Very interesting discussion. Having recently had my Aman initiation at Pulo I must say I was rather underwhelmed. What cadogan1 says may be at play here - we have almost no special service requirements and so I was very disappointed that ordinary things were messed up. (I mean failure to make up the room?! Twice!) I'm afraid the whole Aman thing - which I understand to be impeccable, anticipatory service - went right past me.

Oddly enough given the very tepid reviews of food on here, that was one area where I was genuinely satisfied. I had no complaints with the variety or the quality. In fact I really don't understand the complaint about lack of variety - there is Filipino, Vietnamese, Spanish and other western food (plus the pizzas at lunchtime). In 10 days I didn't feel like I was running out of options. Simple dishes like grilled or steamed fish were done just perfectly as were more complex ones - and there were some interesting things to try that I had not encountered before. The Vietnamese chef is new (since October, I think) and I thought the food in the Lagoon Club was excellent. The F&B manager was very much in attendance and spoke to us daily to check that we were satisfied. The very personable Executive Chef runs an excellent show in my opinion.

Back on topic: I was happy with my stay but no more than (and in some respects rather less than) I have been at much less fabled places.