Posted: 23 May 2014 11:04 AM PDT

Renaissance is a brand of unique hotels by Marriott. A 5-star hotel, Renaissance Johor Bahru is one of the best hotels in Johor Bahru.

The hotel is outside JB city centre and a taxi ride between CIQ and Renaissance cost us less than 30RM. When our taxi arrived at the hotel, the bellboy opened the door for us. It was slightly after 12 noon.

Opened about a year ago, the lobby looks new, grand and modern. The ceiling was of a good height and the centre piece and mirrors dramatised the grandeur.

Hotel lobby

I particularly loved this chair in the lobby.

We walked towards the reception area where there were two staff talking to each other. When they see us walking towards them, they greeted us with a smile. The lady left to get us a welcome drink each, while Taufik attended to us.

Apple juice

I really loved service given to us by Taufik. He tried to converse with us, without being too intrusive. He first asked if we have stayed with them before and when we said no, he welcomed us warmly. When he knew we were Singaporeans (through our passports), he asked if we drove and if there was a jam. After filling in my particulars on the form, he saw that I live in Bedok. He started telling us that his mum also lives in Bedok and is working for SATS. We were pleased to hear that and started to ask him a little more about his mum. We found out that he visits his mum on his off days. I particularly liked how he stepped away from the reception desk to be beside us when he showed us a brochure of all the places around the hotel. He did the same when he passed us the room keys. All the time he addressed me as Ms Choo. Before we went up to our room, he told us his name – Taufik – and that if we needed help at anytime, we can approach him. He told us he was working till 7pm that day.

Taufik really made us feel important and we really appreciated that he added his own personal touch. His service was a pleasant start to the stay.

Lift lobby

Lift lobby

And… our room!

The bathroom also has a two-sliding door concept.

Basically, if you sit on the bed, you will be directly looking at the W.C.. Which is to say that, if there's another person sitting on the W.C., well, both of you will be staring at each other. That's not just awkward, it is so wrong! Yarh, that's why that sliding door is closed at all times.

Sofa with ottoman and coffee table

Work desk with a rocking chair

Bathroom

Bathroom amenities

Bathrobes and slippers

Ice bucket, expensive water and kettle

Coffee and tea

Mini bar items

Bedside clock/radio. Yups, we were listening to 92.4 (Singapore radio channel)… And the clock is 12 hours behind. Or ahead.

View from our room

See that black building with the microphone? We tabao (takeaway) some horfun for dinner from that coffee shop because we thought there was nothing much at night in this area. We were so wrong! More about it later…

We tested out the pillows. They were down pillows. Andy likes down pillows but I always find them too soft. So I was complaining about the pillows and Andy asked me to call and ask for the pillow menu. But I was lazy and thought we can ask Taufik when we are going out for lunch.

Just as we were exiting the lift, we met this extremely charming Caucasian hotel staff. He greeted us and asked if we were going out. We said we were. He asked if we needed a taxi. We told him there is no need to because we were just going to walk around to check out the area. He asked if we have an umbrella. Andy replied that he has a small one. He was about to leave to get us an umbrella when I asked him about the pillows. He didn't seem to know too much as to what type of pillows they have, just hard or soft. I said I want a hard one and Andy copied me to ask for one too, even though I thought he likes soft pillows.

Did I mention the Caucasian guy was extremely charming?

Oh yes, I did.

The way he walks, he can just melt any girl…

Ok, but I didn't. Almost.

I couldn't really make out his accent though. He didn't sound American or English or Australian.

Anyway, he came back with an umbrella, asked for our room number and we left.

First place we went to was Grandpa Kopitiam just behind the hotel.

We had the usual breakfast set, though it didn't come in a set and we had to combine the items. The price is similar to Singapore coffee shop price, so it wasn't cheap.

Next, we went to this duck rice shop near Grandpa's. It is really delicious! Highly recommend!

Andy's roasted pork

My roasted duck

We wanted to eat some more, because there were so many food shops around the area. But we were very full. So we walked to the Aeon nearby.

Looking at the sky, we thought we were going to get caught in a heavy rain. But it never did. Lucky!

Ok, back to the story about the hor fun. We didn't think that there was going to be food around the hotel at night. So we packed the hor fun. As night falls, we could see from our room that tables and chairs start to be set up outside the shops. More and more cars came. There were many people at the tables. There was also a large screen near the tables.

At first we were thinking that it could be some event. But as more cars leave and come, we were starting to think it might be a big food place. So I was eating my hor fun, which was pretty nice, and thinking about all the other food that I could be eating. Such a glutton right? So I told Andy that we really need to check that place out, even though I had already showered and my hair was smelling so nice.

Indeed, it was an equivalent of Singapore's hawker centre, but with some tables in the outdoors. (Think Bedok 85 at night.) There were so many stalls that we didn't really know which to choose. End up we walked around to see what other people ordered and copied them. Haha. Typical Singaporeans ah?

So, we figured that the oyster omelette and salt grilled tilapia were the most popular. So we got them too! Hee!

Oyster omelette

Salt grilled tilapia

Our verdict? Going with the crowd will never be wrong! They were so yummy we regretted eating the hor fun, which was already considered pretty good. We especially liked the tilapia, firstly because we have never eaten anything salt grilled before and secondly because it was very fresh and didn't have the freshwater taste.

And that was how we overeat. Again. We always overeat.

In the middle of the night, Andy woke up sweating. Because he was buried in the pile of pillows!!

Let's do some math.

The bed originally had 4 pillows. Andy took an extra pillow out from the cupboard. And we had 5. The hotel staff delivered 2 more aromatherapy foam pillows. Then we had 7. All on the bed. And I was sleeping with just one, which was under my head.

No prizes for guessing where the other pillows were. I should really have taken a photo of Andy hugging numerous pillows at once while he was sleeping. Absolutely greedy!

The next morning, we were so excited about the breakfast because we read awesome reviews about it. It is like a Marche-style buffet.

Smoothie and juice

Cheese and ham

Porridge with condiments

Dim Sum

Noodle station

Nasi lemak station

Omelette station

Indian food station

Watch the prata man in action!

Bakery

Bread

Bread and muffins

Pastries

Cereal

Yoghurt

Fruits

One walk round the stations and we were very sure we couldn't and wouldn't try everything. The variety is just too much!

Here's some of the food that we ate:

Juice

Porridge

Nasi lemak with sambal prawns

Omelette

Pancakes and french toast

Once again, we overate.

Dining area

What can I say? The ambience was soothing, the quality of the food was good and the staff was attentive. There wasn't anything we ate that wasn't nice.

After breakfast, we checked out the pool.

View of the pool from the top

Rooms with pool access

View of the rooms from the pool

And we have come to the end of the stay. Sob sob.

In conclusion, we felt that the price was really good for a 5* hotel, especially when breakfast is included in the rate. Taufik remembered my name and addressed me as Ms Choo throughout the stay. There was once I thought he called me Ms Chang, but Andy says it is ok because at least he got the "CH" part correct. When we were checking out, he also checked if we had a good stay and said his goodbyes. It really felt very intimate, as if we were staying at his house!

This is definitely one of our most memorable stays!

Next up… we have booked Traders Hotel Puteri Harbour, Johor Bahru. So watch this space!

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