Bellustar Tokyo, A Pan Pacific Hotel Review

Bellustar Tokyo sits at the very top of the Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, a 48-storey glass skyscraper that opened in 2023 right in the middle of Kabukicho, Tokyo's famous (and slightly infamous) nightlife district. It's run by Pan Pacific, it has just 97 rooms on the 39th to 47th floors, and it has a Michelin Key. Next door, sticking out over the cinema, is a giant Godzilla head.

I booked it because I kept seeing photos of those windows…walls of glass with the whole of Tokyo lit up behind a bathtub. And because everyone who's stayed says the same thing: it's the best view in Shinjuku for about half the price of the Park Hyatt down the road.

That's true. A typical night here is about $500, against roughly $1,000 at the Park Hyatt. The question is whether you can live with what's 40 floors below you. Let me start with what's up top.

Things I Loved about Bellustar Tokyo

The arrival, once you're up. You come in at street level, take a glass lift up to the 18th floor, and when the doors open, the noise of Kabukicho is just gone. The lobby has huge ceilings, big windows and motorised curtains, and it's very calm. A staff member then takes you up to your room in a separate lift, one-to-one. It feels very private.

Our room. We were in a Junior Corner Suite, about 53 square metres, on a corner with glass on two sides. The design is by Keiji Ashizawa and the Danish studio Norm Architects, and it's lovely: pale wood, stone bedside tables, wood-panelled headboards, a calm palette of white, grey and black with gold fittings in the bathroom. It feels brand new, because it is.

The little things are good. There's a coffee machine that makes REALLY good coffee, a yoga mat, a welcome letter with a wax seal, and fresh toiletries every single day (kids' ones too, if you're travelling with children). Turndown came with chocolates, and the bathroom products come separately wrapped…shower gel, bubble bath and bath salts, each in its own little package.

The bath with a view. The bathroom in our corner suite looked straight out over the city, and so did the deep tub (and, yes, the toilet). A long soak at night with Tokyo glittering below you is the single best thing about staying here. I did it every night.

My one tip on rooms…think about whether you need the corner. The corner suites are the photogenic ones, but ours was a bit squeezed for the price, with no sofa, just two stools, and no desk. The Studio Deluxe rooms are about 56 square metres, squarer, with a sofa, and honestly more comfortable to live in. And ask for a room facing away from the train lines if you're a light sleeper.

The view. This is why you book it, and it's every bit as good as the photos. The windows are about seven metres wide and go from floor to ceiling, so the city just pours into the room. By day you look out over the rooftops and the train lines sliding in and out of Shinjuku, with the Skytree way off in the distance. At night it's a sea of red aircraft lights blinking on top of every tower. On a clear morning, if you face west, you can see Mount Fuji. I spent a ridiculous amount of time just standing at the glass.

The free lounge. This was a lovely surprise. There's a lounge up on the 46th floor, designed around the sunset, with huge windows and a ceiling that goes up forever, and when we stayed it was open to all guests. From 5 to 8pm there's free-flowing Dassai sparkling sake and beer, and it was never crowded. There's no hot food, just a few snacks and some fruit, so think of it as the best pre-dinner drink in Shinjuku, not dinner.

Sushi JIN-E. The hotel has three restaurants (French, teppanyaki and sushi), and the sushi counter is the one I'd book. It's a small room of hinoki wood, the chef's rice is seasoned with his own secret vinegar, and the omakase with a dozen-plus sake pairings came to about ¥45,000 a person, which is excellent value at this level in Tokyo. A course of minced tuna was the best thing I ate all week. (Skip the sushi set from room service, though…it's nowhere near as good as the counter.)

Teppan Ten-yu. If you'd like a big night in, the teppanyaki room has dark brick walls and the night skyline right behind the grill, and the wagyu is the thing to order. Sit at the counter facing the chef.

Bar Bellustar. The bar is up on the 45th floor with the same jaw-dropping view, and there's live music. The cocktails use Japanese fruit and herbs. Order the Dashi Martini…it sounds wrong, it tastes amazing.

Breakfast in the room. Breakfast is served at Restaurant Bellustar, or you can have it sent up, and the room-service version is better. Order the Japanese set the night before, and it comes with a whole little pot of steamed rice, which is perfect. They'll deliver it as late as 11, so on a lazy morning it's basically brunch with a view.

SPA sunya. The spa is right at the top, on the 47th floor ("sunya" means sky in Sanskrit), and the treatments are built around natural ingredients from different corners of Japan, with recorded birdsong that changes with the season and the time of day. It won a handful of awards in its first year. It's small and it costs extra, but it's a lovely hour above the clouds.

The staff, mostly. Day to day, the people here are lovely. They'll store your luggage for free for a couple of days if you're heading off to Kyoto and coming back, they're quick to answer anything you ask, and one evening they surprised us with a little cake and a bottle of bubbles for a birthday we'd mentioned once in passing.

Tokyo, right out of the window. There are little moments here you just don't get anywhere else. The giant Godzilla head is peering over the cinema next door, the trains slide in and out of Shinjuku below you like toys, and after dinner you can be in a tiny six-seat bar in Golden Gai within ten minutes. If you love the chaos and energy of Tokyo, you're right in the middle of it.

Getting around. The location is the other big plus. Seibu-Shinjuku Station is about a minute away, the main Shinjuku Station is a short walk, Golden Gai and Omoide Yokocho are right around the corner, and Isetan is under ten minutes on foot. The airport bus leaves from the bottom of the tower. Compared with the Park Hyatt, where you're taking a taxi everywhere, it's SO much easier.

Things That Could Be Better

The street below. Kabukicho is Tokyo's red-light and nightlife district, and the streets around the base of the tower are honestly a bit grim, with touts, host clubs, crowds until very late, and rubbish in the alleys. It's perfectly safe, but it's not pretty, and it's a jarring contrast with the calm 40 floors up. If you want elegance from the front door, this isn't it.

The service trips over itself. The staff are lovely, and many of them speak Chinese and English. But behind the scenes things slip. At check-in, the desk insisted our room had already been paid for by someone else (it hadn't), and it took a lot of back and forth and a printed apology letter to sort out. A credit we'd confirmed by email before arrival was suddenly not allowed, then allowed "as an exception". The bar bill was wrong once. None of it is a disaster, but at this price it shouldn't happen.

The arrival is awkward. The entrance is easy to miss, and it's shared with the other hotel in the tower. Taxis drop you in the basement or on a side road, and because each guest is escorted up one at a time, the lobby can feel oddly empty with a lot of staff watching you. It's private…and also slightly strange.

The room isn't built for working. There's no desk, just a small coffee table, the bedside tables are tiny, and there aren't many power outlets. If you need to get work done, it's a pain. In the bathroom, there's a gap between the tub and the shower with no divider, so it steams up fast.

There's no pool. There's a gym and a spa on the 47th floor, but no pool and no Japanese bath. After a day of walking around Tokyo, I missed it.

Breakfast in the restaurant. In the restaurant, breakfast is à la carte only, with a fairly short menu, there was a wait for a table, and last orders are at 10. Room service is better.

Noise. On some sides you can hear the trains rumbling in and out from early morning to late at night, and on a Friday night a bit of Kabukicho drifts up too. The higher floors on the quiet side are fine.

Not for kids. The restaurants don't take children under 12, so if you're travelling with little ones, it's room service or eating out every night.

Bellustar or Park Hyatt?

They're both in Shinjuku and they both sell the view, so this is the comparison that matters.

Book the Bellustar. It's about half the price, the rooms are newer and far more interesting (the Park Hyatt's renovated rooms are pleasant but very bland), the view is just as good, and you're a short walk from the trains instead of a long one. The Park Hyatt is calmer, smoother and has the pool, the spa and the famous New York Bar. If you want polish and a quiet street, I get it.

But honestly? I'd stay here and go over to the New York Bar one night for the jazz. You get the best of both for a lot less.

Overall

I think Bellustar Tokyo is great for couples and solo travellers who want a beautiful room, a spectacular view and a central base, and who don't mind a bit of grit at street level. It's the wrong pick for families with young kids, for anyone who wants a pool, or for anyone who'll be put off by Kabukicho at night.

For the palace gardens and smoother service, I'd book the Four Seasons at Otemachi. For warm, old-school service and a pool in the sky, the Ritz-Carlton. And for the most beautiful room in the city, at about four times the price, Aman Tokyo.

So here's my bottom line. I gave it 7.8 out of 10. The view, the bath and the price are the best things about it, the street below and the service slips are the worst, and it's the best-value luxury hotel in Shinjuku.

If you're booking it

Two or three nights is about right. Book a Studio Deluxe or Studio Premier on a high floor facing away from the train lines, or a corner suite if the view from the bath is the whole point (it might be). Book Sushi JIN-E before you arrive. Ask at check-in whether the lounge is included with your room. Order the Japanese breakfast to the room the night before. Rates start around ¥85,000 for the smallest room and run to about $800 at the busiest times, with late spring and midsummer the best value. If you've got luggage, take a taxi straight to the hotel entrance. Walking it in from the station through the crowds is no fun.