The Ritz-Carlton Langkawi

December 20th, 2023

Posts in this series:

Introduction - Island Hopping in Southeast Asia

Review - British Airways Business Class B777-200 Toronto Pearson to London Heathrow

Review - Finnair Business Class A350-900 London Heathrow to Helsinki

Review - Finnair Business Class A350-900 Helsinki to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi

Review - Conrad Bangkok

Review - The Ritz-Carlton Langkawi

Review - Firefly Economy Class ATR72-500 Langkawi to Subang

Review - The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur

Review - Malaysia Airlines Economy Class B737-800 Kuala Lumpur to Denpasar

Review - Alila Villas Uluwatu

Review - TransNusa Economy Class A320 Denpasar to Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta

Review - The Hermitage, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, Jakarta

Review - Qatar Airways Business Class A350-900 Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta to Doha

Review - Qatar Airways Business Class B777-300ER Doha to New York Kennedy

Enroute:

We said goodbye to my parents and continued with our journey to Malaysia, with the first stop in Langkawi. Langkawi isn’t as famed as Bali or Phuket, but that’s ideal for a mental break after spending 10 days with my parents, you know? I knew about Langkawi because I always heard about Asian celebrities getting married there.

The island isn’t necessarily flush with luxury hotel options, but it does have both the St. Regis and the Ritz. I eventually decided on the Ritz, which has more villa-style accommodations. The St. Regis seemed to primarily consist of traditional resort-style rooms and suites. One thing to consider is your Marriott elite benefits, as the suite night upgrades (this has since been expanded to Ritz and Edition brands in 2024) and free breakfast perk only apply at St. Regis and not at the Ritz. I personally valued more about the hard product.

We landed at Langkawi Airport later in the evening, though fortunately, the drive only took 15mins to the hotel. You could easily get a Grab from the airport, and the prices were even cheaper than the Grab rides we had in Thailand.

Check-in:

There was no one else at check-in when we arrived, so we were helped immediately. The reception area was nice enough, although you’d only be here during check-in/out.

We were offered some cookies, tea and cold towels in the interim.

Shortly we were whisked away to our villa in a buggy.

Unpack:

From the moment I stepped through the front door, I was impressed by the design. As you’d expect from a hotel set on a jungle island, the use of wood was prolific. First room that met the eye was a relatively large great room.

Certain shapes and patterns of the furniture were distinctively oriental, yet the overall style struck a delicate balance between traditional and contemporary. Off to the side of the great room was a breakfast nook.

The fully stocked minibar was located right by the entryway.

An welcome amenity of some sweet treats and a fruit plate was placed on the desk in the living room. I wasn’t in touch with the hotel prior to our arrival, as we weren’t celebrating anything special. However, our bed was decorated with towel swans and rose petals when we checked in. I mean, if the hotel was gonna do all that, why not give us a bottle of adult beverage too😉?

To the hotel’s credit, the sweets were very good. Subsequently, the housekeepers left us kueh lapis for turndown service, which reminded me a lot of those from Bengawan Solo in Singapore.

Separating the bedroom from the living space was a set of sliding doors. While artfully painted, it was rather flimsy and not the easiest thing to operate.

Transitioning from the living room was the bedroom.

Behind the bedroom was an exposed area intended to substitute a closet.

The bathroom was a good size. We stayed in three villas on our trip, and it just occurred to me that these standalone villas mostly don’t have a half bath, meanwhile most suites do. It’s not a big deal or anything but rather an observation.

Customary to all Ritz properties, toiletries were from Diptyque. One thing to mention about the bathroom was how spacious the bathtub was. Y’all know from my previous posts that I love a bubble bath, the alcoholic kind. Another thing to mention was how noticeably better the 2013 vintage was to the 2012, 2010 and 2008.

The rest of the bathroom consisted of not just a dual-vanity, but two actual discrete vanities, a walk-in shower and a toilet. The best part was the ocean view from everywhere in the bathroom, well, except in the toilet.

The prime real estate in the villa was dedicated to the pool deck. If you’re curious about the green lights at sea, those were hundreds of squid boats.

The pool itself was quite long and deep for a plunge pool. While this wasn’t technically an overwater villa, it was right on the water’s edge.

Needless to say there was plenty of room to stretch out… and some mesmerizing sunrises.

Unwind:

The next morning, we got to see the resort in daylight for the first time, and it sure was lush.

The Ritz offered free tennis, which we took advantage of. It was very easy to get a reservation, at least for 7 in the morning. But I don’t see how anyone can play in the tropical heat after the sun’s out.

When we got to the court, there was a cute little basket with towels and water, which was a nice touch.

Guests staying in regular rooms or suites could enjoy the hotel’s infinity pools.

I believe there was also another pool named the Horizon Pool. We never made it there, since the pool in our villa was guaranteed adult-only.

The Spa at the Ritz was one to match the caliber of the rest of the property. Sometimes you go to a very upscale hotel, but its spa would be lacking. That was not the case here. Funny enough, these spa treatment huts were proper overwater structures, while the villas weren’t.

The spa menu could be found here.

We had treatments here twice during our stay. They were excellent. I mean, otherwise we wouldn’t have come back.

After a tea ritual, we were escorted to the locker room, which required walking down the winding paths connecting the spa huts.

The locker room featured private showers, sauna, steam room and an outdoor whirlpool.

We were then brought to the treatment room, which had an unobstructed view of the water.

I have nothing but positive to say about the spa here. The masseurs and masseuses were friendly and skilled.

The special guest stars of the property were these monkeys that just wandered around the resort. We spotted them on multiple occasions, and it was so neat to watch them on the move.

Refuel:

Dining at the Ritz Langkawi was surprisingly top-notch. Particularly the Hai Yan restaurant. I was bewildered, bedazzled and absolutely perplexed to find this level of Cantonese food on an island.

I love how the restaurant went all out on the traditional Chinese décor - the red lanterns, the carving on the wooden shutters, the water feature, the feng shui.

The hotel was running at full occupancy over the holiday period. We were informed that normally breakfast was only served at Langkawi Kitchen, but to prevent any crowding issues, the hotel opened Hai Yan for breakfast too with a special dim sum menu. The quality here was truly remarkable - it stacks up to Lung King Heen at the Four Seasons Hong Kong on the high end, and Golden Unicorn in NYC on the low end.

Compared to Singapore, Malaysia’s Islamic influence was more prominent, which explains why we had Taiping Houkui for tea but chicken filling for Xiao Long Bao.

And you certainly couldn’t complain about the setting…

Even though it was a fixed price for breakfast, the menu was actually à la carte. Oh I forgot to mention, Ritz properties aren’t obligated to offer free breakfast to Marriott elites, but the Ritz Langkawi did provide us with a 50% discount on breakfast as a Titanium member. So in the end we paid ~200 Ringgit per person per day. Would I have preferred it to be free? Duh. But at least what we paid for was legitimately delicious food, which can’t be said for half of the restaurants in New York.

I’ll let the pictures mostly speak for themselves.

Some of our favorites were the chicken and crab pot stickers, the grouper congee, the fried bean curd shrimp rolls and the stir fried turnip cakes. One slight shortcoming of the dim sum breakfast was food did take a bit too long to come out. However, the freshness of the food was worth the trade-off. I don’t know how they did it, but the fried bean curd shrimp rolls didn’t have one drop of excess oil, all while being perfectly crispy. I’ve only had turnip cakes just pan fried on its own before, but the stir fried version was so much more elevated with crunchy bean sprouts and savory scrambled eggs. Divine. The wok hay from this dish was unreal. The chicken and crab dumplings were so juicy - I’d never expect this much pleasure from eating chicken dumplings…

Hai Yan was so good that we came back for dinner. Prior to that we enjoyed some champagne on the restaurant’s outdoor deck with the sunset.

After dusk, the red lanterns lit up, white table cloths were laid out, and the partitions sparkled.

My partner had a martini to start, while I stuck with the champagne left over from earlier. Dinner menu can be found here.

We were first offered an amuse-bouche, which was a pickled daikon radish. I feel like it would’ve made for a better palate cleanser than an amuse-bouche though.

For appetizers, we ordered the chilled chicken in chili oil with Szechuan peppercorn and peanut, and wok fried prawns with salted egg yolk, curry leaf and bird's eye chili.

For main course, we shared Hai Yan roasted duck with accompaniment set and wok fried scallop with homemade XO sauce and vegetable.

I’m not a big soup person, although I do love a good clam chowder. I am, on the other hand, a huge consommé person. The Cantonese take it to the next level. I mean where else are you gonna find a small fountain of youth with a dozen ingredients that will heal all of your pain? I also love how they’re always priced per person. So, in hopes of staying forever young, I ordered the double boiled duck soup with matsutake mushroom, conpoy, ophiopogon tuber, morel mushroom and Chinese herbs. The fact that it had both matsutake and morel mushroom was wild. I guess it was $25 for five sips…

We were beyond full at this point. After we asked for the bill, the waiter came back with a complimentary bowl of tang yuan, or glutinous rice balls.

And fortune cookies in fancy packaging…

What an unbelievably impeccable restaurant.

We tried out the hotel’s usual venue for breakfast on one morning, at the Langkawi Kitchen.

Breakfast here was the traditional buffet, with a reasonably extensive supplement menu for specialty dishes. We started our day with coffee, in one form or another.

For some reason, the staff at breakfast were borderline pushy about offering alcoholic beverages. Having espresso martinis at a resort breakfast was never something I manifested for. Not that I’m complaining…

Although not explicitly stated, it was my impression that you could drink as much as you wanted.

The buffet had a large selection, though not overly so compared to other hotels in this part of the world. We tried various curries and of course nasi lemak.

The spicy fried chicken for the nasi lemak was phenomenal.

Then there was a substantial made-to-order menu in addition to the buffet. We tried the lobster omelet, had to get some kind of rendang, steak and eggs and a pandan french toast.

These dishes were good. Although I think they sounded better than they tasted. Still, it was commendable for the hotel to offer such a well-thought out menu.

Since it’s our only day at Langkawi Kitchen, I sent my partner to get “a couple” sweets. Well, he started chatting with the pastry chef, and she insisted that we try everything.

On Christmas Eve, the hotel hosted a special buffet dinner at the Beach Grill, which we partook. I think we paid around ~$250 per person? It did not include any alcohol. It’s pretty common for hotels to capitalize on the festive season - just look at the dinner prices at any resort in the Maldives between Christmas and New Year.

At night, the restaurant was set up with multiple cooking stations.

The food was mostly great, though there were some misses. Our grilled local Langkawi lobster was outstanding. The king crab? Not so much.

Never have I had a bad Peking duck, and this was no exception. The choice of egg crepes as wrappers was a curious one…

The live pasta station was whipping up a truffle pumpkin agnolotti in veal ragu.

The stunner of the evening was a gorgeous piece of Australian wagyu sirloin, topped with a piece of foie gras of an equal size, and more truffle, cuz why not.

Interestingly, all of the cheeses were of Malaysian origin, so we were intrigued to sample them. They were okay.

To conclude dinner, we were presented a dessert menu.

We shared a white peach panna cotta with orange gel and chocolate crumble, and a Christmas cake with pistachio and white chocolate whipped ganache.

Halfway through dinner, the band returned from their break and performed some international ballads. I requested Garota de Ipanema, and the band was kind enough to indulge me.

Depart:

One week flew by at the Ritz Langkawi. Overall we had a fantastic stay. I want to share some context, which hopefully will give you a better sense of what to expect from this property. Malaysia is home to one of the biggest Marriott franchisees in the region - YTL Hotels. YTL owns the Ritz we stayed at in Koh Samui, and the Ritz we were staying at next in Kuala Lumpur. So naturally we thought the Ritz Langkawi would be owned by YTL as well. As it turned out, it was not the case. The Ritz-Carlton Langkawi is owned by Achi Jaya, a holding company with a diverse cluster of enterprises, ranging from real estate to palm oil. As far as I can tell, this is the only hotel they own. Nestled in the center of the resort compound was the owner’s villa for the family.

So what’s the takeaway from all of this? I feel like this hotel was less corporately run, and that the standards were upheld not for pleasing guests but to satisfy the owner. For example, which hotel would equip its housekeepers with Dyson vacuum…

On Christmas Eve, the hotel delivered each guest a full-size Diptyque candle.

I have one last point to make. Prices on the property were by no means cheap, but we always felt like it was more than worth the money. From incredible restaurants to fabulous massages, you got what you paid for and then some. It’s so refreshing in today’s world, as so many other “luxury” hotels overcharge and under-deliver. Nothing is shortchanged here at the Ritz-Carlton Langkawi.