Hotel in the heartlands! Park Hotel Alexandra

Park Hotel Alexandra

Park Hotel Alexandra
Prices from SGD$175

When I first saw a hotel being built near our neighbourhood (and by one of my favourite hotel groups too) I was both excited and a little confused.

Alexandra Road is actually quite close to town, but it is not somewhere you immediately think of staying at if you are a tourist.

My husband immediately booked a 3 days 2 nights stay at a Premium Queen Room for the long Jubilee holidays after seeing that there was a Special Opening Offer.

We booked a:

Premium Queen Room for 3 days 2 nights.

What I loved about it:

Location – There are a lot of delicious food in the neighbourhood! Go to Alexandra Village Food Centre for delicious claypot laksa and the famous avocado drink stall!!! Just behind Alexandra Village Food Centre is the ‘posh kopitiam’, Salut! My favourite go-to stalls there are Two Wings (chicken wings) and Immanuel (french food). Good food at cheap prices! There’s also a Cold Storage supermarket at Anchorpoint mall opposite the hotel if you want to buy snacks and drinks. Right outside the hotel, there is also The Bakehouse by Carpenter & Cook, where I highly recommend you to try their fresh homemade pastries!

Room – The room was very basic but it has 3 big mirrors, including one in the bathroom. The room was also very clean.

Bed – Very comfortable! I had a very good sleep~

Gym & Pool – The pool is actually quite cool and opens till 11pm at night. The gym is 24hours, small but well-equipped.

The Not-So-Good:

Location – I find it rather inconvenient. You need to take a bus to the nearest MRT station. Then again, I guess most tourists will just take a cab?

Lobby – Cushion seats for waiting guests were water-stained and looked dirty. The white floor was also clearly dirty. Considering it’s a new hotel, I just can’t understand whyyyy. There is also no music at all in the lobby. It feels kind of strange.

Service of Reception Area – Staff can speak in both Mandarin and English fluently. Majority of the guests seem to be from China and Taiwan tour groups, so I guess it’s a requirement for their staff to be able to speak Mandarin. We observe that the staff at the reception area all seem to be very cheery and friendly.

View – If a good view in Singapore to you is the night scene of our city, obviously you won’t be getting any in this hotel.

Door to your room – Rather difficult to open because one of our card keys was faulty. Staff was not apologetic at all when we went to exchange a working card. It’s not the typical slot-in card, but a magnetic one which you tap in front of the door.

Service at The Carvery – Would appreciate it if the staff could tell us beforehand when we went for the breakfast buffet (not included, $20 each for hotel guest), that the breakfast would end in less than half an hour. We arrived at 10:10am and the breakfast ended at 10:30am sharp. There were no signs whatsoever at the entrance to let us know what time the breakfast ended. Anyway, the food is ok, but given that there are so many good food places nearby, I would recommend you to eat somewhere else instead.

Housekeeping – They start making up your room at freaking 8:30am!!!! Who would already be out of their room at 8:30am?!

Facilities

Bathroom, hairdryer and wardrobe – There is a rain shower but it’s not a really powerful one. The bathrobes are really nice to wear. I actually wore one to sleep because it provided much-needed warmth in our too-cold room. We adjusted the temperature but it was still really cold. The wardrobe has an ironing board and iron as well, which is really useful. They also have a pretty nice hairdryer in the drawer.

Fridge – I like how you can squeeze your own snacks or drinks in the given fridge. Many hotels pack their fridge to the brim with things you wouldn’t take because of their ridiculous prices. If I remember correctly, Marina Bay Sands Hotel even has a fridge where everything is neatly slotted with digital price tags, and if you take one item out, the amount is deducted. Something like that. I can’t remember if it’s that hotel though, but yeaaa, let us use the fridge, man!

Overall verdict: It’s a very basic hotel in the heart of Queensway. Would I stay here again? Probably not. There are much better hotels in this price range around Robertson Quay which is much closer to town, has awesome night life, and has nicer rooms.

Delightful pastries and brunch in Singapore: The Bakehouse by Carpenter & Cook

I’ve decided to do a review of The Bakehouse by Carpenter & Cook because I’m just so excited to introduce this place to all my friends!

I first tried Carpenter & Cook at Lorong Kilat some years back and I remember telling myself that this place serves the best pastries in Singapore! I’m pleased to finally find another Carpenter & Cook branch in the West, and this time, they not only have pastries, they have savoury food too! Hurray!

Even with savoury food, they keep up to their high standards and both breakfast items we tried were absolutely delish!!!

Note that breakfast items are currently only served during weekends and public holidays, and even though they open really early, savoury food is only served after 10am.

My husband and I ordered the only 2 breakfast items on the menu that day: Frittata @ $8, and Homemade salmon croissant with caviar and poached eggs @ $12.

Here’s our bill! I love how the advertised prices are already GST-inclusive and that there are no additional service tax. Even though there was no charge for service, the service there was really great! Servers were patient, chirpy, and friendly.

My frittata was lovely. The portion was just nice for me. There were lots of ingredients inside and the salad was great!!! I love salad where they use more expensive greens rather than sorry-looking lettuce that seems to be sitting in a corner of the fridge for days.

The caviar actually did nothing for the salmon croissant dish in my honest opinion, but the whole dish was really yummy and filling. Croissant was buttery and flaky. Salmon was delicious. I usually don’t like smoked salmon because it’s so salty, but this was really just nice! The eggs were also really nice too. For $12, I feel that this is really value-for-money and I highly recommend it!

I also couldn’t resist the freshly-baked cinnamon rolls on the counter and finally succumbed to one even though I was already really full.

I had no regrets!!! It was soooo good. I really think their pastries are stellar and you should really give them a try! There are so many pastries there that it would be a good idea to go with a group of friends so that you can try a little bit of everything.

Oh! My husband also ordered a latte. It was a really small cup for $5, but it was also really good. And I’m someone who doesn’t really fancy coffee and milk, which means that this latte doesn’t taste too bitter nor milky, and that’s why I like it! The aftertaste is really nice. There’s this coffee fragrance that appears at the back of your throat after you swallow the coffee down. But really, I’m not a coffee person, so I don’t really know what constitutes a good cuppa. Try it for yourself!

And if you don’t like coffee, they have cold-pressed juices too which I’m really curious to try but I’m not willing to spend so much on juice honestly…. Why must healthy things be made so expensively? ARGHHH.

Final Verdict: 

I will return again definitely, this time bringing more friends!! There are limited amount of seats though, and the place fills up very quickly, probably because there it is situated just outside Park Hotel Alexandra. Carpenter & Cook is well-known for their tarts, so if you haven’t tried them before, definitely try them!!!