Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park

England
Europe

The Experience

Formerly known simply as the Hyde Park Hotel, the London Mandarin is located in a perfect position for shoppers: opposite Harvey Nick's and the designer boutiques of Sloane Street, with Harrods nearby. The grand, spacious entrance of the Mandarin has a hint of a London gentleman's club, adorned with huge black and brown marble columns and stylishly decorated with enormous amaryllis flowers in matte black vases. You'll be in fine company here--your neighbor to the east is the Royal Thames Yacht Club, while to the west you have the Household Cavalry, whose horses make a frequent progress past your windows on their way to and from Buckingham Palace.

The Rooms

Quintessentially English, rooms come furnished with fine Irish linens and Frette duvet covers, as well as fresh orchids. Aromatherapy Associates and Jo Malone products set the tone in these updated Victorian rooms, where modern devices are well hidden but nonetheless close at hand. The colors are soothing and the fabrics and furnishings spot-on, be it in the small Knightsbridge category (161 square feet) or the quieter Courtyard rooms. The larger Hyde Park rooms (up to 323 square feet), as their name suggests, overlook the leafy aspect of the park. Suites are luxurious and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, many of them with fireplaces.

The Service

The youngish but nevertheless professional crew are a delight. Multinational and multilingual, they're more than happy to engage in a little light banter when appropriate, but they're always conscious of the moment when they need to back off and stay cool and professional. Every floor has an individual manager who acts as a quasi-butler, attending to your every whim.

The Highlights

With its contemporary yet distinctly Asian feel, the bar is the heart of the hotel. The backlighting of different-colored liquor bottles is a technical triumph, and you'll find it hard to keep your eyes away. Dine on a roast loin of Yorkshire venison in the formal Foliage restaurant, or head to the Adam Tihany-designed The Park, with its soothing emeralds and jades, or the Park Terrace, a new open-air restaurant that debuted in July, 2008. Then try the award-winning spa, which in summer of 2008 debuted a "Time Traveler" program to help ease the effects of jetlag. The 50-minute treatment begins with an invigorating Oriental Salt Scrub designed to overcome the sluggishness caused by jet lag by stimulating blood flow to the brain.

 

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