First look: Patina Osaka wows with fabulous artwork and fantastic eating

Osaka, Japan, is having a second. It is at present internet hosting Expo 2025, in addition to a strong roster of annual occasions and celebrations. However the metropolis and its close by neighbor of Kyoto are additionally experiencing a luxurious lodge growth. That is why we designated the encircling Kansai area as one in every of our prime locations for 2025.

Among the many causes we have been excited to get to Osaka this yr, particularly, 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 lately joined Marriott Bonvoy as a member of Design Accommodations).

We had the possibility to remain on the Patina Osaka shortly after it began welcoming company. Here is every part it’s essential know concerning the expertise.

First impressions

“I am unable to consider there wasn’t already a lodge right here!” I stated 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 is as a result of the modern glass tower that homes the lodge is located simply throughout the road from town’s most well-known landmark, Osaka Citadel, with its unmistakable inexperienced copper roof and surrounding park, which bursts with colour throughout cherry blossom season. The truth that no different lodge has occupied this prime place till now could be merely astonishing.

That distinctive sense of place can also be suffused all through the Patina’s design thanks each to the beautiful citadel views the lodge affords company from lots 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 citadel’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 properly, because of the lodge’s distinctive assortment of artwork.

The items on show embrace a salvaged ship motor customary 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 beautiful 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 “Metropolis of Water.”

The general impact is like stepping right into a palimpsest of town’s previous and current, however all the time with the silhouette of Osaka Citadel 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 totally geared up kitchen, a eating room, a rest room with a personal 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. toes. Simply contained in the door, there was just a little sitting space through which you can take away your out of doors sneakers.

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

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 large and felt like a separate room unto itself. There was a tatami-upholstered recessed window seat offering a nice 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.

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

Again towards the entrance door, the spalike lavatory was completed with a mixture of darkish grey stone tiling and light-weight 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 company to make use of throughout their keep. My favourite characteristic was the stone wall, although — one other allusion to Osaka Citadel’s basis.

Eating

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.

Be part of him for a tour of the restaurant’s patio backyard, the place he’ll level out half a dozen various kinds of mint, myriad different herbs, springtime strawberries and tangy kumquats among the many crops he and his workforce of cooks are rising. That fennel root he pulls up out of the earth would possibly simply find yourself in your plate for lunch, tenderly braised after which completed with a crunchy tempura crust.

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

Earlier than you get too absorbed by the meals, nevertheless, you should definitely 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 present open every day from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m., with plans to open for dinner as properly. 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 fantastic eating restaurant with simply 10 counter seats, 16 desk seats (in cubicles the place you may take a better have a look at that gold-leaf mural, which was impressed by warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s tearoom in Osaka Citadel), and a six-person non-public eating 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.

Should you nonetheless have room, the garlic rice with pink sakura shrimp from Suruga Bay is hearty and satisfying. Don’t fret, dessert will likely 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 one in every of Japan’s culinary capitals? It won’t make sense on the outset, however as soon as you compromise into the pink brick-tiled eatery with overhanging floral artwork installations and unparalleled citadel views, then tuck right into a menu of Basque dishes ready with Japanese components, the image comes extra into focus.

Menus embrace 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.

Friends can even take pleasure in every 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 every 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 guts of the lodge, and music is on the coronary heart of this swanky all-day lounge and sultry cocktail bar. Adjoining to the reception space, the lounge contains a panoramic out of doors deck overlooking the citadel park, a high-top bar on the middle of the motion and comfy lounging vignettes, together with a personal room with a complete wall manufactured from 60 classic audio system jigsawed collectively.

You may usually discover employees 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.

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

Sonata is open Monday by way of 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’s open from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. every day, and reservations are required.

Facilities and repair

• Employees members repeatedly supply outings comparable to guided morning walks within the park surrounding Osaka Citadel and meditation classes within the lodge’s 66-foot indoor pool.
• Situated on the fourth flooring, the lodge’s 15,000-square-foot wellness advanced features a health middle geared up with the most recent Technogym tools.

• The spa has six therapy rooms and gives a full menu of providers incorporating Oskia and Bamford merchandise, in addition to high-tech experiences comparable to cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen chambers and infrared sauna classes.

• The lodge will quickly debut a 10-person non-public occasion area known as the Listening Room that was created in collaboration with Brooklyn “sound sculptor” Devon Turnbull.
• Curious to study extra concerning the lodge’s design and artwork assortment? Common supervisor Ellen Franke repeatedly leads excursions for company showcasing each.

Location and logistics

Patina Osaka is positioned centrally within the metropolis, simply throughout the road from Osaka Citadel and its surrounding park. To get right here from Kansai Worldwide 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.

Should you’re 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 town, together with the intense lights of Dotonbori and the procuring streets of Shinsaibashi, it is solely about 10 minutes away by automotive and in addition simply accessible by public transport. The lodge gives 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 present take part in a serious loyalty program. Your finest guess is to e-book straight for any packages or specials the lodge is perhaps 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 in keeping with People with Disabilities Act requirements, however as with every journey plans, name forward to make sure you can e-book a room that meets your particular necessities.

Backside line

The Patina Osaka feels concurrently ultranew and prefer it was all the time meant to face the place it now does within the historic coronary heart of town. By means of design, artwork and delicacies, the lodge connects company to the colourful tradition of the encircling 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 citadel views, and that is definitely one of the vital thrilling new inns not simply in Osaka, however in all of Japan.

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