Hotel Review: myHotel Chelsea, 25 April 2008

The Darling G and I stayed here on Friday 25 April, as part of her birthday celebrations.

The hotel is an interesting mix - they’ve got it almost right, but we found there were a few less-than-positive notes which were surprising, though they didn’t spoil the overall experience.

The room was smaller than we expected, but nicely finished in a dark red. The fixtures and fittings were all of a high quality, but with the small size of the room it was a little cluttered. Aveda shampoos and the like were a lovely quality touch.

Unfortunately, the bed wasn’t particularly comfortable - having spent the previous night in the Marriott County Hall, we both found the bed far too hard, and neither of us slept particularly well. Additionally, the bath-plug didn’t work properly and got stuck, almost causing a flooded bathroom. And while most of the fixtures were of lovely quality, it was surprising that the room kettle was actually an aging, dirt-cheap Travelodge type plastic thing, which really didn’t go with the overall ambience.

Oh, and there was no bottle-opener in the minibar.

On arrival, the room itself was far too hot, but the air-conditioning made short work of that. The room itself was pretty quiet, especially considering it was on the ground floor, right on Ixworth Place.

We were staying on the ‘myromance’ package, which included a bottle of Laurent Perrier champagne, chocolates, massage oil and an ostrich feather. I suppose the ostrich feather is merely an erotic touch - it would have been kinky if it were the whole ostrich!

We eschewed the Continental breakfast on the Saturday morning, choosing instead to have a full English, which was excellent. That said, for £18 it needed to be good!

One small thing that I found intensely irritating was the addition of a ‘Gratuity’ onto everything in the hotel. Simply buying a Scotch in the bar had £1 added onto the already steep cost - and this was done automatically. The drink itself was also expensive - a Scotch and Coke at myhotel Chelsea actually cost almost as much (£8 including service) as a Vodka Martini at the Marriott! That’s not right, guys - sort it out.

There was a slight cock-up on the bill on checkout - the bar had actually added the bottle of champagne as an additional cost (plus a further £6 ‘Gratuity’ for it), when it was supposedly included in the room rate. However, the Reception staff were quick to resolve that for me.

While it was well-placed for the Kings Road (and there’s also a fantastic Argentinian restaurant called Gaucho close by, more on that later), at £239 I can’t really say it was particularly good value - the much larger, and more impressively equipped Marriott room was only £10 more for the night.

Overall, this is a lovely little boutique hotel, and one of those quirky places that sounds great and looks fantastic until you really get up-close and examine it in depth. There’s nothing really wrong with it - it just doesn’t quite live up to its own hype.

myhotel Chelsea
35 Ixworth Place
London
SW3 3QX
Tel: 020 7225 7500

Review: Locale County Hall, 24 April 2008

Locale was a last-minute choice for us, as it was close to the Marriott County Hall and in the middle of a downpour anywhere close was preferable!

The first thing that struck us as we walked in was the wonderful aroma of freshly-grilled beef. The kitchen is a long, thin slice of the restaurant, and is open to view from the dining area.

The restaurant itself is quite stylish, with beautiful looking, waif-thin waiting staff of both genders. Service itself was reasonably quick and efficient.

However, the food itself was a mix in terms of quality.

As starters, Gerry chose the Calamari, and I went for the Salude Miste - a mix of Italian cold meats served on Sardinian flatbread with tomato salsa and shaved fennel. The calamari was pretty generic, tasting like it was pre-purchased (and not a patch on that at Ha-Noi Cafe in Abingdon) and as for the Salude Miste - sadly, that was a triumph of style over substance, with the meats lacking flavour and the bread dry and dull.

However, the meal was rescued by the main courses. My pizza Frutti Di Mare had a wonderful crisp base, and a fantastic tomato and basil sauce with the fresh basil shining through. The seafood was fresh-tasting and lively, while the capers were thankfully not over-used! Gerry's dish - short, thick pasta with an italian sausage ragu was tasty and a far cry from a usual bolognese sauce.

We had other things to do, so we skipped dessert - and this was probably a good thing, as the two courses with a couple of glasses of wine was a total of £58 including the (already added) 12.5% service charge.

Overall, this was a reasonable meal, with nothing that really provoked complaint - but if you are going to spend £30/head on two courses, even in London, you can do much better.

Locale County Hall
3b Belvedere Road
LONDON
SE1 7GP
Tel: 020 7401 6734

Review: Kitsons Restaurant, 26 April 2008

This isn't the first time we've eaten at the excellent Kitsons Restaurant in Abingdon - but it is certainly the biggest table we've ever booked!

As the major part of The Darling G's xxth Birthday celebrations, we took over the entire restaurant, seating some 40 guests and a jazz band for three courses.

Organisation & Planning
We did our best to make things easy for Chris, the owner of Kitsons, by ensuring that we had a solid guest list as early as possible, and making sure everyone had already made their menu choices. To avoid mixups, we even had name-cards printed for the table plan which included that person's menu selections.

Sam, the (new) Manager, was well prepared and even went to the trouble to call us on the morning to make sure absolutely everything was still just how we wanted it. They also gave access to one of The Darling G's friends, so that the whole place was beautifully decorated.

Food & Service
There were plenty of service staff working, meaning everything went pretty smoothly on the night. There was a slight hiccup at the very start of service, but nothing major and after that the waiting team were right on form, and everyone got their food pretty quickly.

And what food it was!

The quality and presentation of Kitsons food is beyond reproach. We'd organised a limited range of main courses, to keep life easy for the kitchen, and everything came out beautifully cooked and exquisitely presented.

Best choices were the Wild Mushroom Pie and Foie Gras Parfait in the starters, and in the mains the Rump of Lamb was wildly popular, served with fondant potatoes and courgettes. Also popular was the 'Kitsons Chicken' - a signature dish of pan-fried breast, confit leg and poached thigh. Vegetarians were well served with a Pea and Asparagus Risotto, which was well-received by the few herbivores at the party.

Dessert-wise, we had a range including Chocolate Torte, Orange Parfait and the absolutely sublime Vanilla Cheesecake.

There were no complaints, not a single plate went back into the kitchen, and the service team made sure everyone was looked after, glasses topped up and additional drinks and coffee quickly and efficiently available.

Value
Given the sheer size of our party, with over 40 covers and an ongoing bar bill, I have to say that Kitsons gave us fantastic value as a whole.

The deal offered by Chris ensured everyone had three beautifully-prepared courses, coffee and service for £30 per head, and even the bar tab wasn't *too* astronomical - considering we went through 25 bottles of red and 10 of white!

Overall, taking into account the bar bill, liqueurs for those who could cope, and a hefty additional tip for the service team, the whole lot worked out at a fantastic £50 per head.

This is quite simply superb value for the quality and service we received on the night.

Overall
Kitsons has only been open in Abingdon a few months, and I sincerely hope it stays with us for a very long time to come.

The mix of service, quality and value at Kitsons is absolutely tremendous. The food, every time we have eaten there, has been simply superb and is worth every penny of the bill and more.

I can't recommend this restaurant strongly enough, and they deserve a solid following not just in Abingdon, but from the whole of Oxfordshire.

Kitsons Restaurant
First Floor
15 High Street
Abingdon
Oxon OX14 5BB

Tel: 01235 526966

Review: Petrus, 24 April 2008

A trip to Petrus was part of my planned celebrations for The Darling G's xxth Birthday.

First thing to say is that it wasn't particularly easy to get a reservation - and even with over 4 weeks' notice, the only time they could fit us in was 2215 on the Thursday night, which was quite amazing really. That said, we did get called the day before and offered a 2115 seat, which was much more bearable!

As for a review - what can anyone say about this place that hasn't already been said?

We went for the 8-course 'Tasting Menu', which started with an astonishing Jerusalem Artichoke soup and then took us through Foie Gras, Turbot with Liquorice, Saddle of Venison and many more.

The food was just beautiful, however the most amazing thing about the restaurant wasn't the food - it was the service! It seemed that there were individual waiters not for each table, but for each activity - so one waiter would remove our plates, another our glasses, a third would bring the fresh wine glasses, the sommelier bring the next glass of wine, then a runner would appear with your dish on a tray, and he would wait for the Head Waiter, who would then place your plate in front of you with a theatrical flourish. It made for great entertainment.

One word of warning - normally when you have a tasting menu, there are 'matched wines' and you get a small amount of the Sommelier's recommended wine with each course. While this isn't something that is specifically offered at Petrus, they will happily match wines for you - however they give a full, large glass of each wine with each course, which meant that by dessert our tastebuds were more than a little blunted by the quantity of alcohol!

As we were Petrus virgins, we were thoughtfully given a copy of the Menu, signed by Marcus Wareing himself, which is a lovely touch and will no doubt bring back memories in the future.

All told, then, an absolutely stunning meal and experience - but equally stunning was the final bill, which came to a heart-stopping (if not sobering) £396 including service! My bank account will be feeling dinner at Petrus long after my stomach has forgotten it...

So - a beautiful place, wonderful food, fantastic service. But definitely, given the cost, a once-in-a-lifetime meal.

Petrus Restaurant
The Berkeley
Wilton Place
Knightsbridge
London
SW1X 7RL
Tel: 020 7235 1200