Stayed at the Tanjung Aru a few years ago so my advice may well be out of date. You could contact the hotel via its website and they may send you copies of the restaurant menus (they did for us). Also might be worth signing up for the Shangri-La loyalty programme as this may offer a few freebies (like it used to entitle you to free breakfasts but not sure if that applies now).

The hotel is just outside the city so good for getting out to local restaurants and department stores and night markets. For beaches we used to use the hotel boat to the outlying islands which are a five to ten minute ride...a convenient but pricey option. We used to order room service breakfast which was so vast we took some to the islands for our lunch. The islands though have some good snorkelling and wildlife...I had a macaque knick my backpack, and a snake in the tree branch over the sunbed we were using. Note though facilities are limited on the islands they are not part of the hotel.

Many thanks for that, and your time,kind regards

Hi, Can't help with the hotel or eating out as didn't stay there but we stayed at the sister hotel Rasa Ria, last February and had a fantastic time. We did stop on a coach at your hotel and looked very nice, we were on our way to the Klias wetlands on a trip very good trip. You see the proboscus monkeys, and lots of other wildlife.
There is a shuttle between the two hotels and would be worth you catching it to see the orang-utan sanctuary at the rasa ria as it is really good, you can stay and use the facilities as well, and the beach.

The restaurants at the Rasa Ria were about the same price as here to eat £20 per person for the buffets which were really good food.

The weather was very hot and humid with the odd heavy shower, mosquito's were not a problem but kept covered with deet spray.

I wore the same as I would here in hot weather really, dresses, linen trousers, skirts with t,shirts and blouses.

We did find it hard to change travellers cheques apart from in hotel, there is ATm's and cash was easy to change.

Lots of good trips to do, if you like wildlife, and scenery, as said the islands of Kota Kinabalu are lovely for snorkelling and peace.

The people are really friendly.

Have a great time we did.

Hope you have a fantastic time, we did.