Why stay?

Legendary hotelier Ian Schrager has finally brought his fêted Edition brand to Singapore. On every metric, it’s been worth the wait, for the hotel is a certified beauty—from the long cobblestoned entrance and the grand all-white, gold-domed lobby festooned with greenery and towering drapes, to the minimalist guest rooms and huge rooftop lap pool.

The neighborhood

Set in a quiet street lined with expensive condominiums and surrounded by tentpole hotels like the Conrad Singapore Orchard and the Four Seasons, the Singapore Edition is within easy reach—a two-minute walk eastwards, tops—of Orchard Road’s glitzy retail and restaurant strip. To the west, the bucolic sprawl of the Botanic Gardens is a gentle five-minute jog from the front door, while the hipster foodie-haven of Dempsey is not that much farther away.

Inside the greenery-filled lobby of The Singapore Edition.

The feel

If you didn’t know any better, you could swear you had just arrived at the Hamptons manse of some well-heeled tech tycoon with impeccable taste. The hard edges of all that white stone in the high-ceilinged public spaces are tempered by what feels like acres of lush hanging gardens, shaded pergolas, and green walls. It’s little wonder that the hotel has become an Instagram honeypot in the few short months since it opened.

Guest quarters

The Singapore Edition’s all-white theme continues with a vengeance in the 204 guest rooms, though one can’t help but wonder just what housekeeping must think of the white-linen sofas and white rugs. Gentle spot lighting, pale, broad-beamed oak floors, and strategically placed pots of orchids (white, of course) or sepia-toned pictures soften what might otherwise be a severe, minimalist mood. The best rooms in the house overlook the internal garden courtyard, while the sprawling penthouse suite with its vast terrace is a showstopper.

Food and drink

The rooftop bar and restaurant, aptly called Roof, serves up easy bar snacks and soul-satisfying dishes including nasi goreng, salt-and-pepper squid, fried chicken buns with mala sauce, and Angus beef salads. The main gastronomic attraction, however, is on the ground floor where Australian chef Josh Niland’s Fysh serves up seafood cooked every which way—think fat Abrolhos Islands scallops grilled simply with sambal, thick seared cuts of aged yellowfin tuna steak, and a slightly curried crab soup heaving with Java brown clams and Shark Bay scampi. After dinner, stay on for drinks in the basement Punch Room, a small, reclusive space lined in Yves Klein blue and a menu of such cocktails.

A view of the Punch Room, the cozy basement-level bar at The Singapore Edition.

Wellness factor

The second-floor spa is swathed in heavy drapes and the soothing scent of essential oils. Here, cut away from natural light, there is no sense of time—only a sigh of dissatisfaction when the spa session is over. If she’s available, book the therapist Reza, a diminutive woman who gently kneads away at stubborn muscle knots with silent precision. For a post-gym treat, the bubbling thermal bath is a genuine pleasure, though the Experience Shower with its different jet settings is maddening to operate and its faint labels impossible to read in the dim lighting.

Family matters

Since it opened its flagship property in 2010 in Waikiki, the Edition has built its brand on luring young, beautiful people who like to stay up late and party hard. From the suede-covered bars and electronica-beat clubs to the spa, it’s an MO that’s unapologetically adult-oriented. Families checking in with children would do well to not pack any chocolates, and to watch them like a hawk in the all-white bedrooms.

Sustainability cred

Very unusually, guest rooms feature not just black-out shades and curtain sheers for that all important lie-in that’s undisturbed by a single molecule of light, but also external louvers that can be electrically adjusted to filter out the potent tropical sun.

What else?

If the long silhouette of the suspended swimming pool feels a little familiar, it’s because it and the hotel itself were designed by Moshe Safdie, the famed architect behind the endlessly Instagrammed triptych towers of the Marina Bay Sands.

Reviewed by Daven Wu

editionhotels.com
+65 6329 5000
38 Cuscaden Rd., Singapore

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