Exclusive:W Edinburgh opens: First look at luxury hotel, with SushiSamba, spa, 12th-floor deck and suite with outdoor shower

The Scotsman has received a tour of the W Edinburgh building, as the luxury hotel officially opens in the Scottish capital

It’s seven years since the rather divisive W Edinburgh building went up, and it’s become a familiar part of the city’s skyline.

I’d almost forgotten that we couldn’t actually go inside, until now. The luxury 12-storey hotel opens to guests and visitors from Wednesday and I’m the first journalist to get a look.

On my visit, they’re completing the final tweaks, with potted buckets of decorative moss being delivered to each of their 244 bedrooms.

Extreme Wow Suite living room

Past the bright W neon sign outside, there’s the relatively sedate reception, which features a tapestry made from a deconstructed tartan pattern, wooden unicorn heads on plaques, and a small Lobby Bar. They’ll be serving Champagne, but don’t be scared off.

“Everyone thinks the hotel will be so expensive, but a pint of beer here is cheaper than Cafe Royal and the food and wine pricing is competitive, because we need to rely on locals using this place,” says the hotel manager, Ken Millar.

The building is packed with other surprises. I’m led through a corridor that was inspired by the capital’s closes, and past a wall that’s covered in graffiti artwork by Craig Black, who has worked for organisations including the NFL.

As Millar says: “This place is so different from anything else in Edinburgh that it’s really going to make a huge impact on the hotel scene.”

The lobby at W Edinburgh

We get the lift up to the 12th floor W Deck, which will surely be the best seat in the house at Hogmanay.

You can take in 360-degree views of the whole of the city, from Calton Hill to Princes Street and right down to the bottom of Leith. There are dining pods up here, including one that fits up to 20 guests and features fleecy chairs, and a bar is coming soon. It’ll be open to everyone. They’re even hoping to employ a permanent tour guide to point out landmarks.

“You can have breakfast, afternoon tea and drinks up here,” says Millar, who’s headed up various hotels, including the Renaissance in Amsterdam and Turnberry in Ayr.

This outdoor space connects, via the helter-skelter of an external staircase, to the terrace outside the hotel’s 11th floor W Lounge.

Joao's Place cocktail bar

They’ll be serving sharing plates and drinks with Irish, Scottish and Welsh influences, as part of a Gaelic-nations-influenced menu that’s been designed by executive chef, John Maltby, who was previously at five-star Adare Manor in Ireland. I’m led round to the adjoining bar, with its velvety seats, and the chef’s table, where there’s a suspended glass fish-bone sculpture.

Through a curtain, there’s yet another bar, Joao’s Place, which is based on a 1975 apartment in Brazil and will serve bar snacks and cocktails. It has pops of retro orange and yellow colours, and a record player with various albums from artists who’ve played in Rio de Janeiro. (The Bee Gees are currently top of the pile).

As with all the hotel’s spaces, there are terraces everywhere, with fire pits and outdoor seating. It is the same for the 86-cover Japanese, Peruvian and Brazilian restaurant SushiSamba, which has a ceiling of hammered metal to resemble rippling water, a bar that’s covered in scale-like leaves and a private dining room with koi carp mural. This is on the level below W Lounge and boasts the ornamental feature of a copper-leaved faux tree. It was created by a set designer on Harry Potter and its tallest branches poke through an aperture in the ceiling.

“We’re already nearly fully booked every Saturday night in SushiSamba now,” says Millar. “People have been waiting for it.”

Extreme Wow Suite at W Hotel, Edinburgh

They’ll be offering dishes including Highland wagyu gyozas and Edinburgh samba sushi rolls filled with Scottish lobster, and serving an a la carte breakfast, with produce from the likes of East Coast Cured and IJ Mellis.

Our next stop on the tour is room 901 – the Extreme Wow Suite, which will sell for around £10,000 a night in high season.

The first thing you see here, and in all the rooms, is a stone table designed to look like volcanic rock, with a blue inset in the outline of the Nor Loch. This huge suite features a lounge, pantry, artwork by local photographer Jodie Mann, an open plan changing area with swivelling mirrors, and a round bed (all the other rooms have traditionally shaped ones) that can revolve so you can wake up with a view of Edinburgh Castle.

There’s an internal sauna, but also an outdoor shower on the terrace. According to Millar, nobody can see you out there, apart from, maybe, the pigeons.

It must be the poshest bedroom in the city. “We have 45 suites, which is the highest number in Edinburgh,” says Millar.

The rooms are spread across the main building, but they also have bedrooms in the classic Georgian townhouse on St James Square.

W Edinburgh exterior

The staff have an underground tunnel to get across there and there’s a private check-in down in the car park. Thus, visiting A-listers can remain incognito. The musical ones could book out the hotel’s fifth floor recording studio, Sound Suite, or hang out in their Away Spa, where they offer ishga treatments across five rooms, one of which has its own small plunge pool. Their gym is still in the pipeline.

It’s hard to tell from the inside which sections of the building are incorporated into the St James Quarter, with a second reception area that’s situated opposite food hall Bonnie & Wild. According to Millar, bookings are flooding in already, with 80 guests due on the opening weekend.

“We’re also fully booked for two rugby weekends next year already, and I think Hogmanay is going to be a big one,” he says. “There’s been a lot of interest from China and the Middle East too.”

W Edinburgh, 1 St James Square, Edinburgh, www.marriott.com