Aman Tokyo

Service

I like the welcome. You're taken up to the 33rd floor, sat down with a drink and a small sweet, and checked in without ever standing at a desk. The staff are gentle, unhurried and very good at the practical things. Mention a morning run and you're handed a little map of the loop around the Imperial Palace, which is almost exactly five kilometres and starts a short walk from the door. On the day you leave, someone will take you to Tokyo Station in the house car and walk you all the way to your seat on the bullet train. That one gesture is worth a great deal in a station that size.

There are nice extras that people miss. A rickshaw ride around the neighbourhood, a guided walk to the palace gates and a daily yoga or Pilates class are all free, but places are few and they fill up, so ask on the day you arrive.

This isn't the mind-reading service of the Aman resorts in South-East Asia. I was asked for my room number more than once at dinner, and stopped at the ground-floor entrance to explain myself when I was plainly a guest. Things happen when you ask, not before. The rules are firm too, so if you need a late check-out, arrange it before you arrive.

The concierge is the other thing to know. They're helpful once you're in the building, but slow to answer emails beforehand, and they can't conjure seats at the famous sushi counters. Tell them the kind of meal you want and let them choose. They do far better that way.

Rooms

The rooms are what you're paying for. There are only 84 rooms, all called suites now, and the smallest is 71 square metres, which is enormous for Tokyo. They're all pale wood and sliding washi paper screens, with a long window seat running the width of the glass and a deep stone soaking tub set right against the window. A bath at night with the whole city lit up below you is the best thing about staying here, and I don't think any hotel in Tokyo beats it.

The view is what you need to get right. I'd book the Garden View Suite, which looks west over the Imperial Palace gardens to the Shinjuku skyline, with Mount Fuji behind it on a clear morning. I'd skip the east-facing Tokyo Suite, even though it's a touch bigger. The city sides look across at neighbouring towers and a large building site, and the sunrise is fierce. The Deluxe Suite is the same size as the Garden View and is sold on its sunset skyline, not the palace, so I'd pay the difference.

If you're going up to the big suites, the Panorama Suite on a corner is the one I'd choose. The City Suite has a bed that faces a wall, which seems a waste up here.

As for grumbles, the television is tiny, the minimalism can feel a little austere after a few days, and the rooms date from 2014, so they're beautifully kept but not new.

Food and drink

The food lets the hotel down, and at these rates it shouldn't. Arva, the main restaurant on the 33rd floor, is Italian. It's good, the room is handsome and the view runs to the palace gardens, but I wouldn't give up a Tokyo dinner for it.

Breakfast is served there from a menu, with no buffet, and it's slow. Allow 40 minutes and don't book an early tour straight after. I'd order the Japanese set, which is beautifully made and the best thing the kitchen does. The Western dishes are ordinary, and I've had a better eggs Benedict in far cheaper hotels. If you're up early, breakfast is available in the room around the clock.

The table I'd book is Musashi by Aman, the sushi counter on the 34th floor. The chef grows his own rice in Yamanashi and makes the ceramics you eat from. It's a serious omakase without the fight for a reservation, though it's closed on Sundays and Mondays and doesn't take children under 13.

Afternoon tea in The Lounge is very popular with Tokyo locals, so the lobby is busier in the afternoon than you'd expect and you need to reserve. For everything else I'd eat out, as you would anywhere in Tokyo.

Setting

The hotel takes the top six floors of the Otemachi Tower. The lift doors open onto a lobby with a ceiling of washi paper nearly 30 metres above you, like standing inside a giant lantern, with a still pool of water and an ikebana arrangement in the middle. It's one of the great hotel rooms of the world and it goes very quiet in the evening.

The 30-metre pool is lined in black basalt with daybeds along one side and a wall of glass on the other. Go after dark, when the city is lit. The spa is the largest of any hotel in Tokyo, and the changing rooms have hot Japanese baths and steam rooms. It isn't a natural hot spring, if that matters to you.

The drawback is the neighbourhood. Otemachi is the banking district. It's wonderfully connected, with five subway lines under the building and Tokyo Station a few minutes' walk away, but the streets are empty at night and at weekends, and you'll take a taxi to most dinners. And however beautiful it is, you're staying at the top of an office tower.

Value

The entry suites start at around $1,400 a night in the quiet weeks of high summer and sit nearer $2,000 for much of the year. The Garden View Suite I'd recommend is usually closer to $3,000. In the peak weeks of spring and over Christmas and New Year, even the entry rooms can pass $5,000. Rates have roughly doubled in a few years, and the service and food haven't moved with them.

The Four Seasons at Otemachi, a few minutes' walk away with the same palace view, is often half the price. So I think of the Aman as a hotel to book for the room. Two or three nights here and the rest of your stay somewhere else is how I'd do it.

Booking through an advisor helps more than usual here, because breakfast is expensive. Breakfast for two and a hotel credit usually come with the same rate, with an upgrade when one is free, and the hotel often adds a free night on stays of five nights or more.