allow us to take your order promptly so we can ensure we serve you with enough time before you leave” to be more appropriate.