Review: Conrad Singapore Orchard hotel, a refurbished 80s icon

This is our review of the newly refurbished Conrad Singapore Orchard hotel, not to be confused with the Conrad Singapore Marina Bay.

Set on Orchard Road, this is a full top-to-toe refurbishment of the Regent Singapore, an iconic late 70s/early 80s hotel designed by the American architect John Portman. Portman was famous for his hotels with full-height interior atriums and I’m told Conrad Singapore Orchard was the first atrium hotel in Asia when it opened in 1982.

During covid the hotel received a full refurbishment before reopening in January 2024.

This stay was part of my recent Qantas review trip to Australia. We are saving the second batch of flight reviews – from Sydney to London via Singapore – until September but I thought this review could run now.

Hilton provided my stay in exchange for a review. The hotel website is here.

Where is the Conrad Singapore Orchard hotel?

The Conrad Singapore Orchard hotel sits just off Orchard Road, a 2.5km street in Singapore’s interior which is home to a high-end shopping district with several malls.

The Conrad is slightly off to one side in a quieter part of Orchard, with its immediate neighbourhood largely comprising residential and luxury hotels, with a small mall (Tanglin Place) next door.

This is as good a place as any to be: having visited Singapore a few times now, I’ve realised that unless you’re staying in the famous Marina Bay Sands or one of the (very few) hotels with a Marina Bay view, there is no real ‘best’ area in central Singapore. The public transport network is so good and the sights so spread out across the city state that you’ll be jumping into taxis (or Grabs) or on the MRT regardless.

In this case, the closest station is Orchard Boulevard, about five minutes away. This gets you on the brown line to Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay within 10 minutes or so, with regular interchanges to other lines on the way.

From Changi airport it’s about an hour on the train or half that time if you take a car. Grab is the preferred ride-hailing app in Singapore and a trip to or from the airport will set you back around SGD$25 or £15.

Inside Conrad Singapore Orchard

One thing that hasn’t changed during the renovation is the hotel’s signature atrium. This stretches up all 12 storeys of the property, with interior walkways on each floor.

I don’t suffer from vertigo but even I got the heebie-jeebies looking down from the top!

Reception and concierge are by the entrance, to the left of the magnificent floral display:

Rooms at Conrad Singapore Orchard

The number of rooms decreased during the refurbishment, going from over 500 to around 445. I assume some have been turned into larger rooms and suites.

The building was designed as a hotel so, despite a confusing array of room types, they’re actually all pretty similar.

I was given a King Deluxe Room on one of the top floors. Despite its name, this appears to be a standard room at 35 square metres; other room categories above this include premium and balcony rooms (only marginally larger at between 35 and 40 sq m) as well as a host of suites.

The room features a fairly conventional layout. A small hallway is home to a wardrobe and mini bar:

Nespresso coffee, tea and some small snacks are complimentary but everything else is chargeable. Rather than supply bottled water, each room comes with its own filtered water tap which I loved. This is something I’ve only seen at EAST Hong Kong (review here) but I’d be happy if more hotels did it.

To the right is the bathroom. This is the biggest compromise with the majority of the rooms, because there’s no way to get around it: it’s small. It would be crowded for two people. There’s just one wash basin:

The toilet is between the wash basin and the walk-in shower. Annoyingly the toilet roll holder is behind you, so you have to turn fully round each time.

Toiletries are the classic Byredo Mojave Ghost that you find in every Conrad.

Annoyingly, the mirror is not heated and quickly fogs up every time you have a shower – even a quick one.

Whilst the rooms have been fully refurbished, a tiny part of the original has been kept in the form of the granite bathroom floor. It’s retro but I think they’ve done a good job integrating it with the more modern, tropical style of the rooms and I like that they’ve kept it as a little nod to the hotel’s history.

Unlike the bathroom, the bedroom itself is quite spacious – so much so that I wish they’d given a bit more space to the former.

In my room the big king bed faces the window, although this isn’t true for all rooms in this category:

.… although, as a result, the TV is mounted on the left wall – not exactly an ideal viewing angle:

Each bedside table has a clever flat drawer with AC and USB power which is very practical and helps to manage the cable situation.

In the window you have a large table and day bed / banquette:

You won’t see any iconic buildings from the hotel but I did have a view of lush greenery – I guess there’s a reason this part of Singapore is called Orchard!

Conrad Singapore Orchard pool and gym

The Conrad’s pool is arguably the least impressive aspect of the hotel. It simply doesn’t have the ‘wow’ factor of the rooftop infinity pools you find at many hotels in Singapore these days. Still, it does the job:

The gym is better, a good size and lots of natural light thanks to the windows along one length. The equipment was brand new from Technogym:

Conrad Singapore Orchard Executive Lounge

The Conrad Singapore Orchard is also home to a small but lovely Executive Lounge on the top (11th) floor. This is accessible to anyone with Hilton Honors Diamond status or who books an executive room.

The space is lovely and bright, with paintings of lush jungle commissioned for the hotel:

There are only about 30 seats, which feels tight given the 445 rooms in the hotel, although it was never busy when I popped in. I struggle to see how it can cope when the hotel is full, however.

The offering is impressive, with a very similar selection for breakfast as you’d expect in the main restaurant, including a made-to-order eggs station.

Dining and breakfast at Conrad Singapore Orchard

There are a whopping ten restaurants, bars and cafes in the hotel, although it doesn’t feel busy or big when you’re there. These include:

• Summer Palace, a Cantonese restaurant with one Michelin star
• Seoul, a Korean BBQ restaurant
• Tenshin, a tempura restaurant
• Shoukouwa Shinjidai, a tiny ten-seat restaurant serving Japanese kaseiki-style meals
• Basilico, an Italian restaurant
• Manhattan, an atmospheric cocktail bar

As is typical in Singapore and Asia, several of these are iconic in their own right and attract guests from outside the hotel. This includes Summer Palace, established in 1982 and which has survived the hotel’s various reincarnations, as well as Manhattan which also pre-dates the hotel’s refurbishment as a Conrad.

I had the pleasure of trying both, starting with an aperitif in the moody interior of Manhattan. This bar is inside the hotel lobby but you wouldn’t know it when you step through its doors. It exudes sexiness and style and feels like the sort of place you might find James Bond sipping on a martini.

Impressively, they also age their own cocktails in custom oak barrels and are regularly listed as one of the world’s best bars (and came #33 in 2022.) Those with writing on them are special editions, but some of the aged cocktails are moved from barrel to barrel over many months to perfect the flavour:

Summer Palace, meanwhile, is more of a traditional and refined dining experience with large round tables and imperial garden murals in a contemporary Chinese style. Here is the Peking duck roll, crispy pork belly and abalone:

…. and the stuffed crab shell:

Breakfast at the Conrad Singapore Orchard hotel

Breakfast is served buffet-style in Basilico, the Italian restaurant which overlooks the pool.

It is a stylish set up with a large central table and several smaller tables orbiting around it:

There is an eggs station as well as a fresh noodle soup station. The buffet has a big focus on Japanese and Chinese specialities, as well as an entire section dedicated to Indian breakfast foods and a dosa station.

A range of pastries is available:

…. as is a rotating menu of cured fish:

.… plus the crispiest hash browns you’ll ever have:

Conclusion

Overall, this is a classy refurbishment of a classic Singapore hotel. Whilst it might not look like much on the outside thanks to its modernist / brutalist design, the interiors have been beautifully updated in a tropical-colonial style. The generic rooms of the hotel in its previous incarnation have been transformed: you won’t forget you are in Singapore now.

When it comes to drinking and dining you are spoiled for choice. With ten different outlets you need never leave the hotel! It’s great to see Hilton retain Summer Palace and Manhattan, both of which have a long history at the hotel. Meanwhile, the breakfast buffet is both stylish and delicious.

Singapore, bizarrely, has a lot of outdated hotels in need of refurbishment. The Conrad Singapore Orchard is no longer one of them.

Room rates start at SGD330, or just under £200 per night. If booking a redemption, expect to pay from 70,000 Hilton Honors points per night.

Booking for cash?

If you are booking for cash, we recommend booking a ‘Hilton for Luxury’ package via our luxury hotel partner Emyr Thomas at Bon Vivant.

You will receive:

• Complimentary breakfast for two
• $100 equivalent food & beverage credit
• Double Hilton Honors points
• One category upgrade, early check-in and late check-out, subject to availability

…. for the same price as the standard Best Flexible Rate. You pay on departure as usual. You can learn more about ‘Hilton for Luxury’ here and contact Emyr here.

(Until the end of 2026, Emyr can get you a 20% discount on Best Flexible Rate due to the promotion covered in this HfP article.)

You can find out more, and book, on the Hilton website here.