Set on Tanglin Road, between the bright lights of Orchard Road and the considerably greener charms of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, The St. Regis Singapore belongs to an older school of five-star hotels: marble, chandeliers, butlers and champagne opened with a sabre. Fresh from its most extensive transformation yet, the hotel feels lighter, brighter and more contemporary.
The multi-phase renovation, conceived with Singapore-based design studio FBEYE International, spans all 299 rooms and suites, the spa, event spaces and restaurants, drawing inspiration from the nearby Botanic Gardens. Blues, greens, timber floors and botanical references soften the interiors, while crystal-cut lamps and bespoke furnishings keep the sense of occasion that has always been part of St. Regis.
We checked in for two nights, settling into a room that felt exceptionally generous, even by Singapore’s luxury-hotel standards. Rooms start at 52sqm, with spacious marble bathrooms and freestanding baths, while the renovation has introduced some thoughtful modern additions: a dedicated tap for filtered hot and cold drinking water, bedside controls for the lights and blinds, USB-C charging and motion sensors that power things down when the room is empty.
Location, location
The location remains one of the hotel’s great assets. Orchard Road is walkable, the Botanic Gardens are five minutes away and the restaurants and cafés of Dempsey Hill are also close by. Tanglin, meanwhile, sits just far enough from Singapore’s busiest stretches to make coming home feel like a retreat.
Butler, please
Mornings began with a call to our butler: hot water with fresh lemon for me, warm milk and a cookie for our daughter and an iced long black for my husband, delivered to the room as we got ready for the day. It’s all part of the complimentary butler service, alongside packing and unpacking, garment pressing and shoe shining.
Butler service has been part of St. Regis since John Jacob Astor IV opened the original St. Regis New York in 1904, and more than a century later Singapore’s team has the art down remarkably well.
Spend time with the butlers here and you begin to discover how many of the brand’s more eccentric details have a story attached to them. Our butler pointed out, for example, that you will always find somewhere to sit in a St. Regis lift. The tradition, he explained, dates back to Astor’s mother, Caroline, the doyenne of Gilded Age New York society, who found the notoriously slow elevators of the early 20th century exhausting and wanted somewhere to sit and put down her shopping.
An artful afternoon
Late afternoon is a good time to stay close to the hotel.
Guests can join a complimentary early evening butler-led tour through the St. Regis’s private collection of more than 70 works. Picasso and Chagall hang alongside important Asian and Singaporean artists including Georgette Chen, Anthony Poon and Li Chen.
Downstairs, the newly renovated St. Regis Bar has plenty of history behind its drinks, too. The Bloody Mary was perfected by bartender Fernand Petiot at the King Cole Bar at The St. Regis New York in 1934, and each St. Regis now serves its own local interpretation. In Singapore, it’s The Straits Mary, a smoky riff made with bak kwa-infused whisky, chilli padi and spices.
Then, at 6.30pm each evening, everyone gathers on the Grand Staircase for one of the hotel’s best-known traditions: champagne sabrage. Inspired by the Napoleonic practice of opening champagne with a sword, the bottle is opened with a sabre before glasses are handed around to guests, with apple juice for the children.
Dinner at Sophia
Dinner at Sophia proved to be one of the highlights of our stay.
The new Italian restaurant occupies a handsome, glasshouse-inspired dining room and draws its menu from 11 regions of Italy. By morning, the same space is bright and relaxed for breakfast; come evening, the lights are lowered and it feels like a different restaurant altogether. Having recently spent a year living in Singapore, and eating extremely well during it, I would count dinner here among the best meals we had in the city.
We began with vitello tonnato, thin slices of veal with tuna mayonnaise and caper berries, alongside burrata from Valle d’Itria with baked tomatoes, basil and pesto oil. Next came a rich saffron risotto with luganega sausage and Parmigiano Reggiano, followed by Mediterranean seabass with capsicum, tomato and salmoriglio lemon oil.
Save room for the Cannoncini
Don’t miss the Cannoncini alla Crema, small Italian puff-pastry tubes filled with vanilla custard. They’re made in-house, with beautifully crisp pastry and pistachio nibs to finish. At S$7 each, ordering more than one is easily justified. We had ours alongside the Spagnola, with cream and Amarena cherry, and a blood orange sorbet.
One more coffee
The following morning, another knock at the door brought our now-familiar trio of drinks before we headed downstairs for breakfast. And breakfast at Sophia is particularly good. The semi-buffet combines a generous spread of pastries, fruit, cold cuts and cheeses with an à la carte menu of smaller dishes, so you can order a few. There’s everything from paratha and kaya toast to more traditional breakfast favourites, plus juices and smoothies made to order.
The renovation has given The St. Regis Singapore a lighter, more relaxed feel while keeping the things that made the hotel distinctive in the first place. The butlers, art and slightly eccentric rituals are still very much part of the experience; the rooms and restaurants simply feel better suited to Singapore today.
Singapore is never short of new luxury hotels to try, but our stay was a reminder that sometimes it’s worth returning to an old favourite, especially one fresh from a very good makeover.
The details: The St. Regis Singapore is located at 29 Tanglin Road, close to Orchard Road and the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The hotel has 299 rooms and suites, 24-hour St. Regis Butler Service, a 27-metre outdoor swimming pool, spa and several restaurants and bars.
