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The SO COSY rooms at this luxury boutique hotel are so small, but they’re also some of the cheapest rooms offered by an international luxury hotel chain in the city.
The SO/ Sofitel Singapore styles itself as a luxury boutique hotel, but that’s not the only reason you should consider staying there. Its SO COSY rooms also happen to be some of the cheapest — if not the cheapest —rooms offered by an international luxury hotel chain in the city area. However, we’ve discovered in our reviews that “cosy” is often code for “small” — and the SO COSY is indeed so small. That said, the room comes with a library of free movies on demand for your viewing pleasure — or just log into your Netflix account on the TV. Still, this is one of your few options if you want to stay in the central business district location next to the Lau Pa Sat Festival Market. You’re so close, you can smell the charcoal smoke and grilled satay meat skewers in the evening from the hotel’s rooftop swimming pool and 1927 bar on the 6th floor.
We review anonymously and pay for everything. All opinions expressed here are our own and all information is correct as of our last stay or visit and subject to change without notice.
As much as we appreciated the many little flourishes of design in our SO COSY room, the reality was that there was just 24m2 of space. So while you might crane your neck to admire the high ceiling and its “French cupola-style lightbox”, you’ll also find little floor space to open a second suitcase on. Apart from the bed, our room only managed to fit a work desk in a corner next to the window. Speaking of the window, note that the SO COSY rooms are on the So Hip wing. This is not the front of the hotel with the nice balconied façade facing Robinson Road — that’s the So Heritage wing. The So Hip wing is the back, next to Boon Tat Link and the Singapore Exchange, specifically the side with the loading bays and dumpsters. Luckily, our room didn’t face Boon Tat Link. Instead, our window looked out over the lobby and into the corridor of the So Heritage wing opposite. What we’re saying is: keep those curtains shut tight.
Entertainment: The 42-inch TV offered 53 channels — including HBO, FOX Movies Premium, and CinemaWorld for English movies — and a library of free movies on demand. The TV also connected to Youtube and Netflix, though you’ll need your own subscription to log in.
Sips and nibbles: In addition to TWG Tea, there was an iPerEspresso single-serve espresso machine by Illy. The drinks in the minifridge were free: coke, tonic water, orange juice, and sparkling water. Below, a drawer labelled “oh-So free” also contained free snacks: Quaker oat cookies, a single serving of Toblerone chocolate, spicy tapioca crisps, and prawn sticks.
When the room is this small, you shouldn’t expect miracles of its bathroom. We found the sink shoved next to the toilet with a shower room at the end of the bathroom (with a rain shower, if that’s any consolation). Don’t expect privacy inside the shower room — its door is clear glass. Actually, you might not even get privacy on the toilet — the toilet and sink side of the bathroom has a clear glass wall facing the bedroom. Sure, there’s a curtain, but good luck getting it to cover everything up. Pro-tip: slide the bathroom door close onto the curtain.
Toiletries: In-house shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion, all scented with the hotel’s signature Urban Forest fragrance.
If you’re staying here into a weekend or public holiday, breakfast options may be sparse with the central business district shut. Of course, there’s the breakfast buffet at the hotel’s Xperience Restaurant. Given the hotel’s limited size, we weren’t expecting an especially large buffet spread. Its price however didn’t seem to reflect any discount for the limited variety, raising our hopes that it would be made up for by quality. No such luck. Some hotel restaurants get around their lack of space by placing items on a menu to be made-to-order. The Xperience Restaurant did this but only for its egg dishes. These included eggs Benedict, but we should say that we got ours fully set and no longer runny. Having finished our tasting quicker than usual with no desire for second helpings, we’d suggest having breakfast elsewhere.
There’s in-room dining but, with so little space in the SO COSY room, you’re probably wondering how — where — it’s served. Well, we thought the work desk was the obvious option for a lunch involving soup and other drippy foods. But no. The staff’s first suggestion when they entered our room carrying our food was “on the bed?” We were left even less impressed when it became clear they had no idea what or how many items we had ordered. Or that there wasn’t even drinking water to accompany the food.
If there’s a bright side to this dark tale, it’s that we don’t think you’re missing out on much if you skip the in-room dining. The seared tuna on our Niçoise salad was blisteringly salty. The crust on our quiche Lorraine — soggy. But worst of all was our chicken cordon bleu: salty, dry, and lacking much of the mozzarella cheese and ham it was supposed to be filled with. Against such competition, the beef bourguignon easily stood out as the best dish with its tenderness and lack of obvious problems, which wasn’t saying much. It was better than the apple tarte tatin which, presented sandwiched loosely between two sheets of pastry like mille-feuille, didn’t seem to come together as a cohesive dessert.
Drinks: Soft drinks, juices (fresh and chilled), water, coffee, tea, and chocolate drinks. The alcohol selection includes beers, liqueurs, spirits, red and white wines, and champagne — by the glass or bottle.
The rooftop swimming pool presents an obvious oasis from any creeping signs of claustrophobia. Located on the 6th floor, it’s not especially large or high up — the view is mainly of the surrounding office buildings towering over the hotel. The hotel’s limited height also means you don’t quite escape the sounds of the city here. Even in the weekend when traffic in the central business district crawled to a trickle, we could hear the constant banging and drilling of construction echoing through the streets. In the evenings, the smell of charcoal smoke and grilled satay meat skewers wafts up from the Lau Pa Sat Festival Market next door. Mouth-watering — and maybe a sign to leave as the 1927 bar next to the pool starts to fill up with thirsty gawking non-hotel guests.
We’d like to say you should just grab a bite at the rooftop swimming pool instead of maybe calling for in-room dining. But the in-room dining is the poolside dining. We were even told to go back to our room to order the food off the phone from the iPad menu when we finally found someone to ask for service. Alternatively, wait for the 1927 bar to open at 5pm on weekdays or 2pm on weekends.
A glance at 1927’s menu suggests someone tried to theme the bar around an imagined idyllic colonial past. It might’ve been interesting except for the lack of follow-through in the actual physical bar, which looks and evokes little that is colonial. Instead, we get a breezy open-air rooftop bar with lots of cushions and throw pillows next to the swimming pool — and that’s not a bad thing, we should say. The menu isn’t especially extensive, though there’s a small selection of “contemporary equatorial” cocktails you probably won’t find elsewhere. Don’t come here expecting to have dinner — there are few food options and what’s available is limited to bar food.
When you’re ready to repent for your indulgence, head back downstairs to the 2nd floor and you’ll find the gym near the elevators in the So Hip wing. It’s not especially large but we were surprised by how well-equipped it was. There was a decent number of TechnoGym cardio equipment: 2 treadmills, 2 exercise bikes, and an elliptical cross-trainer. The strength training equipment also came exclusively from TechnoGym’s Kinesis line emphasising functional training with full freedom of movement, including a Kinesis Personal Vision. The main downside to this gym: there’s no view. Look out the window and you’ll see the loading bays of Boon Tat Link.
With no spa in the hotel, there’s little else to explore except the lobby area, most of which you would have seen on your way to your room. Pretty seats and sofas line the long corridor between the reception and the elevators. More seats are available closer to the hotel’s Robinson Road revolving door entrance, including a little nook surrounded by bookshelves. There’s a little counter selling desserts and cakes here.
If you want something a little more substantial, the Xperience Restaurant doesn’t just serve the breakfast buffet — you can also try lunch, dinner, and afternoon tea here. Its “modern European cuisine with Asian influence” — think laksa pasta and yuzu desserts — didn’t blow us away, but we wouldn’t mind coming back. We’d skip the appetisers though. See our in-depth restaurant review.
35 Robinson Rd, Singapore 068876
+65 6701 6800
