Bulgari Hotel Tokyo Review

Bulgari Hotel Tokyo takes up floors 40 to 45 of the Tokyo Midtown Yaesu tower, right across the road from Tokyo Station. It opened in April 2023 (Anne Hathaway cut the ribbon, because of course she did), it has just 98 rooms, and it's only the brand's eighth hotel anywhere in the world. This year it came 24th on the World's 50 Best Hotels list.

I'd been putting this one off, honestly. Every time I mentioned it to someone who'd stayed, they said the same two things: that it's the most fun hotel in Tokyo, and that it isn't really Japanese at all. And a lot of Aman people I know have quietly moved over here, mostly because Aman Tokyo's rates have gone a bit mad.

So the question for me was simple. Is it worth about $1,400 a night (roughly two-thirds of the Aman, and a bit more than the Four Seasons at Otemachi down the road)? Or is it a lot of money for a logo?

Things I Loved about Bulgari Hotel Tokyo

The arrival. The ground floor is really just a car entrance and a bell desk, with Roman cobblestones in the driveway and a wall of dark marble, and then a private lift shoots you straight up to the 40th floor. The doors open on a huge Bulgari star set into the floor, black-and-white portraits on the walls, and a bowl of little chocolates I kept raiding every time I walked past (sorry). There's no front desk queue. They took our bags, told us the room was ready, and walked us straight up.

Check-in in the room. This is one of my favourite things in any hotel, and they do it beautifully here. You sit on the sofa, someone runs through everything in about five minutes, and there's a welcome plate waiting with Shine Muscat grapes and a little handwritten card. By the second day, everyone from the doormen to the pool attendants knew our names.

Our room. We were upgraded one level, to a 56 square metre room up on a high floor looking out over Marunouchi to the Imperial Palace gardens. It's open plan, with the bed in the middle facing the window, a sitting area on one side, a small work area on the other, and a separate dressing room right by the glass, which I LOVED. The furniture is all Italian (B&B Italia, Maxalto, Flexform), and unlike most Bulgari hotels there's real colour here…a deep red rug, soft cove lighting in the ceiling, and warm wood everywhere. It feels rich without being shouty.

The little things are very good. The minibar soft drinks are free, there's a Nespresso machine and a proper Japanese tea set, a pillow menu, shoe trees in the wardrobe, and the blinds glide open on their own when you walk in. The light switches are hidden in the bedside drawers, which took me a full evening to work out (I'm not proud of it). And the bed? I slept like a rock every single night.

The bathroom. It isn't huge, which surprised me at this price, but it's beautiful: dark stone, two basins, a round-mirrored dressing table, a deep tub behind a slatted screen, a Japanese toilet in its own little room, and a black stone rain shower with pressure so strong it's basically a car wash for humans. The Bulgari bath products come in big bottles and smell amazing. I went home smelling like an expensive Italian handbag, and I was fine with that.

The view. From our room we looked straight down over Tokyo Station, with the bullet trains sliding in and out, then across the towers of Marunouchi to the dark green of the palace gardens. At night the whole thing lights up…the crowds pouring out of the station, the glow of Ginza off to the left, the palace dark and quiet in the middle. I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the chaise just watching it.

The pool. This is the showstopper, and the reason I'd come back. It's up on the 40th floor, 25 metres long, lined in an emerald-green mosaic, with floor-to-ceiling windows over the city. Next to it there's a hydrotherapy pool with a waterfall pouring down under the Bulgari logo, a little vitality pool with a mosaic inspired by the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, an ice fountain, saunas, and an outdoor terrace with daybeds. And here's the best part…it's almost always EMPTY. I swam at 9pm with the Skytree lit up across the water and had the whole place to myself.

You change in your room and take a private lift straight down to the spa in your robe, which feels very glamorous and very lazy at the same time. The treatments use Augustinus Bader products, and the gym is open 24 hours with proper free weights, if you're that kind of person on holiday (I am not).

The Bulgari Bar. The bar is right at the top, on the 45th floor, with a terrace looking over the palace gardens, and at sunset it's magic. On a clear evening you can see Mount Fuji. Order the signature gin, Aperol and citrus cocktail (they first made it in Milan back in 2004), and a pizza, because the pizza up here is properly good. It gets busy with locals on Friday and Saturday nights, so go early, or midweek.

Dinner at Il Ristorante. Niko Romito's Italian restaurant is on the 40th floor, and it's the meal I'd book first. It's classic Italian food done really well with Japanese ingredients…a perfect spaghetti al pomodoro, veal Milanese, Miyazaki wagyu. Simple on paper, and every plate was spot on. I didn't expect my best pasta of the year to happen in Tokyo, but here we are.

Afternoon tea. The Bulgari Lounge does afternoon tea with the scones carved at your table from a trolley, and a separate menu of pastries that's far more than two people can finish. It's hugely popular with Tokyo women, so book it a few days ahead. The concierge squeezed us in at short notice, though.

The service. This is honestly the strongest thing about the hotel. Everyone is warm, quick and a little playful in a way you don't always get in Tokyo. The concierge got us into restaurants we'd been told were impossible. Turndown came with fruit, sweets and a flask of herbal tea, and on our last night there was a Bulgari luggage tag on our bags. When we left, a bellman walked us across the road and all the way to our platform at Tokyo Station. I mean…who does that?

The location. You're directly opposite Tokyo Station, so bullet-train day trips to Kyoto or Nikko are ridiculously easy, and there's an underground route so you never need to cross the street in the rain. Ginza is about 15 minutes on foot, and the Imperial Palace gardens about 20.

Things That Could Be Better

Breakfast. It's the weak spot, and nearly everyone says so. There's no buffet, only à la carte sets, and the Japanese set was honestly forgettable (the Italian kitchen doesn't quite get it). The croissants, the cappuccino and the eggs Benedict were lovely, though, and you can have breakfast brought up to the room, which is what I'd do next time.

It doesn't feel like Japan. You could be in Milan, and that's the point…but if you want tatami, wood and a garden, this isn't your hotel. The service is very Japanese. The rest is pure Italian glamour.

The price. At about $1,400 on a typical night, and well over $2,000 in cherry-blossom season and the November maple weeks, it's one of the most expensive hotels in Tokyo. You're paying a lot for the name, and you feel it most in the entry rooms.

The entry rooms are tight on space to work. 56 square metres sounds big, and it is for Tokyo, but the open-plan layout means there's no proper desk and not much of a sofa. For a long stay, or if you need to work, I'd look at a suite.

The public areas are small. Beyond the lobby, the lounge and the bar, there isn't much space to hang out, and the ground-floor entrance is easy to miss (it's very easy to wander into the car park by mistake). It can feel a little dim and back-of-house down there.

The sushi counter is hit and miss. Sushi Hōseki is an eight-seat counter facing a little rock garden, and I enjoyed our dinner there. But the reports are mixed, it isn't cheap, and it was closed for a stretch this year. If you only book one big dinner, make it Il Ristorante.

No points. Bulgari isn't part of Marriott Bonvoy, so you won't earn or use points here, and elite status gets you nothing. Upgrades are down to luck and the rate you book.

Train noise on low floors. A few rooms on the lower floors face the rail lines, and you can hear them. Ask for a high floor.

Bulgari or Aman?

This is the comparison everyone asks me about, because so many Aman regulars have switched.

The Aman has the more beautiful room, full stop. The paper screens, the stone bath at the window, the sense that you're somewhere very Japanese…I still think about it. But it costs about $2,100 a night now, its food is good without being memorable, and the service, while lovely, isn't as warm or as sharp as it is here.

The Bulgari is about a third cheaper, the pool and the bar are much more fun, and the service is the best I had in Tokyo. So if you want calm and a deeply Japanese room, book the Aman. If you want glamour, a great pool and a hotel that feels like a party you've been invited to, book the Bulgari. Honestly? I'd book the Bulgari.

And if the price makes you wince, the Four Seasons at Otemachi gives you the palace view, a great bar and a lovely room for about $350 a night less. That's still the smartest place to stay in Tokyo.

Overall

I think Bulgari Hotel Tokyo is perfect for couples, celebrations and anyone who's done Tokyo before and wants something glamorous and fun on top of the city. It's great for bullet-train day trips, too. It's less suited to families (the children's touches are basic and suites don't connect to regular rooms), to anyone who wants a traditional Japanese stay, and to anyone watching the budget.

For a quieter, more Japanese room, I'd book the Aman. For the best value with the palace view, the Four Seasons at Otemachi. And for a balcony over the moat at about half the price, the Palace Hotel.

So here's my bottom line. I gave it 8.0 out of 10. The pool, the bar and the service are the best things about it, breakfast and the price are the worst, and it's the most glamorous hotel in Tokyo by a mile.

If you're booking it

Two or three nights is perfect. Book a room on a high floor with the Imperial Garden view, and if you need space to spread out or work, go straight to a suite. Choose a rate that includes breakfast, and have it in the room. Book Il Ristorante and afternoon tea as soon as you have dates, and go up to the bar for sunset at least once. Rates run from about $1,200 in January and February to well over $2,000 in cherry-blossom season and the maple weeks. Tokyo Station is right across the road, and the hotel will walk you all the way to your train.