the UK Dining and Travel Zine
the UK Dining and Travel Zine
Although it was a beautiful early summer afternoon when we arrived, we were hot,
sticky and fraught with travel. We were shown to our room on the 24th
floor and as the door swung open, there facing us was a picture window
with the most magnificent view over the city to the mountains beyond. As
the door closed behind the porter, the next thing I noticed was the
quiet. We flopped down on the sofa and drank in the peace before
checking out the bathroom which looked so inviting we were soon in there
showering off the grime of travel. Eager to get stuck into
some serious retail therapy, we had chosen this hotel for its prime
location in the midst of downtown Osaka's extensive department stores and
shopping malls.
The hotel is vast - the building comprises 32 floors not including the four basement floors where there is a restaurant village, parking and direct access to Shinsaibasi subway station. There are 640 guest rooms on floors 20 to 30. Room rates there begin at ¥17,000 a night for a single room, but we stayed in a deluxe double which costs ¥48000 a night. If you are a non smoker it's worth asking for a non smoking room as Japanese businessmen are notorious for smoking very strong cigarettes, and no matter how often the rooms are cleaned there is an omnipresent odour of stale tobacco smoke. This was true of every hotel we visited.
Les Célébrités
This is the hotel's Western style restaurant where a very talented chef
gives top class local produce the full haut cuisine treatment. There is a
terrific wine list and a very enthusiastic and helpful sommelier. We had
a splendid dinner there, so please click on the highlight to get the full review.
Restaurant open 11.30 - 14.30 and 17.30 - 22.00
Tel: 06 244 2472
Serena pictured right offers brasserie style dining.
It was
sporting an Italian look when we visited. There was a buffet of gargantuan
proportions which was well executed and excellent value at ¥2800 at lunch time
or ¥3900 at dinner. The price included desserts and coffee and you can
visit the buffet as often as you like, wow! We had a very good Western
style buffet breakfast there for ¥2400, but the Continental breakfast
costs ¥1400.
Restaurant open 7.00am to midnight
Tel: 06 244 1036
Toh Lee Chinese Restaurant
I wish we could have stayed longer and tried this restaurant. The Chef Yim
Yo Ho is
from Hong Kong and has won numerous culinary awards. I managed to sneak a
look in the kitchen and I was impressed by the huge fish tanks and the
turbo-charged wok burners, not to mention the numerous and busy looking brigade! The restaurant is
very popular with local Japanese particularly at the weekends so booking
is essential.
Restaurant open 11.30 - 14.30 and 17.30 - 22.00
Tel: 06 244 2455
The Benkay Japanese Restaurant
As with other large hotels we looked at, the Japanese restaurant seemed to
have the most elegant, stylish decor. There is a Sushi bar in one part of
the restaurant. Benkay is open for Japanese style breakfast from 7.00am
to 9.30am (the one thing on the trip my stomach couldn't quite manage was
Japanese breakfast!) Lunch and dinner times are the same as for the Toh
Lee above.
There is also the separate Icho Teppanyaki Bar where more of the tender Japanese beef is cooked before your very eyes. The Icho special set menu costs ¥13000, but other menus range from ¥3800 for a Teriyaki lunch to ¥20000 for the Bizen set dinner. Tel: 06 244 2468
The Hotel Nikko Osaka, 1-3-3 Nishi-Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku,
Osaka 542-0086, Japan
Tel 06 245 1111
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