First look: Patina Osaka wows with fabulous art and fine dining

Osaka, Japan, is having a second. It’s at the moment internet hosting Expo 2025, in addition to a sturdy roster of annual occasions and celebrations. But the town and its close by neighbor of Kyoto are additionally experiencing a luxurious lodge increase. That’s why we designated the encompassing Kansai area as certainly one of our high locations for 2025.

Among the explanations we have been excited to get to Osaka this yr, specifically, was the April opening of the brand new Patina Osaka, simply the second outpost from this rising, art-focused luxurious lodge group (the opposite one is within the Maldives and just lately joined Marriott Bonvoy as a member of Design Hotels).

We had the possibility to remain on the Patina Osaka shortly after it began welcoming friends. Here’s every thing you might want to know in regards to the expertise.

First impressions

“I can’t believe there wasn’t already a hotel here!” I mentioned to myself as I gazed out the home windows of the Patina Osaka’s Twentieth-floor foyer. And I stored repeating it to myself all through my two-day go to.

That’s as a result of the smooth glass tower that homes the lodge is located simply throughout the road from the town’s most well-known landmark, Osaka Castle, with its unmistakable inexperienced copper roof and surrounding park, which bursts with coloration throughout cherry blossom season. The undeniable fact that no different lodge has occupied this prime place till now’s merely astonishing.

That distinctive sense of place can be suffused all through the Patina’s design thanks each to the gorgeous fort views the lodge affords friends from a lot of its rooms and public areas and subtler nods just like the bed room headboards molded from washi paper to resemble the boulders that kind the fort’s foundations and the striated Setouchi stone wall on the lodge’s ground-floor entrance, which alludes to the layers of historical past that encompass the lodge, together with the close by ruins of Naniwa-no-Miya Palace.

And whereas the lodge’s inside design pays homage to conventional Japanese crafts (suppose: shiny wooden paneling, black tiling and tatami matting), the atmosphere is decidedly modern as nicely, because of the lodge’s distinctive assortment of art.

The items on show embody a salvaged ship motor long-established right into a flower vase, an intricate gold-leaf mural depicting each historic and present avenue scenes of Osaka and a video wall by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Makino depicting the altering seasons within the metropolis.

The architecturally gorgeous spiral staircase between the nineteenth and Twentieth flooring, which options washi paper borders hand-dipped in indigo dye to resemble the whorling waterfall from a classical Japanese silkscreen, is a reminder of Osaka’s moniker as “City of Water.”

The general impact is like stepping right into a palimpsest of the town’s previous and current, however at all times with the silhouette of Osaka Castle within the background.

The rooms

The 221 lodging at Patina Osaka vary from 538-square-foot deluxe rooms to the top-shelf 2,508-square-foot Patina Suite, which has a completely outfitted kitchen, a dining room, a toilet with a non-public steam room and sauna and even its personal DJ turntable and state-of-the-art sound system.

My nook junior suite clocked in at a powerful 807 sq. ft. Just contained in the door, there was a bit sitting space wherein you possibly can take away your outside sneakers.

The center portion of the room was occupied by a dwelling space full with a low sectional with built-in facet tables and a two-seat desk lit by a dangling flooring lamp and set towards the window. There was a 65-inch flat-screen TV mounted on the wall as nicely.

The minibar was stocked with native snacks, a collection of Japanese and worldwide spirits, different drinks, a Nespresso machine and a ceramic Japanese tea set.

The bed room was enormous and felt like a separate room unto itself. There was a tatami-upholstered recessed window seat offering a pleasing perch for morning or afternoon studying.

The king-size mattress was wearing silky grey Frette linens with a toffee-colored leather-based headboard and good-looking darkish wooden paneling that framed the sculpted washi paper panel behind it. There was one other wall-mounted TV in right here, too.

Next to the mattress was a midcentury-inspired armchair and ottoman, however I most popular heading straight out to the balcony to absorb the fort views whereas having fun with my morning espresso on the cushioned chaise lounge.

Back towards the entrance door, the spalike toilet was completed with a mixture of darkish grey stone tiling and gentle wooden paneling and held two vanities and sinks with copper fixtures.

The glassed-in suite contained an outsized soaking tub, an overhead rainfall bathe, an onsen-style bathe stool and a hand-held showerhead for good measure. The lodge shares full-size Bamford merchandise for friends to make use of throughout their keep. My favourite characteristic was the stone wall, although — one other allusion to Osaka Castle’s basis.

Dining

The Patina Osaka has a number of eating places starting from a high-end teppanyaki grill to a hyper-seasonal, principally plant-based eatery.

P72

Japan has 72 micro seasons, therefore the identify P72, which doubles as chef Antony Scholtmeyer’s culinary laboratory.

Join him for a tour of the restaurant’s patio backyard, the place he’ll level out half a dozen several types of mint, myriad different herbs, springtime strawberries and tangy kumquats among the many vegetation he and his staff of cooks are rising. That fennel root he pulls up out of the earth may simply find yourself in your plate for lunch, tenderly braised and then completed with a crunchy tempura crust.

Among the opposite signatures are a seasonal vegetable terrine with pickled veggie “charcuterie” and a Hokkaido potato soup with smoky, dehydrated eggplant and potato-skin powder.

Before you get too absorbed by the meals, nevertheless, you’ll want to look up on the dramatic 171-foot sculpture suspended from the ceiling. Molded from tree bark and reclaimed wooden, the set up is supposed to evoke a root construction — each a reference to P72’s plant-focused menu and the connection of previous to current.

The restaurant is at the moment open each day from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m., with plans to open for dinner as nicely. Set menus vary from $38 to $84 per particular person.

Barin

Open Wednesday to Sunday from 5:30 to 9 p.m. for dinner and weekends from 11:30 a.m. till 3 p.m. for lunch, Barin is Patina Osaka’s teppanyaki fine dining restaurant with simply 10 counter seats, 16 desk seats (in cubicles the place you may take a more in-depth have a look at that gold-leaf mural, which was impressed by warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s tearoom in Osaka Castle), and a six-person personal dining room.

Meals right here begin with savory bites like slow-cooked Akashi octopus, sesame tofu and simmered black wagyu beef earlier than easy preparations of fresh-caught fish and seafood over seasonal greens. The meal culminates with succulent cuts of scorching, exquisitely marbled Kuroge wagyu beef served with accompaniments like umami moromi soy sauce, freshly grated wasabi from Izu, garlic chips and charcoal salt.

If you continue to have room, the garlic rice with pink sakura shrimp from Suruga Bay is hearty and satisfying. Don’t fear, dessert can be one thing gentle like Kochi melon with fig ganache.

Prix-fixe menus begin at $90 for lunch and $178 for dinner.

Inaki

Basque delicacies in certainly one of Japan’s culinary capitals? It may not make sense on the outset, however as soon as you compromise into the pink brick-tiled eatery with overhanging floral art installations and unparalleled fort views, then tuck right into a menu of Basque dishes ready with Japanese elements, the image comes extra into focus.

Menus embody staples like iberico ham croquettes and pan con tomate, plus smoky ajo blanco soup, tortellini with creamy foie gras filling and recent herbs, and mouthwatering iberico pork pluma ready on the roaring Josper grill with celery foam and apple gastrique. Set lunch and dinner menus vary from $49 to $132 per particular person.

Guests may take pleasure in each day breakfast right here, together with an in depth buffet of recent fruit, house-cured chilly cuts, crostini and house-made pastries, plus a la carte dishes like omelets made to order and conventional Japanese set breakfasts with grilled recent fish, pickled greens and miso soup.

Inaki is open each day from 6:30 to 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to three p.m. and 5:30 to 9 p.m.

Sonata Bar & Lounge

Sonata is the center of the lodge, and music is on the coronary heart of this swanky all-day lounge and sultry cocktail bar. Adjacent to the reception space, the lounge contains a panoramic outside deck overlooking the fort park, a high-top bar on the heart of the motion and cozy lounging vignettes, together with a non-public room with a whole wall fabricated from 60 classic audio system jigsawed collectively.

You’ll usually discover workers members standing on the DJ sales space spinning among the 600 or so albums curated for the lodge by the proprietor of the classic music retailer Isandla.

Just as thrilling because the music, although, is the collection of artistic cocktails impressed by the final time the town hosted the Expo in 1970. The New Trunk Line, for example, is a reference to the bullet prepare and will provide you with an identical thrill to dashing down the tracks because of its heady combine of assorted Japanese whiskies, yuzu, lime, coconut water and plum liqueur ($20).

Sonata is open Monday via Friday from 2 to 11 p.m. and from midday to 11 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

Nijiri

Bathed in pure gentle from double-height home windows and surrounding that spectacular white-and-blue staircase, Nijiri is the lodge’s hushed however informal tea room up on the nineteenth flooring between Barin and Inaki. It is open from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. each day, and reservations are required.

Amenities and service

• Staff members recurrently supply outings resembling guided morning walks within the park surrounding Osaka Castle and meditation periods within the lodge’s 66-foot indoor pool.
• Located on the fourth flooring, the lodge’s 15,000-square-foot wellness complicated features a health heart outfitted with the newest Technogym gear.

• The spa has six remedy rooms and provides a full menu of companies incorporating Oskia and Bamford merchandise, in addition to high-tech experiences resembling cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen chambers and infrared sauna periods.

• The lodge will quickly debut a 10-person personal occasion house referred to as the Listening Room that was created in collaboration with Brooklyn “sound sculptor” Devon Turnbull.
• Curious to study extra in regards to the lodge’s design and art assortment? General supervisor Ellen Franke recurrently leads excursions for friends showcasing each.

Location and logistics

Patina Osaka is situated centrally within the metropolis, simply throughout the road from Osaka Castle and its surrounding park. To get right here from Kansai International Airport (KIX), it takes about 45 minutes and prices round $70 through a ride-hailing service. By prepare, it takes about 80 minutes and prices $8 to achieve the lodge from the airport.

If you are arriving in Osaka by prepare, the Shin-Osaka Station is a 35-minute, $3 metro journey away. Or, you may journey by taxi or ride-hailing service from the prepare station to the lodge; that possibility takes quarter-hour and prices about $10.

As for the remainder of the town, together with the intense lights of Dotonbori and the purchasing streets of Shinsaibashi, it is solely about 10 minutes away by automobile and additionally simply accessible by public transport. The lodge provides complimentary shuttle service to the Morinomiya and Tanimachi stations, too.

What it prices

Nightly charges on the Patina Osaka begin round $550. The lodge doesn’t at the moment take part in a serious loyalty program. Your greatest wager is to ebook immediately for any packages or specials the lodge could be providing.

Accessibility

The lodge’s entrances and public areas, in addition to visitor flooring, are all wheelchair-accessible and have no-step pathways. Elevators even have buttons inside attain of wheelchair customers. The lodge has rooms constant with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, however as with any journey plans, name forward to make sure you can ebook a room that meets your particular necessities.

Bottom line

The Patina Osaka feels concurrently ultranew and prefer it was at all times meant to face the place it now does within the historic coronary heart of the town. Through design, art and delicacies, the lodge connects friends to the colourful tradition of the encompassing metropolis, and its elegant eating places present an appetizing counterpoint to Osaka’s well-known avenue meals. Throw within the palatial rooms with postcard-worthy fort views, and that is definitely one of the thrilling new motels not simply in Osaka, however in all of Japan.

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