Palace Hotel Tokyo

A Modern Rebuild on the Site of Edo Castle's Main Gate

The address has carried a hotel since 1947, when the postwar Hotel Teito opened in a converted government building across from the Imperial Palace moat. It became the Palace Hotel in 1961, just ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, and stayed in that form for half a century before a full three-year rebuild replaced it with the 23-story hotel standing today, opened in May 2012. The architecture firm Mitsubishi Jisho Sekkei designed the building, and the interiors, led by G.A Group under executive design director Terry McGinnity, were drawn up to sit quietly across from Otemon Gate, the former main gate of Edo Castle, with stonework that echoes the palace's own moat walls rather than competing with them.

Why It Works

We chose Palace Hotel Tokyo because it has kept earning its standing rather than resting on its 2012 opening. It has held a Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star rating every year since 2016, becoming the first wholly Japanese-owned and Japanese-operated hotel to reach that level, and it has carried the MICHELIN Guide's Three Keys distinction since the award's 2024 debut, one of only three Tokyo hotels and the only Japanese-brand property to hold it. It is also a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. Together those marks describe a hotel judged consistently by outside standards, not just by its own history or its address.

Why This Location

The hotel sits directly across the moat from the Imperial Palace gardens, facing Otemon Gate, the historic main entrance to Edo Castle, in the middle of Marunouchi, Tokyo's premier business district. An underground passage connects the hotel straight to Otemachi subway station, and Tokyo Station is a ten-minute walk away, which puts the rest of the city, and a same-day trip beyond it by shinkansen, within easy reach. Inside, the public spaces carry more than a thousand pieces of art curated by Art Front Gallery, turning the walk from the lobby to a restaurant into something closer to a quiet museum circuit than a hotel corridor.

Fast Facts

• Price: EUR EUR EUR EUR / design heritage

• Vibe: Moat-side grandeur, understated

• Rooms: 290, including suites up to 255 square meters

• Best For: Travelers wanting five-star service steps from the Imperial Palace

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The Imperial Palace garden views from most rooms

• Dining: Ten restaurants and bars, including Michelin-starred Esterre and Sushi Kanesaka

• Amenities: evian SPA TOKYO, indoor pool, fitness center, more than 1,000 curated artworks

• Attractions: Imperial Palace gardens, Otemon Gate, Tokyo Station, Marunouchi district

Ten Restaurants, One Michelin Star in the Room, and an evian Spa

Dining runs across ten restaurants and bars, anchored by Esterre, a one-Michelin-star French restaurant created with chef Alain Ducasse, and Sushi Kanesaka, which holds two Michelin stars under chef Shinji Kanesaka. Amber Palace serves Michelin-starred Chinese cooking, Wadakura covers kaiseki and other Japanese formats, GO is teppanyaki, Tatsumi is tempura, and Grand Kitchen handles all-day dining. The Royal Bar and the Palace Lounge round out the ground floor, while Lounge Bar Prive, on the sixth floor, looks over the Imperial Palace gardens by day and the city skyline after dark, and is where the hotel's reservation-only afternoon tea is served. Above it, the 1,200-square-meter evian SPA TOKYO, only the second evian-branded spa outside France, holds a Five-Star spa rating alongside separate men's and women's relaxation lounges.

Garden Views as the Default, Not the Upgrade

The hotel counts 290 rooms in total, including suites that reach 255 square meters, with standard categories starting around 45 to 55 square meters. Most rooms are built to face the Imperial Palace gardens rather than the Marunouchi skyline, a reversal of how most city hotels assign their best views, and open-style bathrooms with soaking tubs are standard rather than reserved for the highest categories. More than half the rooms open onto private balconies, and select categories include access to a Club Lounge, which keeps the garden-facing design logic running from the lobby up to the top floors.