Mia's Review: Staycation at Village Hotel Katong

As mentioned in a few of my previous food reviews, DS, Sa, T and I went for a staycation at Katong V hotel during the long weekend last month. 

The new Village Hotel Katong – the flagship Village hotel, reflects the strong Peranakan heritage of the surrounding Joo Chiat and Katong district in Singapore.

Village Hotel Katong is also one of the few hotels located in the eastern region of Singapore, which is within 10-minute drive to the Singapore Expo and 15-minute drive to the Changi International Airport, Central Business District and Orchard Road shopping belt. It is also within 5-minute walk to the Parkway Parade Shopping Mall and 10-minute walk to the East Coast Park. 

-image and excerpt from stayfareast-

I'll recommend that you enter the lobby via the main entrance that leads towards Parkway Parade. The other entrance via the NTUC fairprice may be a mini maze as I could hardly remember how I managed to find the way to the lobby right now. All I remember now is that it involved going up the escalator and a bit of walking around cluelessly in circles (despite attempting to find and follow the direction boards) before T and I stumbled upon the hotel lobby filled with colourful arm chairs and seat cushions. 

After checking in, we were given 2 access cards to the room and was politely declined to be given the complimentary parking coupon. The coupons are only to be requested when we are leaving the compound and there's also a time limit (I heard the concierge staff explaining to Sa and DS) to it, so I guess it stops patrons from keeping the coupon for future usage because they will expire. But don't quote me on that, I merely overheard parts of their conversation. I might be wrong about this.

Taking the card access lift, we came to the 11th storey where our deluxe room was located.

Specially designed with a warm fuschia Peranakan colour on a backdrop of grey motifs, our Deluxe Katong rooms are located on levels 9 to 12, offering an excellent view of Marine Parade, East Coast and culturally rich Katong district. The room sizes start from 29 square metres with an accessible balcony and bathroom equipped with a standing rain shower to rejuvenate and relax in a cozy and comfortable space. The room also comes equipped with a full range of amenities tailored to suit the savvy business traveller, complete with complimentary wired Internet and Wi-Fi access and 46-inch LED TVs with in-built port access to portable electronic devices.
-excerpt from stayfareast-

And now, showing off our pretty fuschia room....

Regardless of whether it's intentional or not, I still love the reflective backdrop behind the bed head, that seems to be made up of ancient coin motifs. The two bedside lamps that kind of resemble lanterns, but in modern designs, also added on a mod-nostalgic feel to the entire room.

Don't you love the chest in between those fushia chairs? I admit I do love those medieval, old English looking chests more than these Chinese chests. But I still love them all in general. 

However, I did try to open it up but didn't know exactly how to play with that complicated lock set. 

Opening the sliding door right behind that chest, I stepped out to the very small balcony...

And was greeted with these views. Erm, not something I'll call scenic or nice. Well, unless you're lucky and there's some hot bikini babes or topless 6-pac hunk swimming at the pool of the condominium/serviced residence nearby. 

But I was disappointed to find out that there's no bath tub, only standing shower. Was still thinking that I can grab a bath bomb from Lush and watch it sizzle in the bath. :(

Disappointment of not having a bath tub aside, everything else about the room was more than acceptable. The room is spick and span, and looks new. I know the hotel facade looks pretty old and run down, but it's a whole new world inside. Trust me, I currently work for Quality Assurance in the Building and Construction industry. When I say the room is good, it is. Moreover, iPhone users can leave your charging cables at home, for you can charge your phone at the radio (or whatever it is) placed on the beside table.

Leaving the room, we ventured to the 4th floor where all the facilities are located. The pool, gym, and restaurant. Walking by Katong Kitchen, we stepped out to the outdoor area of the building and came to the pool....

Which is a pretty small round pool....

Yet deep. 

Yes, it has a slope to gradient with 1.8m as the deepest part of the pool. But even as a non-swimmer (or perhaps it's actually because I AM a non-swimmer), I can obviously see that this small round pool is more suited for dips rather than to swim laps and yet, isn't 1.8m way too deep for dips? 

Anyway, it was raining that day and so we didn't get to try out the pool. 

Right beside the pool lies the gym, which I didn't dare to snap any pictures because there were 2 ladies using the equipment. Equipped with the very basic equipment such as (but not limited to) the treadmill, cycling machine, gym ball and weights, I'll say it's a decent gym for everything inside looks extremely new and shiny, but it's really pretty small. 

To the right of the gym lies the shower room with sauna/steam room, which I didn't get to find out for right outside was stuck a notice stating that it's closed for maintenance works. Mehhhh.... :(

After our mini tour, we dropped by The Group Therapy Cafe located at the ground floor for some food to fill up our empty tummy before heading over to the NTUC located at the same floor to grab some snacks and beer for the night. After which, we returned to the room (because it's raining) and practically napped/watched TV until it's dinner time! And trust me, if there's one thing you want to strike off the list of Possible Issues, it's food. Katong is one huge food heaven and you'll be totally spoilt for choice at the sight of cafes after cafes, restaurants after restaurants, and eateries after eateries that greets you once you step out of the hotel premise via the NTUC exit. And so, as brought up in my previous post, we headed over to Guan Hoe Soon for a Peranakan dinner to compliment our staycation, and then over to Sinpopo Brand for desserts, both within walking distance from the hotel.

After a hearty dinner, we retreat back to the room and spent the rest of the night playing Monopoly Deal and Bridge, accompanied by snacks and beers we've picked up at NTUC in the day....

The next morning, we actually woke up by 830am and headed over to the restaurant on the 4th floor for their buffet breakfast.

 Pardon me, for this is the only decent picture I've snapped, being still half asleep. 

The breakfast buffet spread is pretty average, with the usual congee, some dim sum, cereals, eggs, toasts, sausages, and etc.... with some really bad coffee. 

The only more unique point of their breakfast buffet is that they serve fishball noodles, cooked on the spot as you order, just like an omelette station. However, the eye-rolling moment came when we realised that there's only one staff manning both the egg station and the fishball noodle station. And this, being a breakfast buffet serving mostly tourists who probably won't appreciate, if not don't even know of fishball noodles, the staff was practically stuck at the egg station forever, leaving the fishball noodle station empty. 

So, you can't order it. 

But lucky us, or rather, lucky Sa for she's the only one wanting to try the noodles, we were seated right at the egg station so she could constantly eye the staff until he got the point plus was freed from eggs demanding patrons to cook up a serving of the noodles for her, which turned out to be pretty decent.

Having tried the breakfast buffet at both Village Hotel Changi and Village Hotel Katong, I'll say VHC has better variety but in terms of food quality, VHK did it better. However, I was still disappointed for I've tried VHK's (Peranakan) dinner buffet and it was sooooo good, especially one of the dessert. I guess that pretty much heighten my expectation towards Katong Kitchen, which gave me a bigger disappointment when I realised that the breakfast buffet is just mediocre. 

Village Hotel Katong is located at 25 Marine Parade. 

For more information, visit their website HERE

Till then,

Mia