• Try some of the inventive and original dishes at the Cy’an restaurant, some of the best food available in Bangkok or a cocktail at the Met Bar
• The Met Bar answers a sophisticated need for privacy and energy in a space reserved for hotel guests and members only.
• COMO Shambhala Spas have built up a reputation as one of the best in Asia.
The Whole Story
It takes quite a stretch of imagination to stand in the middle of an immense badminton hall and see it as a series of luxurious penthouse suites. But that's exactly how Bangkok's Metropolitan came about: it used to be the YMCA. In fact, most taxi drivers still know it as such. Jump into any cab in Bangkok, ask to be taken to the Metropolitan and 10 to 1 you'll draw a blank. Yet Sathorn Road is one of the best-known streets in the city. The safest way to guarantee you'll get there is to tell the driver that you want to go to the old YMCA.
As one of the most dynamic cities in Asia, Bangkok today has little to do with temples, palaces or kickboxing. People in search of the exotic land of Buddhas and gilded royal barges will be disappointed. Elephants no longer play a role in everyday life and people are more likely to be found sitting behind a desk than wading in a rice paddy. Of all the hotels in Bangkok, the Metropolitan is the first in step with the city's new energy and direction. Bangkok's restaurants, bars, nightclubs and bookstores testify to its appetite for the cutting edge and the contemporary; the city is embracing modernity, looking to the future without worrying too much about what's being left behind.
The Metropolitan is a three-dimensional metaphor for the city itself. Unapologetically modern but distinctively Asian, the hotel presents a heady combination of the cool and contemporary with re-invented tradition. The aesthetic of the 166 rooms, 4 penthouse suites and duplex presidential suite is a pared-down mix of East meets West. Acres of dark Thai makha timber for the floors and furniture in teak are combined with one-off pieces by up-and-coming Thai artist Natee Utarit and an ultra-slick lighting scheme from London's Isometrix. The interiors are the work of Singapore-based Kathryn Kng, billed as Singapore's hottest interior designer, who has certainly given the Metropolitan's owner Christina Ong visual value for her money, particularly in the double-storey lobby and the blue-detailed restaurant Cy'an. Asia's answer to Nobu, Cy'an serves some of the best and most inventive food in Bangkok. And in step with the new culinary wave in Asia, its chef Amanda Gale comes from Australia. After working for almost a decade with Neil Perry from Sydney's famous Rockpool (the restaurant often credited with pioneering fusion cuisine), Gale arrived in Bangkok following a stint at Parrot Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The thing about Cy'an is that it's a serious restaurant in a laid-back space, which is typical of the way Christina Ong and her company COMO Hotels & Resorts are redefining what's important in the contemporary hotel experience. Glow is the alternative, serving fresh food only – light meals, energising juices and blends rich in living enzymes, vitamins and minerals. This healthful slant is in line with the COMO Shambhala menus first developed at Parrot Cay.
This fashionably relaxed approach to upmarket accommodation, continues with the rooms. More like private lofts than conventional hotel rooms, they are the property's real tour-de-force. The bathrooms, for instance, are configured in such a way that they're flooded with natural daylight, unlike the artificially lit caves you find elsewhere. Light, space and modernity – the Metropolitan is a symbol of Asia's growing creative confidence. With staff uniforms designed by Yohji Yamomoto, guestrooms that feel more like a downtown studio than a box, understated splashes of Jim Thompson silk, a gym that is not just an afterthought, an alternative health food restaurant called Glow and COMO's trendsetting Shambhala spa, it's more than just a look that sets this hotel apart. It follows a clearly conceived philosophy of modern luxury that is the cornerstone of all COMO properties worldwide. The Metropolitan in London, Cocoa Island in the Maldives, Uma Ubud in Bali and indeed the Metropolitan in Bangkok may not appear to have anything in common, but they are united in a commitment to certain core values: namely, clean, crisp design expressed in the vernacular vocabulary of the location, combined with the recuperative and relaxing qualities offered by the spa and its signature treatments. Although subtle, these elements represent a complete shift in what people would normally associate with a city hotel; guests here are more likely to spend their time in the juice bar than the bar.
Unlike traditional hotels that smother you with 'fattening' luxury, the Metropolitan in Bangkok makes sure you leave looking better than when you arrived. It's all about looking and feeling good in a five-star environment that still lets you have breakfast in your board-shorts.
The Rooms
The hotel's 171 rooms, including four penthouse suites and a two-bedroom presidential fiefdom, share a cosseting, contemporary style by Kathryn Kng, a Singapore-based interior design practice.
The look is fresh without being ferociously avant garde, acknowledging influences from both the east and west.
The simple, ample volumes are flooded with light, manipulated by lighting architects, Isometrix, London.
Natural materials include Makha wood from Thailand, combined with oxidized brass paneling.
Paintings are also featured, by Natee Utarit, an up-and-coming artist at the cutting edge of Asia's art scene. Utarit's images, hung throughout the hotel, give depth to the otherwise clean-lined spaces.
Rooms are fully tech'd up. Amenities include direct dial telephones, faxes (by request), modem points and Broadband Internet Access. Furthermore, wireless internet access is available in all rooms and public areas.