… review continued of Capitol Kempinski

Restaurants & Bars
Although the hotel had several dining outlets and room service, the FHR credit only applied at The Bar at 15 Stamford and at The 15 Stamford. This was quite frustrating as these menus were good, but quite limited. I’m not quite sure why they didn’t even let us use the credit at the Lobby Lounge or on room service.

We ate a quick bite on arrival at The Bar at 15 Stamford and again the evening before we left. The menu only had ~15 items and they were all “snacks” rather than any entrees. However the food quality was fantastic. Highly recommend the Ocean Ceviche and the Atlantic Salmon. The Fremantle Octopus was good, while I’d give the Beef Tacos a pass in the future.

We also grabbed some burgers and fries during our stay at the Lobby Lounge, which was utterly fantastic. Highly recommend The Capitol Burger if you’re seeking some comfort food!

Breakfast was also where the hotel shined, served in 15 Stamford. The restaurant was large and spread across multiple rooms, affording varying levels of privacy vs. buzziness based on where you sat.

The buffet was larger than the JW Marriott but not enormous. It included a salad bar, fruits, yogurts and mueslis, a Bloody Mary bar, Prosecco bar, breads/muffins/donuts, a honey bar with 5 different honeys, and a hot food bar with Asian, Indian and Western options, including a made-to-order egg station. The guys working there were great, but options were unfortunately somewhat limited (e.g. I asked for spinach in my eggs and they had none). The buffet also had a children’s corner with things like Mac and Cheese and some sweets. Coffee was great, which was a nice change from the machine junk at the JW.

Service was great, friendly and engaging, if not a bit efficient! We came back from serving ourselves from the buffet and they had already cleared our plates and given our table to someone else! LOL!


Eating snacks at The Bar at 15 Stamford

Rise and shine it’s breakfast time!

One of the more private seating areas at 15 Stamford

Table settings

Bar area in the morning

Prosecco bar

Juice bar

Kids buffet

Hot food options at breakfast

Salad bar at breakfast

The Lobby Lounge restaurant

The Capitol Burger: delicious!

Gym and Pool
As noted upthread the saltwater pool is very small. We intended to give it a try but never did.

We worked out at the gym a couple of times. It’s small, particularly for a hotel this size, but gratefully never more than 1-2 others at a time. In particular the free weights area can really only accommodate one person at a time. The variety of machines was fine — three treadmills, two ellipticals, one bike and a sit down pedal bike, as well as a rowing machine. There were no weight machines, but they had mounted suspension ropes on the wall for freestyle body weight exercises. Water and towels were available. This was definitely not a world class gym.

The spa is adjacent to the gym, but we did not have a chance to explore.


Gym at the Capitol Kempinski

Gym at the Capitol Kempinski

Overall Impressions
I found the service at the Capitol Kempinski to be good overall, but not great. A lot of the staff seemed younger and less experienced. In one instance, I asked the concierge to book us a private car from Johor Bahru back to Singapore one day. He quoted SG$280 “because the driver has to go there and come back” and clearly didn’t put any effort in identifying a Malaysian transport locally. Ridiculous when I could go online and book for a fraction of that. Another time, when I pressed on using my F&B credit elsewhere beyond 15 Stamford, I was granted an “exception” to use it at the Lobby Lounge (which should have been included anyway, in my opinion). Otherwise, the staff generally remembered our names and preferences. I appreciated the chef working the eggs offering to do something special with other vegetables as atonement for not having any spinach. Or the front desk accommodating a slightly later checkout past 4pm so we could use our remaining F&B credit at the bar before we left for the airport.

Overall, I would stay again. I loved the intimate sense of the hotel that made it feel more like a fancy home than a big hotel. The location was ideal. And, importantly for our family, the breakfast was spectacular!