The first Hyatt Centric in Southeast Asia sits in the most walkable corner of Kota Kinabalu. A weekend with Sabah’s most outward-facing hotel, its rooftop sunsets, and the city it insists you go and find for yourself.

The sky turns from blue to burning orange, then a kaleidoscope of purples, pinks and lilacs, before disappearing all at once under the cover of night. I watched the sun descend behind Gaya Island as a crowd grew on the outdoor terrace of ON23 Sky Bar at Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu, each person clamouring for the best angle with a cocktail in hand and mine, ironically, a Borneo Sunrise.

Alvin Angkal, the bar’s lead mixologist was telling me this was the understated version. “Come back between October and March,” he said, “and you can watch the sun drop between two smaller islands to the west of Gaya, going down the horizon like a salted egg yolk“. I took this as reason to return, and ordered another drink.

Getting Here, Getting In

I should say upfront that I arrived in Sabah with a cold that had not yet decided whether it was coming or going. Nearly three hours from KLIA—further than the likes of Bangkok or even Phnom Penh—is long enough on a good day, and longer when your sinuses are staging their own private weather event at 30,000 feet.

Adrian was waiting at the arrival hall with a sign, a sight for sore eyes after an arduous journey across the South China Sea. The drive from the airport took about 20 minutes, and introduced the coastal city sitting pressed between sea and hills. Approaching from the south, the Kengo Kuma-designed Hyatt Centric stands out with its stunning white side profile towering over its neighbours.

The porte cochere faces a quieter backroad, while the building’s other face opens directly onto one of the city’s busiest arteries, with Suria Sabah mall across the road. The lobby sits between both streets connecting them like a covered public passage with mechanised doors at either end. Reception on one side, lobby café and seating on the other. The ground floor is swathed in Selangan batu hardwood, a timber native to the Bornean jungle, its dark warm grain running behind clusters of live bamboo rising from beds of large boulders. Above, a ceiling of parallel wooden slats added texture to resemble the branches in the forest top.

My arrival was, to be honest, a little overwhelming. I was lethargic, recovering, and hoping for a low-key check-in, which the front desk delivered efficiently while acknowledging my World of Hyatt Discoverist status. I took the elevator up to the eleventh floor, past the intricate wood wall sculptures handcarved by Anniketyni Madian, with the single-minded purpose going horizontal immediately. In the moment, it simply felt like walking into somewhere that smelled like outside while remaining unmistakably inside.

Within the isolation of the elevators, I noticed the shallow ridges in its warm wooden walls all around me as though I was within the hollow of a trunk, until I looked again and the scales of a pangolin emerged from the same surface, pressed flat into the grain. I would learn later that the architect designed the hotel around the idea of the mountain ascent, the lobby as the foot of the climb, and ON23 as the summit. On the eleventh floor, the carpet underfoot carried a woven textile motif drawn from Kadazan-Dusun tradition and the floor’s number signage was in a style I recognised immediately. The artist, Agnes Lau, is based in Kuala Lumpur and her cut stone murals also appear at the Park Hyatt, both curated by Artlink.

At the Corner on Eleven

With a click of my green key card, I was transported into a sanctuary where my next two nights would be spent. My King Bed Deluxe Room, 1108, came in at 67 sqm including the balcony that opens up towards Signal Hill. The entry hallway is wide enough to open a full suitcase without compromise, with a closet area directly ahead and a luggage stand already waiting in the cabinet.

To the right, the bathroom: floor-to-ceiling grey concrete-effect tiles, a single sink with a brightly lit mirror, a walk-in shower with intuitive temperature control and pressure better than decent, a bathtub with a pronounced back slope and grip handles, and a toilet with a washlet, bidet, bumgun, and a flush of genuinely impressive hydraulic force. I absolutely loved the toilet. The bath amenities are Beekind as expected at Hyatt Centrics.

To the left, the bedroom opens up and keeps opening. My gast was flabbered at the sheer volume of this room. A king bed sits at one corner, dwarfed by the space and among the best I have slept on, firm with proper support, dressed in silky-smooth linens with pillows of two different compositions. A long light-wood table runs the full length of the room, housing the minibar, a Nespresso machine with capsules and TWG teas, and a woven basket box that became the organisational centre for all my small items across the stay. A comfortable sitting area would have made for great hosting if I had visitors to share the assortment of snacks provided by the hotel as a welcome amenitiy.

The design language throughout is Japanese meeting Bornean. Sliding panel dividers separate the bedroom and bathroom from the entryway, the bedroom panel carrying a geometric rendering of Mount Kinabalu’s profile. In true Japanese minimalism, the vertical surfaces in my room were largely bare, except for the headboard wall that resembled the side of a traditional wooden house carrying another local motif in the Kadazan-Dusun traditional costume.

In the morning, light enters early and warm, and the green mass of Signal Hill at dawn is not a consolation prize of not booking a sea-facing room. The balcony has a table and lounger, though the Bornean morning sun made alfresco coffee a pipe dream and I lasted about 45 seconds before retreating inside. Something to keep in mind: the balcony door disconnects the air-conditioning when left open, a power-saving measure I discovered the hard way on my first evening.

Beyond the Room

The hotel’s most photographed feature, the double infinity pool to swim from hill to sea, sits on the rooftop beside ON23. Over head, the pool is open to the sky through the same interlaced slats that let sunlight fragment through the lobby below, which also means there is very little shade and a fair amount of heat by midday. The lack of sunbeds and personal space would usually leave me disgruntled as I am, by inclination, a lounger not a swimmer. But if you’re up here for the perfect Instagram moment, you’d be better off doing so early in the morning or just before sunset, lest the sun burn you to a crisp.

The hotel’s other amenities are easy to miss if you spend most of your time at ON22 and ON23, which you’ll see I did. The lobby’s waiting area has iced infused water on tap as a sensible kindness in the equatorial heat. A 24-hour fitness centre sits behind ON23, which I later found awkward as bar guests would be watching gymgoers scuttle in the background. On Level 3, the hotel’s meeting and event spaces accommodate up to 170 guests and host everything from board meetings to intimate weddings—worth knowing if the hotel is being considered for something other than a personal stay.

Dining at the Summit

ON22 All-Day Dining

The main dining outlet at Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu is ON22. Taking the entire 22nd floor, guests have a choice of sea views or hill views on either side of the restaurant, centered around a massive double-twisted spiral staircase that connects it to ON23 above. The walls are covered in textured stone tiling that reads, up close, as tightly packed bamboo trunks. Seating is separated by live plants, with a private alcove toward the rear that doubles as a butterfly gallery of framed botanical compositions by artist Raku Inoue, made from actual flowers, leaves and stems gathered from his own garden as a nod to Sabah’s biodiversity. Even the restrooms play along with the design language, disappearing behind doors tiled to match the stone walls, a hidden-door theme that runs through every floor I walked down.

The kitchen’s strength is Sabahan and Malaysian cuisine. For lunch, I enjoyed a beef tendon soup with real unctuous depth, fragrant kerabu rice, rendang brisket, kasturi grilled chicken, Sabah-style chicken satay, and kangkung belacan using young tender leaves with a belacan that is mild enough for the uninitiated, but still strong enough for the enthusiast. As I visited over a weekend, the Salt & Smoke semi-buffet dinner sees family-style sharing plates with the likes of enormous Kudat prawns from the northernmost tip of Sabah and refreshingly crunchy papaya salad in a rotating menu. I held one against my hand for scale, and the prawn was not the embarrassed one.

At seated height from a sea-facing booth, the view edits the city out, leaving only the blue waters and green islands in the middle distance, while the light changes through the day. Breakfast prioritises quality over breadth, with an egg station where my request for extra-runny scrambled eggs was met with an affirmative ‘certainly‘. My usual benchmark is a classic teh tarik, and the one here was sweetened just right, though I should have asked if someone could actually “pull” the tea for some frothy aeration. The highlights of breakfast lay within the à la minute menu: great avocado toast with a silky smooth mash and a perfect poached egg, a Benedict with the same liquid gold yolk, and the stray kimchi fried rice that did not need to be this good in Sabah.

Service at ON22 was intuitive. Arion hosted me at lunch with a friendliness that knew when to step back, and Joyce checked on me throughout the Saturday dinner with attentiveness that was, given I was the only solo diner at a family-style buffet. My takeaway is that ON22 is comfortable even when you are alone, but of course the best dining experiences are always shared, as I watched the crowd swell and ebb into the evening.

ON23 SKy Bar

The crown jewel of Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu is almost undoubtedly its rooftop bar. ON23’s counter is polished dark granite with geometric angles. My knuckles can confirm its solidity. Behind it, carved niches in the stone wall that extend from ON22 display a collection of spirits under warm directional lighting.

I spent most of both evenings at the bar, because the bar’s lead mixologist Alvin, was behind it and the conversation was worth staying close to. He speaks about the local liquid landscape with candour, drawing comparisons with Kuala Lumpur’s far more mature scene, and the fire of a craftsman building his own from nothing.

Originally intending on a light dinner with food from ON22 being sent up the spiral staircase, I gravely underestimated the generosity of its Mee Tuaran, Soft Shell Crab and Teriyaki Chicken Skewers—all of which were flavourful and moreish as bar snacks pulling double duty as dinner. The cornerstone of ON23’s menu is its signature cocktail programme: The Borneo Collection, with eight elixirs inspired by the ascent towards Low’s Peak, unified by the presence of local rice wine (Lihing or Montoku) in every glass.

Haus Bah!! is one of the bar’s signature, a reinterpretation of the everyday kitchai ping with Lihing rice wine, Havana rum, dried sour plum, fresh calamansi, wild ginger. Tenom is built on the espresso martini, substituting espresso with freshly brewed Tenom coffee and Kahlua, boozed up by Lihing Montoku and a shot of Belvedere vodka. Alongside the Collection, Alvin is developing a personal signatures menu, and I was blessed to try the Mystic Mango with sous-vide bambangan wild mango clarified milk-punch style with mezcal smoke; and the Bold Like Grandma, built on wild ginger and Lihing and named for the grandmother’s face on the bottle. While the menu is not officially printed yet, I’m sure Alvin would be ecstatic if you ask for them by name.

For guests who suffer from decision fatigue like I do, ON23 offers a Cocktail With Your Name as a standing invitation to let the bar create something bespoke based what you enjoy. The bartender photographs you with an instant camera when the drink is served, and the film pinned to a board as a growing archive of customised orders and the people who inspired them. In a city where the most common order is a gesture at the draft beer taps, a custom cocktail may be the less intimidating introduction to mixology.

Dine@Hyatt

Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu is one of five hotels that participates in the new Dine@Hyatt dining privileges programme, alongside Hyatt Centric City Centre Kuala Lumpur, Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur, and Hyatt Regency Kuala Lumpur at KL Midtown. The free programme scores members total bill discounts of up to 20%, and an instant RM50 cash voucher upon registration.

READ ALSO: Where to Dine@Hyatt: The Signature Dining Experiences of 5 Hyatt Hotels in Malaysia

I Was Here, So I Went Anywhere

Somewhere in the middle of my second day dragging myself through the Central Market in 32-degree heat, I retreated to Mizumizu coffee for the air-conditioning as much as the americano, and walked a circuit of the city’s mural-covered walls and landmark streets. Oftentimes when I have a nice hotel, I feel more compelled to stay in and relax than to push further, where heading out feels like a task rather than a pleasure. And yet, this one made it so frictionless to leave and return that I kept going anyway.

This is where the Hyatt Centric promise is fulfilled: you are here, now go anywhere. Every location I visited across my trip was within 10-15 minutes on foot of the lobby: Gaya Street, Central Market, Anjung Kinabalu Handicraft Market, Atkinson Clock Tower, Signal Hill, the 0km Sabah marker at the Tourism Board headquarters, the café corridor between Gaya Street and the clock tower where Woo! and Little Sulap are within minutes of each other. The city is smaller than it looks from the rooftop, and the hotel more central than its location on the map suggests.

What this means is that returning to the lobby for a rest or back to the room for a shower costs nothing. No long Grab ride, no time surrendered to transit, no internal negotiation about whether the return trip is worth the effort. The air-conditioning is always a few minutes away, which means the permission to push a little further into the city is always available. I used it repeatedly, retreating when the merciless sun became untenable and then heading back out. A cold, as it happens, makes a useful forcing function for this kind of itinerary, and my safe space was always closer than the decision to return felt.

Jack, the guest experience manager, led Friday evening’s walk through the Gaya Street weekend market as part of the hotel’s rotating programme of guest activities that also includes Alvin’s mixology sessions and visits to the surrounding neighbourhood. The night market on Fridays and Saturdays sees street food stalls with snaking queues, buskers drawing crowds, people picnicking on the pavement without a fret in the world. Seems like an easier life than back in KL, that’s for sure.

Saturday morning I found the Central Market busy even at ten, and the Anjung Kinabalu Handicraft Market packed with stalls selling beadwork, pearl accessories, textiles, and serious quantities of dried seafood like sea cucumbers ranging in scale from the adorable to the genuinely grotesque, anchovies by the kilogram, scallops in bulk. Not my kind of haunt, if I am honest, but a good place for visitors wanting to bring a piece of Sabah home.

The most memorable meal of the trip happened not at the hotel but at Little Sulap, a small warung-style café found for me by the hotel team because I had asked where I can experience butod or sago worms. Between the live grub emphatically squirming in its bowl, and the platter of Sabah dishes like ginuring basung fish, bambangan pickle, wild ginger pickle, sour turmeric soup, I have not felt this connected to a place on any other trip this past year.

Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu possesses the main quality that makes city hotels worth their room rates: it made every excursion feel low-stakes and every return feel like a reward. For explorers looking to venture further than the city proper, the Jesselton Point ferry terminal just nearby serves as the starting point for island excursions, while the more beachy destinations are a short car ride away.

Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu in the World of Hyatt

Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu is a Category 2 property in the World of Hyatt. Under the restructured award chart introduced in May 2026, standard rooms redeem from 6,000 points and standard suites from 11,000 points, placing a points redemption among the more efficient uses of a modest World of Hyatt balance in Malaysia. As a full service, core branded hotel, all World of Hyatt elite benefits apply at this property. Suite upgrade awards can be applied at booking; Globalist members receive complimentary suite upgrades on check-in where inventory permits.

The Verdict

Come Sunday morning, Adrian was waiting again, asking me about my weekend to which I excitedly shared my stories. What stood out to me over this weekend was not any one feature of the hotel, but the consistency and hospitality of the people inside it. Service across Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu felt personal without feeling performed with an instinct for distance paired with genuine concern for its guests’ wellbeing.

Kota Kinabalu is not short of sky bars, and it will have considerably more accommodations in the next few years. But against all that, this hotel’s advantage is that it has a distinct culture that feels both foreign and familiar at the same time, one that speaks Kuma’s Japanese sensibility and affection for the botanical, and Sabah’s colourful identity in the same breath. I arrived two days prior with a cold and a low bar for how much of the city I would actually see; and I left with stories I will be describing to friends for the rest of the year.

Alvin mentioned that a young orange cat spends its time around the entrance but does not walk in. I made it a point to find him after hearing they call him Globalist, for the frequency of his visits and a nod towards Hyatt’s most loyal guests. I did not need a hotel to tell me Kota Kinabalu was worth the trip. But it was a hotel that sent me out far enough to find out for myself.

Visuals: Images courtesy of Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu and Bryan Yap for Nacre.

Editorial Note: This stay and its dining experiences were hosted by Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu. Nacre retains full editorial independence; all reflections in this review are the author’s own.

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