The Veil café — Restaurant in Astana

The Good: We have spent over a week in The Veil. Even the standard room had plenty of space (+ for high ceilings), really comfy bed and we also had a nice view of the city (specify when you book!). There are some good restaurants inside, especially the Line Brew was excellent and had amazing steaks. Hotel manager and the reception were really nice and accomodating to our requests, we've even got a nice little suprise in the form of fruit plate as a courtesy of the hotel. In general we had really pleasant stay and we would come again.

The Average: Location is beyond the river from the city center, next to a big park and urban area. Unfortunately there is an unfinished construction site nearby which is quite unsighly (not the hotels fault!) and there is no convenience store nearby. We did walk to city center but mind you - it is somewhere around ~30 minutes walk to get to Bayterek. In the evening taxi is a must. Breakfast was generally good but it isn't a buffet (we knew beforehand) and after couple nights it can get little bit boring. You have a menu from which you can select three items and they are then made to order. Until second to last night of our stay we didn't know the drinks are unlimited so it would be nice this detail is shared with guests first morning. Our recommendation would be shakshuka, toasts with smoked salmon and syrniki. Coffee is fine but not anything special.

Needs improvement: The following are small details but they add up to retraction of the fifth star.

Door opening attitude. We have been witnessess to the personell opening door for guests coming to the visit the hotel / restaurants. Guests who usually came in fancy cars and dressed in designer clothes. How many times were the door open for us who spent 10 nights in the hotel? Exactly 0 times. This was really annoying, especially if we had some bags in hands from shopping etc. The guys "guarding" the entrance were just looking but didn't move to help. Maybe we should've called G class taxi.

Barman in hotel restaurants. Not sure how it works exactly but given all the restaurants have the same coctail menu I guess the barman is the same. And he has no idea what he / she is doing. Most of the coctails are either bland or just plain bad. I had Mojito which was bitter and barely drinkable. Given the fact the hotel wants to be a luxury boutique spot in Astana they should invest either in a proper training or just change the barman completely.

Toilet paper policy. Why, in a luxurious hotel, are we faced with quota of 1 paper roll / day? Why do I have to, as a guest, call the reception to request more TP just because that 1 roll simply might not be enough and there is no other TP in storage in the room? This is ridiculous and the paper is not even that good. I would expect 3 or 4 ply at least.

Best for the last - be aware of the hidden protection! So we had booked multiple rooms for the family. And when the other family members were checking out an absolute bombshell of a question came from the receptionist: "In room xxx, did you use the protection?". After our disbelief in the the question it was repeated: "The protection, Durex, did you use it?". To give little explanation - there was a package of complimentary (or not?!) condoms in one of the cupboards. Also - the receptionist knew the room was occupied by two ladies. I don't know in which culture it is ok to ask such a question. In my world travels I never had to explain if I had fun in the room or not. If I had used protection or not. This was outrageous and absolutely not ok. At least it will make for a great family story for years to come. For the hotel: If you leave a package of condoms in the room and DO NOT specify the price, it is automatically considered as complimentary. If you DO specify a price - shame on you as it still is abolutely not ok to ask you guests if they were using condoms...

While The Veil is a beautifully designed hotel, it's also a glaring example of "form over function." First of all, I would not recommend staying at this hotel in the winter. None of the windows are double-paned, and all of the common areas, including the restaurants, are freezing cold. I even felt bad for staff. To make matters worse, the heater didn't work in our room. And, while they did eventually move us to a warmer room, it took them 2+ days to do so, and only after they continued to assure us the heater worked fine. It didn't, as the room they finally moved us to was significantly warmer. Not only did they not apologize for this hassle, or help us switch rooms, but on multiple occasions staff members entered our room without knocking first! Good restaurants, good location, but the staff needs some serious training. And again, while the hotel might be comfortable in the summer months, it certainly wasn't a place I'd recommend...

While The Veil is a beautifully designed hotel, it's also a glaring example of "form over function." First of all, I would not recommend staying at this hotel in the winter. None of the windows are double-paned, and all of the common areas, including the restaurants, are freezing cold. I even felt bad for staff. To make matters worse, the heater didn't work in our room. And, while they did eventually move us to a warmer room, it took them 2+ days to do so, and only after they continued to assure us the heater worked fine. It didn't, as the room they finally moved us to was significantly warmer. Not only did they not apologize for this hassle, or help us switch rooms, but on multiple occasions staff members entered our room without knocking first! Good restaurants, good location, but the staff needs some serious training. And again, while the hotel might be comfortable in the summer months, it certainly wasn't a place I'd recommend...