Hotel Cafe Royal, without a doubt one of London’s best
Located on Regent Street, spitting distance from Piccadilly Circus, the Hotel Café Royal has a well-deserved reputation as one of London’s best.
Oscar Wilde and Muhammad Ali, Winston Churchill and David Bowie, David Chipperfield and Elizabeth Taylor…. and now Brett Jobling and Stefan Pavlovic have added their names to this venerable and truly memorable London hotel.
We transferred to this hotel after 5 nights in a micro hotel, having purchased the Café Royal’s £750 Spa Package – this entitled us to an upgrade to a Grand Superior Guest Room, £100 per person spa credit, and full breakfast.
From the doorman to the check-in we are treated like VIP’s. The foyer is a stunning foretaste of the hotel’s décor.
We are early and our room is not yet ready, so we head to the Akasha Spa to book our hot stone massages – again we are made to feel like very special guests.
The spa facilities are in a cavernous underground space – gym, lap pool, jacuzzi, dry sauna, and hammam (steam sauna). Bathrooms are generously appointed with complimentary toiletries, slippers and robes. Our massages are delivered by a skilful therapist and by the time our room is ready we float out of the spa in a state of sheer bliss.
But more luxury surprises await. On our way to the room our Guest Relations Host explains the complimentary town car service for one-way chauffeur driven trips around central London. “So, if you have somewhere you need to go, just ask the Concierge if the Bentley is available.”
Bentley? Free ride in a Bentley? I’ve definitely got somewhere I need to go!
Our host takes me to our room and gives a run-down of the features and functions. The bathroom is bigger than our previous hotel room! There’s welcome chocolate strawberries in the bar and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot on ice in the living room. A Bang & Olufsen TV, automatic curtains, a giant bed, and robes hanging in the wardrobe. The bathroom has a rain shower, heated panels behind the towel rails, generous toiletries, and an in-mirror TV (of course).
The hotel is simply beautiful throughout – sleek modern décor in the halls and guest rooms contrast with a grand classical ambience in the lobbies, stairways and restaurants, redolent of the Café Royal’s glorious history. In particular, The Grill Room, also known as the Oscar Wilde Lounge, is a study in gilded opulence – you can take High Tea here (bookings essential) but at the very least you must go in for a look at this masterpiece.
We are only here for a night so we really don’t want to leave the property – but the Bentley beckons, glistening and shiny just outside the front doors. We book a ride to Covent Garden (the service is only good for a 2 mile radius) in near peak hour traffic. It would have been quicker to walk, but hey, it’s a ride in a Bentley and the looks from passing pedestrians (they’re going faster than us) makes it worth the while.
Back at the hotel we have a leisurely cocktail in The Green Bar – complimentary bar snacks of course. On return to our room we find that the turn down service has provided complimentary slippers and some heavenly sleep spray. Only the most inveterate of insomniacs could fail to get a good night’s sleep in the Hotel Café Royal.
Next morning we enjoy our generous included-in-the-package breakfast – A la carte menu plus pastries and spreads. I can only assume that the little jars of jam and honey are also complimentary, because they travelled home with me.
As we’ve been given a complimentary late check out, we’re able to do some last-minute shopping around Regent and Oxford Street. Even after check out we are afforded –complimentarily – use of the Akasha spa facilities. So we are relaxed, showered and refreshed when we eventually leave the Café Royal for our late flight out of Heathrow.
This was probably one of the finest hotel experiences I’ve ever enjoyed. Impeccable service from a 5 star property and we were made to feel like genuinely valued guests at all times. I can’t wait to go back.
brettaway.com 