Best Western Hotel Fino Osaka Shinsaibashi

If you guys noticed the lack of posts last week, I've got an excuse.  Two words:  Osaka, Japan!  Yup, was out of the country for a while, so wasn't able to blog much.  My apologies!  But, I am back, and I've got a few upcoming blog posts about our recently concluded trip!  Excited much!  It was my very first time in Japan and being a country that speaks little to no English, we had quite an adventure!  But first, let me show you where we stayed.  

A little back story:  My best friend D went to Osaka early this year.  When he got back, he had so much interesting stories that it made me want to go there and I soon found myself booking a flight to Osaka!  While booking for the hotel accommodations, I remembered D telling me that the main shopping and eating place is called Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori, so I made sure that our hotel would be somewhere nearby.  Best Western Hotel seemed like the perfect hotel.  Reviews were good, and it's within walking distance to Shinsaibashi and Dotonbori.

Arriving in Osaka, our flight was delayed and even with directions to the hotel, we had a bit of a difficulty getting there.  So when we finally got to Best Western, it was close to midnight.  The good thing was that the hotel is located right across 7-Eleven!  Off topic:  Japan's 7-Eleven is AHHHMAZING.  They have the most amazing selection of heat-and-serve food and it tastes soooo good!  Even better than some restaurants here, I daresay.  

Ok ok, enough stories, scroll down and see the place we called home for 4 nights! 

View from the doorway

Closet/Luggage Space

Bathroom

Twin Beds

Working Area

The first reaction we had when we entered the hotel room was "Is this it?!  It's so tiny!!"  It was the smallest hotel room I've ever stayed in.  I know hotels in Japan are known to be tiny, but somehow I didn't expect it to be that small.  But aside from the size of the hotel room, we have no complaints.  We have free wifi, the room is clean, the toiletries are complete, and the bathroom even has a heated toilet seat complete with push button bidet!  How can you go wrong with that?  4.5 out of 5 stars!

Best Western Hotel Fino Osaka Shinsaibashi is at 1-2-19 Shinsaibashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture 542-0083, Japan 

F Restaurant at the Best Western Premier F1 Hotel

From my previous post, I mentioned that our Holy Week was spent at the Best Western Premier F1 Hotel at the Fort.  Our stay came with a complimentary buffet breakfast for two, and even though I'm not a morning person, I made sure to wake up early so that I could check out the buffet spread.  Was actually not expecting much but was pleasantly surprised to find out that their breakfast buffet is extensive!  Check it out!

Juices

Breads

Fruits and Sushi

Create-Your-Own Eggs Station

Mains

Soup and Congee

Dimsum

Some more mains

Cereals and Milk

 ...and here's what I had:

My plate

I know, I know.  ONE measly plate??  Do I call that a buffet??  What a waste!  If you're thinking that the food must be bad, well... you're wrong.  For some reason I just wasn't feeling that hungry that morning.  The late Starbucks run the previous night might be the culprit.  Sigh.  And don't worry, I went in for seconds on their scrumptious scrambled eggs and longganisa.  It was soooo good!  One of the best scrambled eggs I've ever tasted!  And that's saying a lot because eggs are my favorite and if given a choice to eat just one item my whole life, then yes, that would be eggs.  

Overall I'd rate F1 Hotel's breakfast buffet a 4 out of 5.  I might just go back for those scrambled eggs tomorrow.  Or the day after that.  Or next week?  I don't know!  But surely, will be back.

F Restaurant is at the Best Western Premier F1 Hotel  located at 32nd St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Best Western Premier F1 Hotel

Hello everyone!  Belated Happy Easter!  How did you spend your holiday?  If you're like me, then you'd probably still have the "holiday hangover".  Don't you wish we had more of these loooong weekends, even just once a quarter?  Maybe if I become the president next time, I'll make a decree out of it!  LOL.  That's why I can never be a president *wink*  Anyhow, speaking of long weekends, Hubby and I had quite a nice holiday.  You see, late last year, we were invited to the Miss Earth Ambassadors' Night at the Best Western Premier F1 Hotel.  At the registration, they asked us to drop our calling cards because there will be a raffle afterwards.  I dropped mine, and the next thing I know, my name was being called as the winner of an overnight stay!  Lucky me!  I've kept the gift certificate and forgot all about it until one day, I suddenly remembered as we were passing by the hotel.  Panicked for a bit because I thought we missed the validity period, but good thing we still had about a month to go before it goes to waste.  Holy week was coming up, what perfect timing, right?  Fine print though, it says we can't use it during the holidays, so we checked in a day early, hence, early vacation for us!  

Checking in was a breeze.  It took less than 5 minutes and the staff were very courteous.  Let me show you how our room looked like:

Spacious corridor

The bed

The couch and minibar

Closet and TV

The bathroom

Our view

Pretty nice.  But there were some things that I didn't like either, like this (see picture below):

To sum it all up, here are my pros and cons about the hotel:

PROS

a.  Good location.  The hotel was near everything!  You can do your groceries in S&R, shop and eat in Bonifacio High Street, then have coffee in Starbucks.  Everything is walking distance.

b.  Nice staff.  Everyone was welcoming and accommodating.  Makes you feel right at home.

c.  Delicious breakfast at the F Restaurant.  The gift certificate we had came with free breakfast buffet for two.  Will blog about our experience on the next post.

CONS

a.  The bathroom tiles (pictured above).  It really is a sight for sore eyes.  Hope that the management can change that.

b.  The faulty bathroom exhaust.  When we arrived, everything smelled fine.  But after a few minutes, I smelled a not so pleasant smell coming from the bathroom (ok it smelled like someone pooped) but nobody went in to do their business.  So we figured it must have come from the exhaust.

c.  The lack of bathroom amenities.  Only shampoo, conditioner and soap were provided.  We were given bedroom slippers too but just one pair.

Overall, I think I'd want to stay at the F1 Hotel again.  Next time though, I'll check the bathroom first just to be sure.

The Best Western Premier F1 Hotel  is at 32nd St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.