One of only three hotels in the world, Nobu’s footprint are small but it exudes exclusivity. Nobu is one of three hotels in this integrated resort aka City of Dreams. The other two are Hyatt and Nuwa. The staff at the front desk checked me in quickly and politely. He orientated me about the hotel a bit. My room came with breakfast. There were two restaurants which I could pick from. The outdoor restaurant operated by Nobu or the Buffet restaurant at Hyatt. I picked the latter because I thought a buffet would have been more exciting.
I liked the room at Nobu. The design speaks of Japanese at every corner. I am a fan of Japanese zen minimalism design. Nobu’s pool was closed for renovation, however, guests are told to use the pool at Nuwa.
The hotel is linked to the smallest shopping mall I have ever been in an ‘integrated resort’. There are only 17 retail outlets and 23 restaurants shared between a huge casino that occupies 2 floors, 3 hotels and nearly 1000 rooms in the entire building. I think this entire property is more suited to gamblers than any family-oriented guests hoping for a good ole family staycation. The resort did have a children activity centre but it didn’t look all that great nor did the entertainment options at the resort. Anyone coming here expecting Vegas style entertainment quality will be sorely disappointed.
The room.
Did I tell you the mini-bar is free? Love.
This is the outdoor breakfast restaurant operated by Nobu. It’s too hot to have breakfast here I think. That’s why it is empty?
The gym is decent though so you don’t have to miss out on training whilst in Manila!
This is the breakfast at the Hyatt. The spread looks good on photos only. For a five-star hotel, it is actually quite underwhelming and disappointing. I came with high hopes for a decent feed before my flight but left disappointed.
This hotel is only 5km away from the airport but takes almost 20 minutes each way due to the notoriously bad traffic in Manila. I will probably return again if I needed to be close to the airport because the nicer hotels and malls in Makati would involve getting stuck in a car for at least 50 to 60 minutes.
