Last month, I had one of those I-want-to-get-out-of-the-house weekends. I had heard good things about the Pan Pacific Singapore’s Pacific Club lounge, and having found a somewhat decent rate for it, I decided do a quick one-night stay to check out the property.
While the Pacific Club turned out to pretty good offerings wise, it had the most ridiculous dress code policy. The title of this review should give a clue what my gripe with the dress code is. Objectively, there were a lot of positives about the Pan Pacific Singapore. However, the – in my opinion – absurd evening cocktails dress code is a dealbreaker for me. Who knows, maybe I’ve even been banned from the hotel anyway. Personally, I won’t be returning to the Pan Pacific Singapore, but feel free to form your own opinion after reading this review.
Booking
I made this booking just the day before check-in date. Considering how last minute it was, the price of SGD500 plus 10% service charge and 8% GST for a Pacific Club room was a little high, but not outrageous. Considering I have seen the same category go for over SGD600++ when booking even further out, I thought it was a fair price. Of course, advance purchase rates for Pacific Club rooms start lower, around SGD500++ from what I’ve seen.
Location
The Pan Pacific Singapore is located in the Marina central area. It is attached to Marina Square shopping mall, which also has the Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay and Mandarin Oriental Singapore within the development. The entire development was designed by the late John C. Portman Jr., who was also the architect of the recently-reflagged Conrad Singapore Orchard. All these hotels therefore share similar design elements which Portman was known for, such as the open interior atrium.
The Marina area is of course chock full of hotels, not just the 3 within the Marina Square complex, but also the Ritz-Carlton Singapore and my usual haunt, the Conrad Centennial Singapore. Unlike the Conrad, the Pan Pacific does have Marina Bay views, and Pacific Club rooms offer such a view, being located on the side facing the bay and on higher floors.
Being in the Marina area means the hotel is well-served by public transport, with the East-West, Downtown and Circle lines are a short walk from the hotel. The airport is a roughly 15-20min drive away, and guests get complimentary parking.
With the new Pan Pacific Orchard due to open on June 1st, it might get a bit confusing which is the right hotel. Not to mention the couple of Pan Pacific Serviced Suites around as well. I would hope this hotel gets renamed to Pan Pacific Marina at least, to avoid confusion.
Check-in
We got to the hotel just before 2pm. As a GHA Discovery Titanium member, I could have requested for a check-in from 11am, subject to availability of course. We checked in what seemed to be the GHA Discovery desk. During a more recent visit (a family member was staying at the hotel and I could not convince them otherwise), the reception area I had checked in at was closed and under renovation. The check-in desks had all been moved closer to the front entrance.
My GHA Titanium status was acknowledged and a late checkout was granted till 6pm the next day, 2h later than the stated Titanium benefit of 4pm. I was told an upgrade was not available – GHA Titanium usually get a double category upgrade – but the hotel offered a departure car transfer or a bottle of champagne as compensation. I thought that was quite nice of the hotel, many hotels in other programmes will just tell the guest to suck it up and not offer anything. Since I had driven to the hotel, we opted for the champagne instead.
We were provided with a welcome letter outlining the Pacific Club benefits, meal presentation timings and etiquette. Little did I know then I would run afoul of the etiquette section. Check-in was fairly quick, and we were off to our room soon.
Pacific Club Room with King Bed
Our room was located on the 32nd floor, facing Marina Bay. Being on a high floor, we had a pretty much unblocked view of Marina Bay, although the level extended further out resulting in some overhang right above the window.
Pacific Club rooms measure 46sqm, which is fairly generous. I was under the impression these rooms had been refreshed not too long ago, but I was clearly mistaken as some aspects of the décor look rather aged. The least appealing visual was probably the wardrobe doors, which somehow reminded me of lockers on an aircraft. Maybe I’ve just spent too much time on planes….
The rather short windows, combined with the overhang above and relatively dark décor made for a slightly gloomy room, if I have to be honest. The hotel has been doing renovation on some other room types, so hopefully that makes its way round to the Pacific Club rooms soon to give them a brighter feel.
One positive aspect of this being older-style room is the traditional desk. Most hotels have moved from this, instead opting for a combined desk/coffee table. A Herman Miller chair was paired with the desk.
The bank of outlets by the wall at the desk had a couple of universal power outlets, a 5V USB port, HDMI and other older AV connectors.
A bar area of sorts was near the window. This consisted of the minibar, a small high table, plus a Nespresso machine and various crockery. Alas, it was a Vertuo rather than original. No capsules for me to take home then. The tea was TWG, which is always nice to see.
For Pacific Club rooms, the minibar was complimentary. Technically just the non-alcoholic drinks were complimentary, but we found only non-alcoholic drinks were stocked.
Honestly, I wish more hotels would do that for club-level rooms. I’m already entitled to guzzle down as much as Coke as I can stomach at the club lounge, why not make it more convenient for such guests by making the minibar complimentary? For sure, there will definitely be more cost involved because most guests are be too lazy to visit the lounge every time they crave a soft drink versus lazily having it in the room, but it’s about enriching the guest experience. I can already have a “free” Coke from the hotel, why not just give it to me in my room? “Free” being in parenthesis since it’s already paid for in the rate.
As a welcome amenity, the hotel had also provided a couple of dragonfruit, and pineapple tarts.
Later that afternoon, the promised champagne arrived. It was Tattinger Brut, same as what’s served in the Pacific Club lounge. Not a bad compensation for a status benefit that’s “subject to availability”.
There was a sofa by the window, which honestly didn’t look like the most inviting place to sit, in my opinion. A change definitely due here.
The bed was nice, but not the best. It was quite hard, which for me is saying something. The linen was ok, not too scratchy, but didn’t seem quite up to par with the Frette at the Conrad Centennial or Capella Singapore. The Conrad Centennial still gives me amongst the best sleep, of all the hotels I’ve stayed at. Room comfort-wise, it should be noted the air-conditioning only goes down to 18.5 degrees Celsius.
There were universal power outlets on both sides of the bed, plus the light switches. No electric curtains here though.
The TV was only 40in, which is a tad small by modern standards. Again, hopefully a renovation will bump this up by a few inches.
The bathroom was perhaps the most modern-looking area of the room. It was a little compact for a 46sqm room. For instance, the vanity was rather narrow with only one sink.
The bathroom was fitted with a bathtub, and separately enclosed spaces for the shower and toilet. As with many hotels of a certain era, the “wall” was glass, with a blind that can be lowered for privacy of course.
The bathroom amenities were Balmain branded.
Overall thoughts on the room
The Pacific Club room was fairly comfortable, but clearly in need of a refresh. It wasn’t as aged and outdated as say, the Conrad Hong Kong I stayed at in February. The room just felt a little tired and gloomy, not helped by the relatively smaller windows. Some room categories have balconies or full height windows, which brightens up the room. The sofa was one piece of furniture that definitely needed replacement in my view. There’s no denying the overall space was generous, and that little bar corner was quite nice, and a little different from standard hotel minibar areas. The comfort of the room isn’t a reason to stay away from the Pan Pacific Singapore, and with potentially some upgrades on the way, the experience should only get better.
Pacific Club Lounge
Having a booked a Pacific Club room, we were of course entitled to Pacific Club access. The Pacific Club is located on the highest 38th floor of the hotel. This space was previously the hotel’s Chinese restaurant Hai Tien Lo, but that was relocated to the 3rd floor some years back. The draw of the space is the 360 degree view of the hotel’s surroundings, being circular in nature.
The lounge is open daily from 7am-10pm, with the following meal presentations:
- Champagne breakfast: 7am-1030am
- Afternoon tea: 3pm-5pm
- Evening drinks with canapes: 6pm-8pm
The long pants incident
Before I go into detail of the lounge offerings, I’ll talk about the incident which led to the title of this review, and the reason I won’t return to the Pan Pacific Singapore.
We headed up to the club lounge just after 6pm for evening drinks. As I was passing the bar, a bartender pointed out that I was wearing Bermudas and the dress code did not permit “shorts”. For context, I was wearing a polo shirt and driving shoes with my Bermudas. It was also the same outfit I had been wearing during afternoon tea earlier, and no staff had commented about it. I was later enlightened that shorts were only not permitted for evening drinks. I won’t lie, the exchange with the bartender became rather shouty, for which I had some regrets. Although those regrets when I overheard the same bartender badmouth me to a colleague the next day.
I have been to many hotel executive lounges, both in Singapore and abroad. This includes some highly regarded hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton Singapore, Fullerton Singapore, Capitol Kempinski, and of course the Conrad Centennial. Not once have I been denied entry to the lounge wearing the same attire. The Pan Pacific Singapore was a first.
As I later pointed out to the lounge supervisor, this dress code made no sense in Singapore’s climate and environment. I’m sure many guests from temperate countries would prefer a cooler outfit, without having to change in long pants specifically to partake in evening drinks. The lounge supervisor also mentioned they had intended to seat us in a private way, out of sight of other guests, before I had left for home to get a change of bottoms. We both agreed however, that such an approach is ultimately insulting to the “offending” guest, and operationally challenging.
To be fair to the lounge supervisor, she was absolutely brilliant once I returned to the lounge. She very kindly offered to extend bar services by an hour to make up for the lost time, and also invited us back to the lounge for evening drinks the next day, after checkout. We also had a very open and frank discussion about the hotel’s policy. Whether she truly believed it or not, we came to a consensus that it may be a little misguided given the local climate. In all honesty, given how heated things got, she would have been equally within her rights to declare me persona non grata in the lounge. We also agreed that different guests would have different interpretation of “shorts”. Certainly in Singapore, I would think most people do not categorise Bermudas as “shorts”, with that label reserved for exercise/beach/home wear generally.
All that done, let’s look at the offerings, which were honestly fairly impressive.
Champagne breakfast
This is probably the highlight of the Pacific Club experience. Not many hotel club lounges in Singapore offer champagne breakfast, the Ritz-Carlton being another (actually champagne is on offer all day). Food-wise, There is a small buffet selection, mainly continental breakfast with a small number of hot items. The main dishes are offered ala carte. Our attention was immediately drawn to the potato waffles with caviar were the standout dish on the menu.
We ordered the lobster nasi lemak and the potato waffles with caviar. The staff member who took our order politely inquired if we would like some champagne, and of course we took that up.
The lobster nasi lemak was sadly disappointing. The rice was lacking taste or fragrance, simply not lemak enough. Likewise the lobster was rather tasteless despite being cooked in some sauce or sambal. The potato waffles with caviar was much better. The presentation was lovely, in the tin and sitting on a bed of ice. A non-metal spoon was provided as well, not quite a MOP but acceptable. I would say it was fairly generous portion as well, for a hotel lounge. I do wonder though: where does the other half tin go?
The breakfast selection was particularly wide, but the champagne and caviar make up for it. Club guests do have the option of breakfast at Edge, but there’s no champagne there. Caviar and champagne aside, I would say breakfast was average at best, with the lobster nasi lemak quite a letdown.
Afternoon tea
We had afternoon tea twice during our stay. This was a surprisingly substantial affair. There was an assortment of sandwiches, two types of scones, four or five hot snacks, and a wide array of desserts including various local nonya kueh. Fruits and salads were present as well. The sandwiches and hot items on offer were different on the two days as well, always good to see the hotel change things up.
Day 1:
Day 2:
The tea served was from TWG. While there were the usual suspects served from teabags, the staff also went around with a cart showcasing a couple of different blend daily. These were typically TWG’s more expensive, unique blends, freshly brewed at the table by the lounge staff. This elevated the afternoon tea experience.
Overall, afternoon tea at the Pacific Club was a fairly satisfying experience, and one of the bigger and stronger offerings I’ve seen from a hotel lounge.
Evening drinks
While evening drinks was initially derailed by the long pants incident, we did make it in eventually, after I returned home (which is not too far away) for a pair of jeans. The food offerings were decent, not the most impressive I’ve seen. There were 3 hot canapes, salads (which seem to appear at every meal), cured meats and cheese, and a wide variety of desserts. I did enjoy the tuna tataki, but the rest of the food quality was average.
The drinks menu was quite extensive. It was great to see a club lounge offer a wide and unique selection of cocktails and mocktails. The wines on offer were not too bad as well, with the Pa Road Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand a particular highlight.
Overall thoughts on the Pacific Club
At the end of the day, it is the hotel’s prerogative to impose a dress code. Equally, it is my prerogative to decide where to spend my money. It’s getting harder to find a club lounge offering champagne rather than sparkling wine, and the rest of the food and drink was probably better than the neighbouring Conrad. The typical club room rate is also correspondingly higher though. The service recovery was admittedly fantastic, but I cannot convince myself to spend any more money on a hotel that persists with what is in my view an utterly boneheaded policy.
Food & beverage
We didn’t dine at any of the F&B outlets during this stay, though I did have dinner at Hai Tien Lo just a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty enjoyable dinner. Apart from Hai Tien Lo, there’s also Keyaki Japanese restaurant, Edge for buffet including breakfast, Rang Mahal for Indian food, the Poolside Restaurant & Bar, and cocktail bar Plume.
Facilities & amenities
The hotel facilities are mainly located on level 4. These consist of the pool, gym, St. Gregory Spa and a kids’ club. Unfortunately it was raining during the day, so we didn’t venture out to the pool. The spa and kids’ club area are also around the pool. I visited the kids’ club when a family member stayed, and it was very popular for families.
The gym was located within the main hotel building. The equipment was from Technogym, and all looked pretty new.
Conclusion
In all honesty, the Pan Pacific Singapore is a hotel that does many things very, very well. The lounge supervisor was a fantastic hospitality professional too, and the service recovery was about as good as it could get. However, the bewildering and in my opinion, unacceptable lounge dress code for evening cocktails means it is a hotel I will never return to. It is a policy totally not in sync with its competition, and with many competitors at similar price points around, this issue remains a fundamental obstacle for me.
Ironically, I’m due to stay at the new Pan Pacific Orchard this coming weekend, just after it’s opening. Hoping that turns out to be a better overall experience.
Some may say I am nitpicking on a minor issue which they did their best to recover from, some may even say I crossed a line, however I stand firm that it is a misguided policy. For that reason, despite all the positives, I will not be returning to the Pan Pacific Singapore. I won’t actively discourage readers from staying there, but if you have Pacific Club access, just remember to pack those long pants.