Last night Kitt and I had our anniversary night at the Lebua Hotel. On arrival at the front door, we were met by porters and a lovely young lady as we got out of the taxi. The lady escorted us to a large area with couches & chairs and asked us to sit and relax. She took our passports and booking details away and returned not long after with our room key. She then escorted us up here, showed us through the room, explained the features and then had us sign for everything. A different way to previous hotels I’ve stayed at.
Our room is on the 55th floor of the building with a great view out to the west, including a long curving stretch of the river, highways, buildings, temples, the works. Of course, the first thing I zero in on when we got here were the two helipads on buildings nearby. Fortunately Kitt is used to her aircraft-geek partner so there wasn’t much rolling of eyes when I said “Oh look, helipads”…
The balcony doors are locked by default and they offer you the chance to unlock them. If you take the offer, you have to sign a waiver saying you’ll obey the rules (nothing on the railing, throw nothing off, etc etc etc). Yet another difference as other hotels have never had this aspect (even when they had opening windows or balconies).
Speaking to my father earlier today, he said that this place was actually built as apartments by a Hong Kong group. They designed & built it based on Chinese/Hong Kong layouts which totally bombed over here as no one wanted to live in long, narrow apartments right next to each other, etc. The place was empty for a while and it wasn’t until the Lebua crowd took it on as a hotel and they did the rest of it as offices that it finally filled out. Interesting…
For dinner we went upstairs to the 63rd floor where the Sirocco restaurant is located outside on the roof. Serving Mediterranean food with the city all around you is awesome experience to be sure. The food was incredible, the service was perfect and the view was amazing. A jazz combo played light music from the terrace above and a breeze was blowing so it was warm, dry and the coolest we’ve felt outside since we got here.
We went to get a couple of photos looking out a different direction to the “stock” shot they have (down off a terrace onto the food & bar area) but they have a “no photos” rule for that direction. Not sure if it was just that direction or no photos in general. You can take shots at your seats, but not up on the terrace. Odd.
It cost us about AUS$350 for the meal covering entre, main & desert plus a bottle of wine (that was $120 right there). The food was some of the best I’ve eaten and the wine worked marvelously with both entre & main. The moon was hazily viewed through the overcast and one solitary star was strong enough to get through as well (Sirrus, one of the brightest stars in the sky). Bangkok was stretched out around us and we could view north & east plus around to the south. The Dome was rising up behind us blocking the view west but who cares – it was great. Besides, I could see the aircraft landing & taking off at Don Mueang to the north and Suvarnabhumi to the east. Romance, unique, special *and* aircraft – how can you beat that? :)
We totally recommend the Lebua and its Sirocco restaurant for anyone wanting a romantic dining experience or a gathering for friends/business in an amazing venue.