Over view
If you want nostalgia, elegance, and colonial charm, and would like to stay in a historic hotel with furniture and fittings matching a former time and place, complimented by deferential (but not necessarily efficient) service, then this MIGHT be the place for you.

Location
The E&O is situated in a sea side location close to many of the tourist sites, but its magnificent colonial frontal façade overlooks a run down area with some of the closest venues more appropriate to Pattaya, or Patpong.

Rooms and Hotel facilities
We stopped (February) in a spacious, well appointed, (apart from the steam driven TV) and quiet ‘Delux sea view suite’ on the first floor, at the furthest point from the hotels main restaurant room.
Breakfast therefore was a ten minute walk away from our room through the lovely tropical gardens or the atmospheric corridors full of smiling staff. At each step we expected celebrities of a bye gone era to join us on our way. If we had received a ten MYR discount on our bill for each ‘good morning’ we received it would have been a free three day stay.

Unfortunately if you can draw yourself to look away from the immaculately kept grounds on the sea side of the hotel and sidestep the populous and noisy wedding breakfasts that spill out into the guests walkway each morning, the immediate view over the sea wall is of a filthy rubbish strewn (and at low tide smelly) foreshore/sea and a long unromantic view of dockside cranes and merchant shipping.

The supposedly historic Main Bar was a cold (nearly arctic) and lifeless venue with a loud and unwatched TV in the corner (perhaps inappropriate for a bar professing to be from the late 19th century). Unfortunately the inattentive and rude staff were unable to keep a proper check on what we were actually drinking, (which wasn't much given the ambience), and therefore paying for, as we found out when we came to check out. Take note: drinks are not signed for so others may be having a good time at your expense.

The hotel has a small pool close to the foreshore which was good for taking attractive photographs but mostly unattended perhaps because of the smells at low tide from over the wall

Restaurants and meals
A good choice of well cooked and well presented breakfasts and good value buffet meals are served in the main restaurant situated in newly built (but as yet unoccupied) 400 room soulless concrete ‘extension’. Unfortunately the area nearby is full of builders detritus supposedly hidden behind a corrugated iron fence. The foreshore here or the dumpster half hidden behind this fence is probably the best place for the architect who designed the new wing.

We paid extra for the ‘special’ Valentines Day evening meal and dressed in what we thought would be appropriate attire for the Hotel and the occasion.

The Hotel Manager complimented me on my linen jacket and Thai silk tie and my wife’s evening dress (which we had carted round Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand) en route to the venue, but we felt slightly annoyed to find ourselves mostly surrounded by people in sweaty tee shirts, shorts, and baseball caps. Luckily this did not spoil our romantic evening or the lovely eight course meal.

Perhaps a mild dress code might be more in keeping with the Hotels marketing initiatives, certainly large women in near bikini tops leaning over a magnificent display of sushi food can be off putting !

Has much charm and a nice feel. Service lacked in some areas. In 1855 which is billed as a fine dining restaurant their was little fine dining training. Not knowing the difference between sparkling and tap water a little alarming. Fine dining menus are normally accompanied by fine wine....alas not. 5 star hotels need to ensure their staff understand way they are there. We did not let this affect our stay which was good but it should have been special. The service in 1885 was friendly but so inexperienced.

My wife and I together with my son, daughter-in-law & 6 year old granddaughter visited this hotel for 4 nights from 25th February. Having read the reviews we were ready for the "Old World" feel of the hotel and we were made to feel very welcome on our arrival. The current hotel( they are adding a larges number of rooms in the next month or so) consists of all suites in the traditional colonial style (modern materials-a lot of plastic!!) Our suites were large and sea & pool facing with lovely outlooks - we could easily see the towels on the sunbeds before 8am - nothing changes does it?). The staff generally were very polite and friendly and ready to help and we were escorted to our suite by a charming young man who explained some of the history of the hotel.
Whilst the A/c in the room was fine and easily adjustable that in the public areas was definately arctic and remained so all the time we were there, a covering up was need each time we left the room.
As it was our first night and we arrived in the evening we decided to eat in the corner restaurant adjacent to the bar. One other couple were inside but the place looked like an empty fish restaurant on a wet Sunday. It was devoid of any character but without at that stage realising we could eat outside we sat down. There were three staff in the room - nobody approached us, welcomed us - we were ignored completely. Then we realised we could sit outside so we moved- past the waiters & manager type- again ignored- found our own table and althoughstaff came out to bring orders to othe couples completely ignored us for at least 10 minutes until we went and requested service We observed another couple who arrived after us and they received the same treatment. Service was then forthcoming but so slowly that it took an hour plus for our main course to arrive after a starter. No apologies or explanation given but we did determine that there was another function on elsewhwere. Unforunately this set the tone for our appreciation of the hotel and although we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Penang, if I went again I would not stay in the E&O. We did enjoy the breakfasts which were excellent with plenty of choice and a good standard. The hotel is too full of it's own importance and it seemd to us that they went out of there way to favour some guests above others. For a very expensive stay i am afraid we all came away a little disappointed.

I stayed at the E&O when they first opened and was blown away by their cozy colonial elegance and classy opulence. I was keen to go back again and after many years, we found time to go. It was my husband's first time staying there and was looking forward to it after hearing about my memorable stay. Boy, were we disappointed!

We booked into their Georgetown Suite (#335), which was huge in size with a separate living room and dining area, bedroom, walk-in closet (a room in itself!) and a big bathroom. But it being so large, there did not seem to be enough furniture or interior furnishings to fill up the space! What furniture there were were tacky and cheap, much like a 3-star hotel's furnishing. Lighting was not sufficient for such a size, so parts of our suite were shroud in creepy darkness. The bed was also big but hard, and the pillows were much too soft and thin. The airconditioning was also arctic no matter how you adjusted it.

What irked us most was the noise - we had our baby with us and were assured that our suite which faces the city/main road would not be noisy as their latest refurbishment included double-glazed windows. This is NOT true - we heard every music beat playing from opposite bars, every car driving/horning by and each motorcycle rattling pass. We were also unfortunate enough to have the noisiest water pump in the planet above our suite, which clanked, hissed and sighed throughout the day and night. Our baby kept waking up throughout the night, as did we.

We were informed that breakfast would be served till 11am, but by 10.30am the food were not replenished and they began to start clearing the buffet trays away. That said, we enjoyed their freshly fried noodles and roti canai; and the buffet spread was good.

Service on the whole was acceptable but not particularly notable. You would expect staying at such a beautiful hotel paying these prices that your stay would be the most memorable one... But we beg to differ.