Exclusive: inside the Palace Hotel Tokyo, one of the leading luxury hotels in Japan
What I love most about the hotel is its excellent balance as a luxury grand hotel.
Whether they’re staying with us for business or leisure, our 10 restaurants and bars ensure guests will never get bored with the wide array of dining options on-site – not to mention our in-room dining service, which includes menu selections not only from our all-day dining restaurant, Grand Kitchen, but also all of our Japanese outlets.
Sometimes guests love to just relax with a lovely meal out on their balconies.
Every visit, every season, offers a different charm for guests to experience. I really love how everything from our seasonal menus to the ever-changing scenery that guests can enjoy from throughout the hotel – including from the Club Lounge, the terraces and the private balconies – allow guests to relish the beauty of Japan.
There’s such a beautiful juxtaposition of history and modernity when you look out at the views of the Imperial Palace gardens from where we are. You can really feel the richness of Japan, its many layers.
Encountering the flurry of wedding activities on weekends – from the couples celebrating their nuptials to the guests who’ve come to mark the occasion with them – is, I believe, another charming experience that can only be had at a grand hotel like Palace Hotel Tokyo.
We currently have 266 guestrooms and 18 suites – all with views of the Imperial Palace gardens and the city skyline.
More than half feature private balconies, which is still quite rare in the city.
Much of our interiors, including the rooms, suites and public spaces – were designed by London-based G.A Group and exudes the understated elegance that we had envisioned for the rebuild.
The overall design – including our art collection – took a lot of inspiration from the nature all around the hotel, including leafy carpet motifs and an earthy color palette that bring the outside in.
In celebration of our 10th anniversary, back in 2022, we unveiled a new category of suites – our Premier Suites – because it became quite evident that travelers were keen to have more space.
This is especially true among guests who like to settle in for longer stays, and also professionals who need versatile spaces in which to work and conduct business in-suite or who prefer to entertain and host meetings on-property.
With the addition of the Premier Suites, we now have seven categories of suites, ranging in size from 75 to 250 square meters.
My favourite is still our one-of-a-kind Chiyoda Suite, though. The views from the topmost floor of the hotel are spectacular and truly a sight to behold, and the bath and shower room outfitted with izu stone is just gorgeous.
With the recent Club Lounge renovations, we wanted to warm up the space and create a more relaxed feel to better suit the changing needs and tastes of travellers.
We lightened up the palette while retaining and re-using as much of the materials as possible, redesigned the uniforms and enhanced the culinary offerings and their presentation.
With a persistently high demand for suites and also many of our international clientele booking longer stays, we wanted to elevate the Club Lounge’s offerings to give guests more opportunities to enjoy the facility at their leisure, including between breakfast and afternoon tea, and after the evening cocktails and canapés service.
Although the changes may be subtle, they harmoniously come together, making the Club Lounge feel more inviting to today’s more laid-back luxury travellers.
That, paired with the highly personalized service, makes guests feel even more at home with us. I feel very at ease in the refreshed space so, if our guests feel the same, that makes me happy.
Our 10 restaurants and bars span Japanese and international cuisines, including two which are Michelin-starred – Amber Palace, our Chinese fine-dining restaurant, and Esterre by Alain Ducasse, which serves contemporary French.
Wadakura is our signature Japanese restaurant, where the seasonal kaiseki is exquisite. You’ll also find dishes such as shabu-shabu, sukiyaki and grilled eel on the menu.
At GO, we serve the finest Japanese beef teppanyaki-style, and our six-seat tempura bar Tatsumi is almost always sold out. Same with Sushi Kanesaka.
The Palace Lounge, where there’s live Jazz every evening, is most popular for its Japanese afternoon tea presentation while Lounge Bar Privé, up on the 6th floor, serves a distinctly different ‘Terre et Mer’ afternoon tea by the team at Esterre. One of my favorite spots in the hotel is Privé’s terrace, actually, as it’s cozy and tucked away.
I do also love sitting moat-side on Grand Kitchen’s terrace, though. Even though we’re in the center of Tokyo, you would hardly know it by just how peaceful it is out there.
Diners love seeing the resident swan glide by and if you’re lucky, a Japanese crane might swoop in to say hello. One of my favorite dishes at Grand Kitchen is its seafood pilaf, made based on a recipe from the original Palace Hotel.
Royal Bar, which has been around since the original hotel and which we transplanted into the new iteration of Palace Hotel Tokyo by refurbishing and re-installing the original bar counter, is practically an institution.
If I had to choose, though, my favorite would be Esterre. Although it’s French, I always feel the authenticity and essence of Japan when enjoying Chef Kei Kojima’s dishes (his abalone is divine!).
The interiors, designed by Japanese design firm SIMPLICITY, exude the same so in many ways, Esterre is wonderfully Japanese.
Good question! I believe Palace Hotel Tokyo beautifully balances the various elements of a grand hotel.
It features a design and layout that makes the most of the beauty and charm of its location, paired with product planning and a service style that seamlessly blend the brand’s essence into the property and the overall experience.
I believe we’ve succeeded in setting Palace Hotel Tokyo apart, first and foremost with our distinctive omotenashi (Japanese hospitality), which has garnered recognition globally.
Palace Hotel Tokyo was the first wholly Japanese-owned and managed hotel to receive Forbes Travel Guide’s coveted Five-Star rating, a distinction we’ve held for 10 consecutive years now. And we’re currently the only Japanese brand that has achieved both Forbes Travel Guide’s Five Stars and MICHELIN’s Three Keys.
We were, in fact, the only Japanese brand to be awarded MICHELIN’s Three Keys during the guide’s inaugural year (2024), and one of just three hotels in Tokyo to be honoured with this distinction.
Our rich history is another element that factors greatly into the brand’s essence. Japan is often referred to as a place where old and new, tradition and modernity, live in harmony. In many ways, Palace Hotel Tokyo epitomizes that.
Although entirely modern in its design following its rebuild from the ground-up, we’ve never forgotten our roots.
When the original Palace Hotel opened in 1961, its ultra-modern design (of the time) and sense of grandeur became emblems of innovation and sophistication in post-war Japan.
From then on, the property has played a pivotal role in the city’s culinary and hospitality scene.
The hotel’s very first chef de cuisine played a key role in introducing authentic French cuisine to Japan, having trained under August Escoffier at the Ritz in Paris. He even authored the very first Japanese-language guide on French cooking techniques.
At Royal Bar, bartending became an art form under chief bartender, ‘Mr. Martini’, a tradition that has been carried on by the award-winning bartenders we have today. And through the years, over 250 ambassadors from around the world traveled from the original Palace Hotel to the Imperial Palace by horse and carriage for the formal presentation of their credentials to the Emperor.
So, we have really stood the test of time in our role as representing the best of Japan, I think.
This is something we cherish, and we take our legacy of exceptional Japanese hospitality very seriously as it’s important to build on legacies, for future generations.
We enjoy an exceptionally high rate of return from both stay guests as well as the patrons who frequent our dining outlets so, I believe that speaks for itself.
Our loyalty program, The Palace Club, helps foster repeat business, including from the couples who’ve gotten married at the hotel.
They often return for special occasions – not only wedding anniversaries, but also other important events in their lives. It’s really heartwarming when we see them bring their children. It’s like witnessing the beginning of new family traditions.
When I don’t have the opportunity to wander too far from the hotel, I try to carve out time to at least enjoy a leisurely evening stroll along Marunouchi Naka Dori, a picturesque boulevard just a stone’s throw away from the hotel that’s lined with upscale restaurants, bars and boutiques.
During the wintertime illuminations across the city, the trees that line the entire length of Marunouchi Naka Dori (almost a kilometer long) are covered in lights from their trunks to the tips of every branch. It’s beautiful and very festive!
When I can step away for longer periods, I love doing evening food crawls in Kagurazaka and just walking around the area.
It’s fun to explore the eateries tucked away along its cobblestoned alleyways in search of some new place to try. It’s a great way to unwind.
Book a seat in ANA’s brilliant Business Class cabin
ANA (All Nippon Airways) flies to Tokyo from across the globe, including New York, London, Sydney and more global gateways. The author recommends flying in ANA’s Business Class cabin, which features lie-flat seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.
Each seat has direct access to the aisle, a spacious side table with a personal light, a large table that’s ideal for working and dining, storage space under the ottoman for a large item, plus a universal PC power port, USB port and an 18-inch touch-panel LCD wide-screen monitor with a fantastic selection of movies, TV shows and games.
Flights offer ANA’s WiFi service, which will soon become free for all travellers in the Business Class cabin, plus an expansive duty-free offering including premium Japanese Whisky and luxury goods.
Where ANA’s Business Class stands out is food, drinks and hospitality on offer. On the dining front, there is a choice of a western or Japanese meal set and the quality and taste is so impressive, you’ll already feel like you are dining in a top Tokyo restaurant while you’re in the air.
If you go for the Japanese option, you can expect some Zensai (including sushi and morsels), Kobachi (a salmon salad and simmered icefish) and Shusai (simmered beef in wild vegetables), alongside steamed rice, Miso soup and Japanese pickles.
On the Western front, there will be a selection of small appetisers (like citrus marinated shrimps and scallops), followed by a main dish (beef fillet steak with Madiera sauce or steamed golden bream).
Both meal options come with a delightful dessert offering, including strawberry mousse, cheese and fruits.
On the wine front, expect a fantastic selection of top drops from across the globe, spanning France to Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Argentina, alongside a tasty selection of Sake and Shochu.
When it comes to an after-dinner tipple, incredibly, ANA offers the Hibiki Blender’s Choice from the House of Suntory of Japan (a $400 retail whisky) and it’s very, very hard to go past a dram of that.
The service on board ANA is well known as being called ‘five-star’ but that genuinely is what you can expect in the air and the hospitality is one of the many highlights onboard this impressive Business Class cabin that’s nothing short of five stars.
Before you depart from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, stop by the ANA Lounge where you’ll find views over the airfield, seats for working and relaxing, plus a noodle bar, buffet (don’t skip past a Japanese curry), self-service drinks station (offering sake, shochu and other alcoholic beverages like beers from automated pourers) and a dining area.
For the best prices, get your tickets at https://www.ana.co.jp/