One of London's largest hotels has a new family member.
Last week I was one of the first to set foot in the capital's newest super-luxury hotel, Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. Located on the southeast corner of Hanover Square, it is one of London's most coveted addresses, and Mayfair's first new-build hotel in a decade. The contemporary exterior is clad in burnt red brick 'baguettes', designed to match the Georgian terraces surrounding the hotel.
It has 50 rooms, all suites, and 77 private apartments. It's unashamedly opulent, yet feels personal. Once inside, surrounded by huge bunches of exotic flowers, marble floors and dim lighting, the city melts away and it is an island of tranquility. I imagine privacy is high on the priority list for guests, with a client base of CEOs, royals and high net worth individuals from the worlds of art, fashion and culture.
Where?
Just a few minutes' walk from Oxford Circus, the Mandarin Oriental Mayfair has a sleeker, more modern feel, an oasis in the middle of London's busy shopping streets. The entrance and reception are shared between the suites and apartments, whose owners can enjoy all the decadence of a hotel while still having their own space and privacy.
Style
The capital's first Mandarin Oriental opened in Hyde Park in 2000 and is still going strong in all its opulent splendor. This new hotel has a completely different look. This feels less of the bygone grandeur of the original, but feels tighter, more intimate and almost spiritual. The design of the restaurant and bar represents earth (the emerald green Ming marble staircase), fire (the warm glowing lights of the bar), wind (the huge curved wooden sculptures above you), water (the billowing cream-colored fabric above the chef's chefs as they expertly dice and slice sashimi).
The soft carpets of the corridors are a soft landing after bustling Oxford Street; the hand-painted silk House de Gournay wallpaper in the rooms, an 18th-century style nod to the magnolias of Hanover Square, and the chinoiserie reminiscent of the hotel's roots in Southeast Asia. The first Mandarin Oriental opened 40 years ago in Hong Kong, the second was in Bangkok. The rooms for this hotel in Mayfair have been designed by Studio Indigo, who usually focus on superyachts and private jets, meaning the devil is in the cleverly designed details and clever use of space, with the rooms laid out in such a way that even the entry-level suites have a good sitting room and all en-suites have double sinks.
I had a curious look into the 'deluxe suite' and couldn't stop pressing the 'privacy setting', which turns the bathroom window from light filled to frosted at the touch of a button. The color scheme is emerald green, maroon and turquoise, with marble, dark wood and lots of brass, bronze and gold. The company's emblem, a fan, has become iconic and a new version has been designed by Vivienne Westwood, which hangs in the entrance and is replicated on postcards in the leather stationery box in the rooms, and also on a chocolate fan (way too expensive ). delicious to eat).
The prize suite
My bedroom, the Hanover Suite (from £7,000 a night), had not only a sleek open-plan kitchen-living room (so much marble), but also a good-sized dressing room, in which I discovered a Dyson hairdryer, not one, not two, only three different dressing gowns. It presented the extremely difficult problem of choosing between (oh, the problems of the super-rich) - so I did the only sensible thing and switched between all three, from the heavy silk New & Lingwood to the wafty kimono and the oh - so soft terry bathrobe. Its location in central London means there is little visibility, and sheer curtains hide the floor-to-ceiling windows - of course I stuck my head through hoping to peer into the apartments, but all I could see were luxury offices and people tapping into computers.
The suite also had two bathrooms, with Natura Bissé products. One was huge, with a bath (and a golden rubber duck - made me chuckle), a separate rain shower room with seating and enough room for a couple of angry, wet cats to swing a separate toilet, and then, next door to the suite, to prevent guests from entering my private space, a guest toilet. Ah, the loos. Japanese loos. Heated seats, buttons everywhere... I felt like I was in a comedy sketch trying to operate the various functions (water jets, dryers) before all I found was the very simple gold rinse button.
I had to stay longer to get my head around the buttons; in the suites, everything is controlled by a gold touch panel next to the bed that controls everything from the curtains to the lighting (and my husband was a bit shocked when I accidentally brushed it in the middle of the night and turned on all the lights). The bed was so big we might as well have had separate bedrooms, we were so far apart, the duvet a huge pale gold silk cloud (dry clean only! Argh!). Essentially, I spent 24 hours completely encased and surrounded by silk, and it was lush and glorious.
Eat Drink
At some point it becomes necessary to swap the silk dressing gown and the tranquility of the suite for some evening finery, with an evening meal at the fine Japanese restaurant, the first in London for chef Akira Back, who has 28 restaurants worldwide, from Las Vegas to Seoul.
After descending the beautiful green marble staircase (very rare, the maitre'd whispered), I gazed up at the enormous triple roof and then ducked into the Abar cocktail lounge, dimly lit in warm orange tones - I had the Shochili mango, with tequila , Hwayo soju, mango, lime and a chili togarashi kick. The bar hosts 'after dark' evenings where the secret doors are slid shut to create a speakeasy atmosphere, and are open until 2am.
But first to the dining room of chef Akira Back's eponymous restaurant, long, sleek and light with dark wood tables and cream leather, with banquettes on one side that were just the right side of private for the clientele and just the right side of open to spy on the 1% who are nearby. Very, very expensive haircuts everywhere.
Both the food and drink menus were written by people I would want to dine with regularly. It was difficult 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 truffle, £26, on a surprising but welcome crispy tortilla-like base ), the 'hot' wagyu bulgogi tacos, a main course of black miso cod with yuja foam (£52) from 'main courses', and the 'hot mess' sushi roll, with sashimi poke, crab tempura and spicy ponzu Aioli . I was entertained by the sommelier whose wine list was laid out in a way that I wished all the menus were easy to follow and made it easy to try something new. I dove straight into the 'experimental and non-traditional' section (Iranian Samarghandi please!), then tried one of 'light fresh and clean', and so on. The sections mimicked the wind, water, earth and fire theme of the restaurant design, with 'fire', for example, described as rich, powerful and hearty.
Every staff member seemed happy, almost emotional, that the hotel was finally open (it's been in the works for a while), and wanted to go the extra mile at every opportunity. At breakfast the waiter was genuinely happy that I took his advice to try something different: the pine nut and mushroom porridge with spring onions, pine nut puree and a poached egg.
Another restaurant called Dosa will open later this year, also in the basement but hidden behind a large heavy door, and inside the space is dominated by the chef's table, a U-shape around the kitchen for just 14 guests. A roof terrace is also being developed.
Spa
The next morning after breakfast I went to the spa in the basement. I winked at the gym, which is big and sleek, with a decent weight room and a private studio - so exclusive that only ten people a year are allowed to join as non-hotel guests. Then a quick dip in Mayfair's largest pool (25 metres), where the lights looked like fireflies and twinkled on the water, soothed my toned shoulders with the jet stream and then headed for my treatment.
I asked my therapist to do something about my grey, dull skin - and was almost slack-jawed when I emerged from my 90-minute 'Seed to Skin natural time facial' (£310) not only nourished and rested, but also radiant from ear to ear. ear. I have never had such a transformation after just one treatment, and immediately made plans that evening to show off my brand new face. When I came out of the spa and collected my bags from reception, a bottle of water was pressed into my hand "because it's scorching hot there" - like I said, the staff really seem to care.
Rooms from £1,000 per night, mandarinoriental.com