remymartin

Writing this from the Westin.

travelswithmyself has some excellent pictures, but for some strange reason, the lighting doesn't do the room pictures justice. The room is furnished very nicely and the sofa looks a lot nicer in reality. The work area is nicely designed and I really like the desk with its fabric on top. There are electricity outlets next to desk but sadly the room isn't equipped with any sort of electricity adapters. The front desk have some, though.

The bathroom is one of those not-for-the-shy ones with a big floor-to-ceiling window in front of the bathtub. The drapes are up, but you can lower them in the bedroom. It is unclear whether the windows are one-way or not, but you can, if you should choose so, to shower, bathe and use the toilets with a view of the office building
opposite

Now the service has been a bit of a letdown. I came in on a longhaul flight expecting to immediately shower. The concierge asked if I wanted my bags carried up and I decided to play along. 30 minutes later I headed to the lounge instead of shower as I wanted to check out the club benefits. When I came back, 3 hours after having checked in, I still didn't have my bags in the room. When I went down this was remedied quickly. No, I didn't ask for 12k in points as compensation

The hotel doesn't seem busy at all, but still plates weren't cleared from empty tables at breakfast. I think this hotel still needs a lot of polishing to be able to continue charging 300-500SGD++.

The pool area looks inviting and the 25 metre long infinity pool equally so. What really irks me is the pool area is completely non-smoking as per the building rules. These rules are bent in the restaurant on the 33rd floor, though.

With the minor service issues and the non-smoking rules, I don't see myself coming back here. When I'm on holiday, I always enjoy a cigar by the pool. As there are no smoking rooms in this hotel either, this is a showstopper me.

giceh

I also stayed for 2 weeks in April. The hairdryer was available, already plugged in, but there was no extra spare outlet to plug in your own style tool (e.g. a curling iron or blow-brush, which is what I had). I forgot what it looked like, but I remember not being able to unplug the hairdryer and use my own tool. So, I just styled my hair in the bedroom like everyone else did for the first few months of the hotel opening.

I had a room with floor to ceiling windows in the bathroom for the first part of my stay and it faced mostly empty office buildings. But at night, I did get a bit self conscious and lowered the drapes, which was annoying because the switch is from the bedroom side, and you have to hold down the button the entire time.

Overall service (non-food) is wonderful when you need things. I had to leave for 2 days for a short trip out of the country, so I had two hotel stays at the Westin. The hotel stored my big luggage and I picked it up without any issues when I got back. The hotel is very nice in letting you use their spa facilities to take a shower and change if you arrive before check-in or need to check-out before your flight departs. My flight didn't leave until 6 pm, and I could only do late check-out until 2:30 pm. Then they let me shower and change in their spa facility free of charge. Given the price, I suppose these things are expected. I had a good experience and thought the rate (inclusive of breakfast + internet) was comparable to major cosmopolitan financial district / downtown hotels, but I probably would not pay out of pocket during a personal stay.

Breakfast was fun. They offer a voucher for the cafe downstairs if you sleep in and miss breakfast. They offer western, Chinese (jook, dim sum), Japanese (unlimited chawanmushi is exciting), and Indian (upma, curry, roti). No fried noodles unfortunately (I enjoyed that at the hotel breakfast in Malaysia), but they have soup noodles made to order (udon or rice noodles). The dim sum offering changes daily - one time they had "custard pau", and I tried to guess what it was. I was pleasantly surprised to find "egg yolk bun", and it was delicious.

The freshly made carrot juice is excellent. A tip - try requesting the carrot juice in a glass instead of grabbing a bottle if you aren't in a rush. They usually have some ready in a glass bottle, but one time they ran out of bottles and poured me a fresh glass from the pitcher, and I got all the foamy good bits at the top in glass form.

They have service issues when in the morning during peak times - e.g. I would eat breakfast in about 10 minutes, and during that time no one offered me coffee or tea. But it really is nice to go earlier for breakfast and sit next to the window to enjoy the view. At the end of my stay, I just requested tea or coffee to be made for me in a takeaway cup instead since I wouldn't receive it until I was already done with my meal anyway.

Regarding other food options, I walked to Chinatown for hawker stall options (since Lau Pat Sat is being renovated right now). For higher end, I considered going back to Marina Bay Sands (they have a Din Tai Fung there), but I ran out of time.

During the weekdays, I tried a lot of the Food Garden options in between the two towers, and I was really impressed by the food quality. However, a coworker told me though that the food court is overpriced and not good for Muslim food, so I can only recommend the Asian options that I tried. Too bad they're not open on weekends, but they're open until 8:30 pm on weekdays (most places). If you go near closing time, many items will be sold out already. If you eat during lunch rush (I waited till 2 pm sometimes), you need to bring tissue packs or leave your business card to reserve your seats before ordering.

There's an Ippudo Ramen Express, so I was very happy not to have to wait an hour to try it like you do in NY. I enjoyed Imperial Treasure Windows of Hong Kong for their noodles (handmade). Their beef brisket soup also had tendon in it, so I felt like it was a happy hybrid with Taiwanese beef soup. Their Hong Kong style milk tea is authentic and uses evaporated milk rather than condensed milk (which US places do). I really enjoyed Makaan Mumbai's tandoori chicken biryani too - huge generous portion - it might have been under "feast". For lighter meals, Wheat had good soba meals.

So, you won't go hungry I guess is what I'm saying if you stay here!

travelswithmyself

That's a great gastronomic review! :P

Nevsky

Every time I am there, I want to stop by, but I am either full from other meals or it is a weekend. I live a block from one in New York, but the line is interminable. Hopefully well stop by on my next trip.

giceh

I probably got carried away, but this was fresh in my memory again because a friend of mine is there right now for business, and I realized others could benefit from the food options. Unfortunately, her company says the Westin is too expensive to stay at!

giceh

Such a shame the timing didn't work out. I don't want to raise your expectations too high, though! I have not had any other Ippudo location, so I cannot compare quality. Also, I didn't even notice the name when I first ate it, so I may have had low expectations (thinking it was just a random food court option). I was impressed by the texture of the cha shu (soft and fatty) and tea egg. Broth less so, but it was still very tasty.

lcpteck

So your friend is staying at the Sheraton? It's the cheapest SPG here in Singapore.

Sheraton (Least expensive)
Westin
St Regis
W (Most expensive)

giceh

Good to know!

She is at the Mandarin Oriental. But I'm confused and just looked up on its site that Mandarin Oriental starts at SGD 389, so that doesn't seem much cheaper. I suppose she's using a corporate negotiated rate.

silvergirl

Closest grocery store is actually Four seasons, in the Marina Bay Link Mall, which can be accessed via the Downtown station underground. Also has some casual food options, most importantly a Din Tai fung, much closer and less busy than the MBS one!

travelswithmyself

Talking about groceries, if you're willing to wander a bit further, 2 stops on the MRT Downtown Line brings you to the heart of Chinatown, and there's a big modern mall called Chinatown Point with a super (NTUC Fairprice) in the basement, and Din Tai Fung as well :P

http://www.chinatownpoint.com.sg/

MSPeconomist

You can also take the MRT to Raffles City, where there's a relatively big modern grocery store in the basement that carries lots of imported and fairly fancy items. They have a pretty big wine selection.

silvergirl

Yes, Jason's Marketplace - agree, much better than the Four seasons! I actually just shopped there literally 30 min ago And also some other easy food choices in the basement. But it's quite a bit further away (in Singapore terms at least ). Marina Bay Link mall is by far the easiest from the Westin.

saltytheseagull

I'm hanging out in the lounge as we speak. I highly recommend this property. I was able to take the airport hotel shuttle for my approximate 0030 Changi arrival and ended up checking in to the hotel around 0200. As a plat I was upgraded to a King Exec.

I had breakfast in the lounge and it was a pretty good spread (there was even real champagne), granted I'm used to the US spread. My breakfast experience was made by one of the lounge attendants who was an expat. In the afternoon there is tea at 1400 and cocktails at 1800.

The pool was good. That was pretty much all that I did. I didn't venture out at all in the immediate area, but it is close an MRT stop, which I'm headed to shortly.

Thanks to all those that added input earlier!

remymartin

Champagne??? Where did you see that? Perhaps only on Sundays, then?

MSPeconomist

Sunday, perhaps Saturday too. Not on weekdays: this is a business hotel.