Melbourne's crowning glory

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  Crown Metropol, Melbourne

What does Australia's biggest hotel look like? And who's its celebrity chef? Ultra.travel has been checking out the Crown Metropol, one of Australia’s hottest new openings.


Hot on the heels of Gordon Ramsay, I have been checking out the Crown Metropol, one of Australia’s newest hotels and officially its biggest, with 658 rooms reaching into the Melbourne sky.

Ramsay was seen ribbon-cutting to mark the opening of the hotel and celebrate the arrival of the super-chef’s latest Maze eaterie, set within this new hotel. 



Ramsay’s first Australian restaurant sits in a spangly new tower, which has cost 300-million Aussie dollars to put together and is Crown’s third hotel within its massive Crown Entertainment Complex, which I can see splayed below me along the Yarra River and the city’s burgeoning Southbank area.

I am one of 225,000 guests the hotel expects to welcome in its first year of operations and am afforded this view of the city because I am cosseted away on the mighty 25th floor of the hotel with floor-ceiling, super-thick windows.

I’m perched just three levels below the Crown Metropol’s signature ‘business floor’ on level 28 and the bar of the same name, with its equally awesome views of the city. 28 is packed with really strong design touches, such as two walls of old books seemingly collected just because they are blue (who knew there were so many blue books in the world), a fire surrounded by cutting-edge designer chairs and sofas and central lively bar. 



And while I arrived a day after the opening party with Ramsay and would have found it impossible to get a table at Maze until June, I could of at least consoled myself with perusing the room service menu, which also comes under the auspices of Ramsay.



On the first floor of the hotel, Maze is in two components and flooded with natural light during the day and soft candlelight at night; diners can try anything from an eight-course sommelier’s experience and tasting-sized dishes, through to a wide range of different breeds and cuts of beef and fish cooked over coal and presented to diners on handmade Australian wooden boards in Maze Grill. Josh Emett is chef de cuisine of both restaurants and will also oversee the hotel’s in-room dining and spa cuisine too.

Maze and 28 are not where the glamour ends either – the hotel also hopes to spark the interest of ‘prominent business identities and top entertainers’ to stay in its 32 three-room lofts and the penthouse apartment.



And it’s likely to get those pawprints in its guestbook too, given it – and the other two hotels – are at the heart of one of the largest integrated entertainment complexes in the southern hemisphere with casino, hotels, function rooms, restaurants, shopping and entertainment facilities. A mini Vegas if you will.



This Vegas-esque nature is taken very seriously by its owners, who are about to chuck plenty more chips at the facility - AUS$212 million of them to be precise. This will go on upgrading facilities for high-rolling gamblers at the casino, including an extra corporate jet to fly customers in (Crown's third VIP corporate jet). The upgrade will also include a new, ultra-exclusive gaming club on level 39 of the Crown Towers hotel, with 360-degree views of Melbourne.

But back to the Crown Metropol. With so many rooms, there was an inevitable queue for check-in but only about four-guests deep and there was plenty to distract me as I looked around some of the installations in the soaring lobby, all factors which will give this hotel the trendy edge over its ritzy older sister Crown Towers, just across the street.


My river-view room was generously proportioned and makes the most of that view, with a wall of windows and a cool geometric-patterned chaise that allows for perfectly positioned view absorption and also acts as a second bed if needed. 

The huge leather bed was invitingly dressed and ready for an exhausted flop with smart integrated side tables – complete with a couple of hours-worth of goss/girls mags - and well-placed lighting (there’s also a little To Do List pad which is a fun touch). The desk was spacious and positioned viewside, which for me is perfect – I always get the laptop out before anything else and am constantly disappointed with the space provided to work in hotel rooms. Not so here. 



The in-room technology befits a 21st-century hotel, including phone with all manner of information on its screen, energy-saving, card-operated power and a bedside iHome integrated docking station and alarm. Given the size of the windows and required curtains, it would have made sense to have electronics here too, though.



The bathroom tucks into a little corner and at first glance is wonderfully open-plan, but hessian-covered screens slide to close it off if you prefer privacy when sharing. The sleek finish on surfaces and glass-doors will suit urbanites who know their Corian from their Kohler, but the shower seemed a corner-cutter and some of the amenities seemed a little on the cheap and temporary side.
 
Tea and coffee-making facilities and a really snuggly robe were a welcome sight but this being Australia, it was flip-flops instead of matching snuggly slippers; great for heading down to the Isika spa, but maybe consider both options?

That spa is definitely worth the flip-flop wearing visit, as is the pool with its enormous lights reminiscent of huge jelly fish and citrus-bright loungers that scream at you to lose a couple of hours there. The pool and spa is on the 27th floor and it’s a cert it will be popping up on ‘best hotel pool’ lists before long. The prices for some of the spa treatments were I’m afraid too expensive for this writer to try in the name of research (around the $140 mark for basic 60-min massage; $150 for a facial), but include Aromatherapy Associates products, a good range of men’s treatments, hair salon and packages such as Couples Decadence ($420 pp).



Dedicated spa lovers should give one of the 12 residential-feel Isika rooms on level 26, which have access via a private staircase to the spa and are decorated in a more soothing colour palette than the dark tonals of the other rooms where a black feature wall and rust carpets set the theme, with pink accents in cushions.



On the downside, I begrudged paying for internet and with this many rooms, the hotel is never going to be able to offer up a very personal level of service. Indeed on the Saturday, the check-in queue had grown to 20-deep and snaked out the door. The room service delivery was lacking in service and delivery – a dormouse delivered my boring pasta followed by a few blobs of ice cream hardly worthy of the name Gordon Ramsay. But other than that, I could find little to quibble with during my 36 hours here. 



The hotel would sit better in a modern deluxe categorization rather than true luxury, but it certainly ticks all the style boxes and will no doubt do very well filling those 658 rooms. That incredible pool and spa, 28 and Maze will certainly help. And if all the glitz ain’t your style, Melbourne’s art precinct isn’t too far to walk.

By April Hutchinson

Location: Melbourne