by One of London’s biggest hotels has a new family member.
Last week I was among the first to set foot in the capital’s newest super luxury hotel, Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. Located on the south-east corner of Hanover Square, it is one of London’s most popular addresses, and the first new-build Mayfair hotel in 10 years. The contemporary exterior is clad in burnt red brick ‘baguettes’, designed to blend in with the Georgian terraces that surround the hotel.
There are 50 rooms, all of which are suites, and 77 privately owned apartments. It is unashamedly opulent, but still feels intimate. Once inside, surrounded by giant clumps of exotic flowers, marble floors and dim lighting, the city melts away and becomes a tranquil island. I can imagine that privacy is high on the priority list for guests, with a client list of CEOs, members of the royal family and high net worth individuals from the worlds of art, fashion and culture.
Where?
The Mandarin Oriental Mayfair is only a few minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus, and has the feel of a more modern sleigh, an oasis in the middle of London’s busy, crowded shopping streets. The entrance and reception are shared between the rooms and apartments, whose owners can use all the decadence of the hotel and have their own space and privacy.
Style
The first Mandarin Oriental in the capital opened in 2000 in Hyde Park and is still going strong, in all its lavish splendour. This new hotel has a very different feel. Less of the grandeur of the original, this feels slimmer, personal, almost spiritual – the design of the restaurant and bar reflects the earth (emerald green Ming marble staircase), fire (the bar’s warm glowing lights), wind (the huge curved sculptures a wooden hoop above you, water (the creamy texture rippling above the chefs as they expertly dice and slice sashimi).
The corridors’ plush carpets are a soft landing after the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street; the hand-painted House de Gournay silk wallpaper in the rooms, a nod to 18th-century style with Hanover Square magnolias, and the chinoiserie recalling the hotel’s roots in Southeast Asia. The first Mandarin Oriental was opened 40 years ago in Hong Kong, the second in Bangkok. The rooms for this Mayfair hotel were designed by Studio Indigo and they usually turn their hands to superyachts and private jets, which means the devil is in the details with clever design and clever use of space, zoning the rooms so that even the entry level. the rooms have a proper sitting room, and all en-suites have double sinks.
I was in the ‘deluxe suite’ and couldn’t stop pressing the ‘privacy setting’ which turns the bathroom window from light filled to frosty at the push of a button. The color scheme is emerald green, maroon and turquoise, with marble, dark wood and plenty of brass, bronze and gold. The company’s emblem, a fan, has become iconic, and a new version has been designed by Vivienne Westwood that hangs in the entrance, and is replicated on postcards in the leather stationery box in the rooms, and also on a chocolate cake (too much – beautiful to eat).
The series of prizes
My bedroom, the Hanover room (from £7,000 a night), not only had a sleek open-plan kitchen-living room (so much marble), but also a large dressing room, where I found a Dyson hairdryer, and not one room, not two, but three different dressing rooms. It made the problem of which one to choose really hard (oh, the problems of the rich) – so I did the only sensible thing and rotated between all three, from the New & Lingwood weight silk to the kimono wafty and the oh. Towel robe – so soft. Being located in central London the views are minimal, with voile curtains covering the floor to ceiling windows – of course I poked my head through, hoping to see into the flats, but all I could see were offices high levels and people tapping away. computers.
The room also had two bathrooms, with Natura Bissé products. One was huge, with a bath (and a gold rubber duck – I laughed), a separate rain shower room with a seat and enough space to swing a couple of angry wet cats on a toilet and then, next to the door of the room so as not to let guests in my private space, guest loo. Ah, the loos. Japanese loos. Heated seats, buttons all over the place… I felt like I was in a funny sketch trying to control the different functions (water jets, dryers), before that I only found the very simple gold wake-up button.
I had to wait longer to get my head around the buttons; in the rooms everything is controlled by a gold bedside touch panel that controls everything from the curtains to the lighting (and it gave my husband a bit of a shock when I accidentally brushed it in the middle of the night and turned the all lights on) . The bed was so big we might as well have had separate bedrooms as we were so far apart, the duvet a big cloud of bright gold silk (dry clean only! Argh!). Basically, I spent 24 hours completely covered and surrounded in silk, and it was lavish, and it was glorious.
Food & drink
At some point it will be necessary to exchange the silk dressing gown and the comfort of the suite for evening finesse, with supper in the very delicious Japanese restaurant, the first in London for chef Akira Back who has 28 restaurants around the world, from Las Vegas to Seoul.
After glancing up the magnificent green marble staircase (very rare, said the maitre’d), up to the large three-height roof, and then diving into Abar’s cocktail lounge, lit directly in orange tones – there was I have a Shochili mango. , with tequila, Hwayo soju, mango, lime, and a togarashi chili kick. The bar hosts ‘after dark’ nights where the secret doors slide to create a buzz, and are open until 2am.
But first, on to the dining room of chef Akira Back’s first-name restaurant, long, narrow and bright with dark wood and cream leather tables, with banquettes on one side that was right on the private side for the customer and right on the right side of it. open to be able to spy on the 1% sitting nearby. All very expensive clips.
Both food and drink menus were written by people I like to eat with regularly. It was hard to choose from the crowd-pleasing menu, but I went for one dish from the ‘cold’ section (tuna pizza with umami aioli, shisu, truffle oil and fresh black truffles, £26, on a great but welcoming tortilla. -esque base), the ‘hot’ wagyu bulgogi tacos, a black miso cod main with yuja foam (£52) from ‘mains’, and the ‘hot mess’ sushi roll, with poke sashimi, crab tempura and spicy ponzu aioli. . I was entertained by the sommelier whose wine list was divided in a way I wish all menus were, simple to follow and making it easy to try something new. I jumped straight into the ‘experimental and unconventional’ section (Iranian Samarghandi please!), then tried one from ‘light fresh and pure’, and so on. The articles echoed the theme of wind, water, earth and fire in the design of the restaurant, and ‘fire’ was described as rich, bold and hearty, for example.
All staff seemed happy, almost emotional, that the hotel was finally open (it’s been a while), and eager to go the extra mile at every opportunity. At breakfast, the waiter was delighted that I took his advice to try something different – the pine nut and mushroom porridge with spring onions, pine nut puree and poached egg.
Later this year, another restaurant called Dosa will open, also in the basement but hidden behind a big heavy door, and inside the main space is the chef’s table, a u shape around the kitchen for 14 guests. A roof terrace is also being developed.
Spa
The next morning, I went down to the basement spa after breakfast. I gave a nod to the gym, which is large and sleek, with a decent weight area and a private studio – it’s so exclusive that only ten people a year are allowed to join as non-hotel guests. Then, when swimming quickly in the largest swimming pool of Mayfair (25m), with the lights like fireflies and flickering on the water, my shoulders burst tight with the jet stream, then in charge of my treatment.
I asked my therapist to do something about my gray, dull skin – and it was practically soft when I got off my 90-minute natural Seed to Skin facial (£310) not just nourishment and relaxation but beaming from ear to ear. I had never experienced such a transformation from one treatment, and I immediately made plans that evening to show off my brand new face. As I was coming out of the spa and collecting my bags from reception, a bottle of water was pushed into my hand “because it’s pouring out there” – as I say, the staff seem really attentive.
Rooms from £1,000 per night, mandarinoriental.com
