St Regis Osaka was one of the best hotel experiences lately. There is a huge variety in the quality of 5 star hotels and it is too bad there is no 6 star classification, as choosing a 5 star does not always guarantee the experience to be on the level expected – which was unfortunately the case with for example Marriott Nagoya (will be posting that one later).

I had hard time finding a hotel in Osaka that would feel like the right one. There are nine 5 star hotels in Osaka, and many big names such as Swissotel, Hilton, Imperial, Marriott, Westin and Intercontinental. I was first thinking of taking advantage of my LHW (Leading Hotels of the World) membership and choosing Imperial, but even if I like some hotels to be a bit worn out, I did not get a good feeling while checking the photos of the hotel. And I promise you that I do check a lot of photos while choosing a hotel, as they can tell you a lot if you look into details… It was mainly the visitor photos of St Regis, that made me go for the hotel, as they usually never lie.

In the ground floor, there is a kind of Bellboy & Valet reception, in which the design already gives you a “wow” feeling. The interior design of this hotel in my opinion is of first quality. I do not mind if the hotel is decorated in an old fashioned way or with a contemporary style, as long as the interior designer has been able to turn it into a well-balanced ensemble.

St Regis Osaka, built in 2010, has its reception on the 12^th floor, like so many hotels in the big cities in Japan. I love attention to detail and in St Regis Osaka one can really enjoy them. The photos will not transmit all those fantastic details and especially the service cannot be described trough them. First of all the lobby does not seem like a lobby. It feels more like you would have arrived to an office, instead of queuing to be served behind that too high front desk.

The fitness room and spa can be found on 14^th floor – naturally floor 13 does not exist… The fitness room is not huge, but well designed and has fantastic views. Towels and water bottles are provided in the fitness room. Trying out the spa will be left for next time.

The hotel rooms are on floor 15 to 27 and each floor ha 2 suites plus about 14 twin and king rooms. All corridors are nicely dim, with beautiful details.

I had chosen for us a Grand Deluxe Premier Twin room in order to have 2 beds that are 120 cm wide. What often happens is that our daughter sleeps in one of them and we in the other – but hey, that actually suits us well! The room was in the 25^th floor and had fantastic views.

There were also two other reasons for me to choose this room, besides the twin beds, instead of the king bed room. The corner twin room has a fantastic bathtub with a window and a view to the city.One of the only minus points in this hotel was that you could not actually active the foreign news channels in the bathtub television – but then again, you could activate your iPod or iPhone into it and for sure it is more relaxing than CNN…

It also had a separate sofa seating area, which is nice when traveling with a child to a completely different time zone – the room service came in handy once again, but the jet-lag was not annoying when you can order some good food, enjoy some quality wine and watch the night time Osaka trough floor to ceiling windows on a comfortable couch. It is amazing how a good hotel designer can fit into 40 sqm so many things!

St Regis has a fantastic butler concept, which means that you do not have plenty of different extension numbers or a mass of speed dial buttons in your telephone. You just have one red speed dial button on the telephone saying butler and whether you wish to order room service or have some ice for your drinks or make a table reservation in some restaurant, you call only one place – the butler! In addition to its easiness (the butler box makes sure you do not need to open the door in your bathrobe), the service was impeccable.

Our stay was so short (three nights) that we did not have time to test out the restaurants at the hotel – however the room service quality was very good and that usually gives a hint of the level of the kitchen in general. There are 3 restaurants at the hotel. St Regis Terrace offers light servings at the 12^th floor Japanese garden terrace, La Veduta offers Italian delights and a fantastic wine collection (you cannot blame a hotel restaurant that has for example Romanée Conti’s Echezeaux in their wine cabin…) and Rue d’Or offering French dishes. La Veduta requires a jacket from male customers, which I quite like as a principle – a man can never look too much of a gentleman to my taste… You might be wondering by now where did we go for dinner then and I will be sharing with you those Kobe beef Sukuyaki and Teppanyaki experiences in a later post.

The fantastic breakfast is served in La Veduta. One should reserve enough time to enjoy it, as even if the buffet tables have been made to seem small, they contain so many nice dishes. And in addition you have a nice menu of warm dishes prepared in open kitchen for you. Being somewhat fanatic about hotel breakfasts, I usually judge the breakfast based on the quality of coffee, fish and fruits. This hotel nails them all.

There is never however too little time for a glass of wine or champagne at the hotel bar when it has the feeling and atmosphere of St Regis Bar Osaka. I could have sat in this bar for hours and hours – unless it was in Japan, where I just need to get out and enjoy the life…

The experience was even further enhanced for me after arriving home – I left my dear bracelet, a gift from my husband when I was pregnant for our daughter, in the hotel room while leaving at 6 a.m. I realized this in the Shinkansen train on our way to Nagoya Airport. As soon as we arrived to the airport, I called the hotel and they had already collected it from the room – I have experienced that getting your left behind items back, does not happen in too many countries. In addition to collecting it, the housekeeping actually sent it to me by EMS and I received it within a week from leaving the hotel. Now that’s what I call service!