Some more info from my two night paid stay there.
Namba station is only a few minutes by taxi up Midosuji (the road next to the hotel) so on an early Sunday morning and with a ticket bought the day before, I got into a taxi at 7:45 and was sitting on the
Nankai rap:t train at 8:00 for KIX. I asked about a taxi when I was checking out but 5 minutes later (when I went downstairs) they were still trying to flag one down so best to allow some time for this.
I had the (free) breakfast twice in the Italian restaurant "La Veduta" (situated on the 12th floor along with the St Regis bar and the hotel reception). To be honest, the selection was disappointing (which is not always the case in Japan - the Westin Tokyo's free buffet breakfast is amazing and one of the best I've come across anywhere in the world) and the Ritz Carlton Osaka's is better. I could order tea/coffee and egg dishes from a server. The buffet had no Japanese items at all. The highlight (!) probably is an Italian prosciutto which you can ask them to carve you a few slices of. There's also a cold Italian risotto - it's served inside a hollowed out parmigiano reggiano wheel from which you help yourself - a bit unusual and I hate to think how hygienic (or not) it may be once lots of people have used it.
I also had dinner in the Italian restaurant one night. I had the full works (a la carte), i.e. antipasti (Livornese fish stew), primo (pumpkin and gorgonzola risotto), secondo (scallop raviolo), secondo (the daily grill special - Japanese chicken) and dolce (tiramisu) along with a glass of wine for each which came to about 28,000 Yen. The food was actually much better than I expected (except the grilled Japanese chicken was very dry) but everything came very slowly (so much so that the waiters were coming by to apologise for the delay). An amuse bouche which I forget now; bread (apparently made by them although it was boring) and olive oil; and grissini (which was nice). A friendly and chatty international staff. Jackets apparently required for dinner (not unusual in Japan).
I didn't try the other restaurant - Rue d'Or (a French brasserie located on street level) - which I think is downmarket compared to the Italian. Beforehand, I'd e-mailed the hotel (on the above e-mail address) and asked them to send me the menus for both restaurants.
I had drinks in the St Regis bar a few times (located next to the rooftop garden). It's too large (cavernous comes to mind) and soulless for my personal liking.
I also used the concierge when asking at reception for a dinner booking that night. Nothing exceptional to note.
On checkout, they tried to charge me as a plat for broadband which they immediately removed once I pointed it out. However, they didn't charge me for my laundry (two shirts plus dry cleaning of a jacket) and when I pointed this out (I showed them the laundry receipt), I was told this was complimentary ? Perhaps they got it mixed up with the complimentary pressing of two items on check-in.
On writing this, I suddenly remembered that my booking had a 5,000 Yen credit which they didn't mention at all at check-in. I had to phone and ask about it - they confirmed it after taking a while to check and then call me back. It hasn't been reflected at all on my bill so I will write to them to ask about it (and also about the missing plat 500 point amenity).
I had the pleasure of meeting
fumitani (a local here on FT) and I agree with him that the property is in a strange location (the business district) for a newly built hotel. The Hilton, Swissotel and Nikko are in much better locations for a tourist.
The St Regis is definitely a better hotel than the Westin but also correspondingly much more expensive. Its location is better than the Westin and the Imperial; but compared to the Ritz Carlton and the St Regis, the Imperial has a much more Japanese feel to it (if - like me - you prefer that sort of thing). Apart from SPG points, location perhaps and the St Regis having the feel of a smaller hotel, I can't say that I felt more comfortable at the St Regis compared to the (much cheaper) Imperial. So for my next stay in Osaka in December, I'm currently undecided.