The Fullerton Hotel Singapore – Palladian Suite & Straits Club Review

A historic post office turned luxury hotel, The Fullerton sits right on the Singapore River with Marina Bay glittering just beyond. On paper, it should be an easy candidate for “iconic staycation” status – the sort of place that appears on World’s 50 Best Hotels lists and picks up 3 Michelin Keys.

In practice, the stay feels split in two. Inside the renovated Palladian Suite, things are genuinely lovely – a handsome modern-classic space with thoughtful touches, if a bit let down by hardware and Wi-Fi quirks. Step out into the lobby and other public areas, though, and the hotel suddenly feels much older, with facilities that are perfectly serviceable but nowhere near as refreshed or special as the suite itself.

Total spend: S$600 + Amex Platinum Free Stay Voucher for one night

Rating: 7/10 Brats

At a Glance

• Style: Heritage hotel; modern-classic renovated suites, with public areas that still feel older in parts.
• Best for: Guests who want to stay in a historic landmark in a very central, iconic riverfront/Marina Bay location.
• Value: Makes sense if you’re mainly here for the suite and the address; much weaker if facilities and breakfast quality are important to you.
• Standouts: Palladian Suite layout and design, plush bathrobes, evening pralines, Straits Club afternoon tea.
• For improvement: clearer bay views (without condensation on the windows), more stable Wi-Fi, a stronger Straits Club breakfast, refreshed public areas, and a pool and lounge that feel genuinely luxurious rather than merely functional.

The Stay

Check-In

We paid S$600 plus an Amex Platinum Free Stay Voucher for the Premier Collyer Suite and were upgraded to the Palladian Suite on check-in. The highlight of the Palladian, beyond its generous 743 sqft footprint, is the run of bay windows across both the living room and bedroom with direct eye-level views of Marina Bay.

We were escorted up by the receptionist and first impressions were promising: the Level 8 corridor outside the rooms has a fresh coat of paint, modern carpeting and framed architectural prints borrowed from the National Heritage Board. It feels like the “renovated wing” of a classic hotel – in a good way.

Palladian Suite (Room)

Look & feel

Although the suite was renovated more than five years ago, the design reads as timeless modern-classic: high ceilings with ornate cornices, panelled walls, warm dark wood and a soft neutral palette accented by brass and gentle lighting. It feels more like an elegant city residence than a generic business hotel.

Living area & amenities

The living room features a massive wall-mounted TV and a proper desk, actually workable if you need to grind through emails. The minibar is nicely stocked with complimentary Bacha drip coffee bags, Nespresso pods, TWG tea and water in recycled packaging.

The bedroom adds a second large TV, a Dyson hairdryer and a Harman Kardon Onyx speaker – small touches that pull the hardware out of “standard hotel” territory.

Bathroom & robes

The bathroom, by contrast, keeps to an older luxury language – warm beige marble everywhere and a built-in wall bathtub. It feels slightly dated by 2025 standards, but everything is spotless and many of the fixtures look recently upgraded. Amenities are strong: Diptyque shower gels in both wall-mounted bottles and travel-sized tubes, plus bath salts.

The bathrobes are excellent – extremely plush and comfortable, with a soft fleece lining inside and a thinner outer layer so they feel cosy without getting too warm. Pro-tip: request an extra set to wear to the pool, as the replacement robes are the thin, waffle kind and much less nice.

The bathtub is large with a padded headrest and visually just about big enough for two, though it would be a snug fit rather than a true couple’s tub.

Annoyances

For all the charm, a few details keep the suite from feeling truly polished:

• Only one bin and one tissue box in the entire suite, both in the bathroom.
• Awkward shower-head holder placement (upper-thigh level), making hands-free showering basically impossible.
• The bathtub’s shower head was not working.
• Wi-Fi issues: we had to call the IT desk to reset the room account, and even then YouTube streaming was extremely choppy.
• Poor sound insulation: bass beats from neighbouring rooms were audible.

The much-touted bay windows also come with a catch: condensation. The glass was clouded throughout the evening and night and only cleared when the day warmed up, which meant the Marina Bay “view” was fogged out exactly when you’d most want to enjoy it. We would not recommend paying a premium purely for a bay-view room here; the promenade outside the hotel offers a clearer, more reliable view for free.

Soft touches

Service details were thoughtful: a fruit platter appeared in the late afternoon, turndown staff rearranged slippers by the bedside and pre-folded the duvet for easy access, and a plate of five genuinely top-notch chocolate pralines was left on the coffee table. These little touches go a long way in making the suite feel genuinely luxurious.

Pool

The medium-sized outdoor infinity pool overlooks the civic district and Boat Quay, with views that are particularly pretty after dark when the city lights come on. It was completely empty after 9pm on our visit, which made it ideal for a quiet night swim – though we suspect it’s even nicer to be parked on a lounger in the late afternoon with a Singapore Sling in hand.

The water is gently heated, great for lingering, but the poolside jacuzzi jets are on the weak side. The overall feel is “pleasant city-centre pool” rather than a destination in its own right.

Straits Club Lounge

The Straits Club Lounge on Level 4 is open daily for champagne breakfast, afternoon tea and evening canapés. Service is generally warm and efficient, and the space stays quiet and civilised even when more tables are occupied.

The décor leans colonial-British-meets-Peranakan – dark wood furniture, patterned carpet, cream walls, vintage prints and a few Straits Chinese accents. It’s pleasant enough, but the windows don’t really look out onto anything memorable. Unless you take the direct lift up, you also approach via old looking corridors with plenty of staff traffic; the lounge ends up feeling more like a tucked-away annex than a showpiece club.

Afternoon Tea

Afternoon tea is where the Straits Club shines most.

The lounge seats around 50 and was only ~30% occupied during our visit, which kept things calm and unhurried. Tea is served in beautiful silver pots with a broad selection of TWG blends. There’s a small buffet of roughly 15–20 items (about 40% savoury), plus scones and sweets.

The scones are legitimately good: crumbly yet still soft inside, with a buttery flavour, served with Tiptree jam and an airy whipped clotted cream. Dessert tarts were actually better than what we’d had downstairs in the main lobby lounge on a previous visit; the tart shells here were properly crunchy rather than soft. Light jazz plays in the background, and newspapers like the Financial Times are set out for lingering.

Overall, afternoon tea in the lounge feels at least as nice as tea in the main lobby – and in some ways, better.

Evening Canapés

Evening canapés are clearly more popular, so coming a bit early helps if you want a better table.

Drinks start with a Singapore Sling (strong, sweet, only missing a slice of pineapple for the full postcard effect) and Veuve Clicquot champagne. The champagne has very fine bubbles but drinks a touch harsh on the palate. It’s served in larger-than-usual flutes, and staff circulate regularly to top up glasses.

The food spread is varied and, importantly, different from afternoon tea: deconstructed tiramisu, cheeses and charcuterie, a couple of dim sum items, seafood croquettes, shepherd’s pie, yakitori, mac and cheese, plus assorted kueh and cakes. The rotation keeps things from feeling repetitive.

The deconstructed tiramisu is a pleasant surprise – these are often disappointing because ladyfingers need time to soak, but this version is reasonably well balanced. The local kuehs, however, are disappointing: skins are dry and tough, fillings mushy and overly sweet. Given the number of foreign guests in the lounge, it’s frankly a poor reflection of Singaporean kueh – this is not what local sweets are about.

As a pre-dinner (or light dinner) session, though, it works: between the canapés, roughly one and a half glasses of champagne and a Singapore Sling, most guests will leave nicely buzzed.

Breakfast

Breakfast is the busiest of the three Straits Club services. Most tables were occupied and the staff were clearly trying their best – warm, quick with smiles, even making small talk with guests they recognised from previous days – but simply too stretched. Everyone was constantly in motion taking orders and running food, leaving limited bandwidth for polished, anticipatory service.

The main flourish is champagne with breakfast, which pairs nicely with bacon, eggs and hash browns and adds a bit of occasion. The food, however, doesn’t match the gesture.

Portions from the à la carte menu are intentionally small so you can try two dishes each, but execution is weak:

• The açaí bowl was so wet it resembled a Chinese dessert soup; in a hotel of this calibre, it really shouldn’t be leaving the kitchen in that state.
• Pancakes had an odd, slightly dense texture.
• Laksa was firmly mid – no taugeh and not quite savoury enough.
• Poached eggs were done perfectly, but arrived without freshly cracked pepper to finish them.

A small buffet supplements the hot items, with fruits, cheeses, pastries, dim sum, congee and English breakfast staples (two to three options per category). Quality varies significantly; many pastries were very average, so it’s a case of picking the best-looking pieces.

Overall, Straits Club breakfast feels more like a standard hotel breakfast dressed up with champagne than a brunch that could hold its own against a good local café in Singapore.

Other Facilities & Public Areas

Outside the renovated suite corridors, the rest of the hotel feels more uneven.

• The historic Lighthouse was out of order during our stay, which was a pity given it sits right by the Palladian rooms and could have been a great extension of the bay-view experience.
• The so-called “Rooftop Garden” is essentially a bridge with a few plants used for weddings – the name oversells it; it’s not a place you’d go just to hang out.
• Beyond the suite, the age of the hotel shows more clearly in the shared spaces. The lobby, event floors and many of the hallways have an old-school look that tips from “heritage” into “tired”, and feel like they’re due for a heavier refresh.

Verdict & Ratings

There is still a lot to like about The Fullerton. Within the four walls of the renovated Palladian Suite, the experience is genuinely charming – beautiful proportions, a timeless modern-classic design, plush bathrobes, thoughtful turndown touches and small F&B wins like the pralines and afternoon tea.

Where the hotel struggles is everything that sits around that: public areas and facilities that look and feel older than the room product, a Straits Club with good bones but uneven execution, and a breakfast service that leans more on theatre than substance. The complimentary champagne and hard-working staff help, but the food itself would struggle to beat a good local café brunch.

Ratings (The Taste Brat)

• Room: 8/10
• Straits Club Lounge: 6.5/10
• Breakfast (Straits Club): 6/10
• Pool: 6/10
• Overall Stay: 7/10 Brats

Would we stay again? Possibly – mainly for the suite layout and heritage charm – but only at a good rate and with expectations calibrated: this is currently a very nice renovated suite sitting inside a hotel whose public areas, facilities and club-level F&B haven’t fully caught up, rather than a consistently world-class grand dame from lobby to rooftop.