Sitting atop Farrer Park MRT station and on the edge of Singapore’s Little India is Park Hotel’s latest addition to their hotel family. Only a few train stops away from the Singapore’s MRT hub, Dhoby Ghaut, Park Hotel Farrer Park is a good choice if you want to have a little peace and quiet but still remain connected to the rest of the Lion City, fuss-free.
At first glance, the lobby is smaller than expected and sitting right behind the reception counter is the hotel’s in-house café, The Coffee Belt, which serves coffee and light meals. I highly recommend ordering either the Nutella latte or the Nutella milkshake and ask them to add a shot of espresso to the drink (if you’re a coffee-drinker, like me), if you find yourself having to wait for check-in or after you check-out!
The Stay
After check-in, I walked into one of their Premier Lofts – a cosy room with a queen-sized bed and a view of the hotel pool and some of the surrounding area. The bathroom was rather small with toiletries by Appelles and fitted with regular and rain shower heads. Don’t expect to be able to have two people brushing their teeth at once.
If you’re in Singapore for business, you might want to avoid getting this room because there is a lack of a working desk and no Ethernet cable. Best to go for their Superior or Deluxe rooms in that case. I had to be creative when work needed to be done and so used the marble table under the TV set as my desk with the sofa as my chair, not the most comfortable of positions to be in for long periods of time. Thankfully the hotel’s Wi-Fi was good enough to upload photos on site, if that’s could be used as a gauge.
The pool was probably the highlight of my stay and despite being near Little India, where you’d think you’d hear traffic all day, the reality was quite the contrary. The pool area was rather tranquil with barely any traffic noise heard while lounging by the pool-side. There was plenty of sunshine, so if you were wondering if you could get your tan sorted during a stay here, you can! Unless you’ve come during the monsoon seasons, of course, then I wish you the best of luck finding the Sun.
Blue Jasmine
Sitting by the poolside is the in-house Thai restaurant, Blue Jasmine, hailed as one of Singapore’s best restaurants for 2018/2019, is halal-certified, and is also where the breakfast buffet is served, so don’t expect any porky business with your Thai curries or brekkie there (though you can look forward to a lot of Indian foods in the area for the latter). The restaurant is named after the blue Jasmine rice that is served there after breakfast, which is coloured naturally by butterfly pea flowers. I’m not kidding!
For starters, I had the Tom Yum, Fish Cake and Green Mango Salad, all three with a satisfying level of spiciness that thankfully doesn’t deter from how flavourful they all were. For mains, I was served their Beef Red Curry, another kick in the face for delicious spice, and their “Dancing Sea Bass”, a deep fried sea bass curved (dancing?) around its cooked meat.
If you’ve noticed the lack of prawns, I’ve got a prawn allergy so I had to avoid any of the prawn dishes, sadly. Although they did come highly recommended!
The Area
Staying in Park Hotel Farrer Park means staying in Singapore’s Little India, which means that you’re basically a short walk away from good food. Within a 10 minute-walk radius, you could end up at either Swee Choon for incredible dim sum (served all night), or the Jalan Bersih hawker centre and Sungei Road Laksa, home to one of the best laksas you could have! I noticed a lot of Indian restaurants on the way to the latter so that’s an option if that’s what you crave.
The hotel is also a short walk away from the famous Mustafa Centre, a massive 24-hour shopping centre settled on Syed Alwi Road. So if you’re big on shopping, you’re sure to be a very happy person here.
Verdict
If there’s one thing that travellers love about the Lion City, it is the food and being just a short walk away from some of my now favourite places to eat there, Park Hotel’s latest addition to their Singaporean line of hotels is sure to satisfy all your culinary cravings. That, and their amazing poolside that you’re sure to have a relaxing time lounging by or swimming in.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Park Hotel Farrer Park is located at 10 Farrer Park Station Rd, Singapore.Visit the hotel’s website for more information and to book a stay, or search for it via the booking form below!
The writer stayed and dined as a guest of the hotel. All photos provided by the hotel unless stated otherwise.
