Built in 1831, the art deco five-star Dorchester has a peerless situation on Park Lane. With several restaurants and bars and a recently upgraded £3.2m spa, it offers a greater roster of drinking and dining possibilities than other five-star luxury hotels. It's a favourite with British and international royalty and celebrities, from Queen Elizabeth to Nelson Mandela, Elizabeth Taylor and the late Michael Jackson. It is commensurately expensive — £6.50 for cornflakes from the à la carte breakfast menu. But it's the Dorchester's well-deserved reputation for service — with three staff tending to every guest — that really makes it special.
We were greeted, by name, by the 'sense of arrival' team and speedily checked in, our luggage whisked away. There are 250 guest rooms including 55 suites and three extravagant rooftop apartments serviced by butlers. Our room, on the fourth floor, offered gorgeous (but impeccably soundproofed) views over Hyde Park and Park Lane, and had the kind of inoffensively chic décor that only serious money can buy. The baths are vast, while the TV choices reflect the polyglot makeup of the hotel's clientele. Breakfast in our room (£31.50) was faultless, while dinner in the 'Brigadoon'-themed Grill, run by Brian Hughson, was hearty and old-fashioned, right down to the medley of vegetables served with Dover Sole.
Opposite the Grill, on the other side of the central promenade where afternoon tea is served, are China Tang (a favourite with Kate Moss) and Alain Ducasse's fine dining restaurant, which has just been awarded its third Michelin star. The bar, run by Guiliano Morandin and decorated with glass spears by the artist who refitted the Statue of Liberty's torch, offers a superb range of cocktails, as well as vintage brandy at £1000 a shot. It's more spacious since they relocated Liberace's glass piano to one of the function rooms.
The Spa, with its cool cream walls, exclusive products, sizeable treatment rooms and atmosphere of relaxed sybariticism, is as welcoming to men as it is to women. I had a bespoke men's facial (£90 for 55 minutes) from a gentle and attentive therapist, and a glass of lychee juice in the relaxation zone. Those in whom pampering generates an appetite can have tea, home-made cakes and champagne in the opulent, if clumsily-named, Spatisserie. I didn't avail myself of the hyper-efficient concierges, the in-house florist (who changed all the displays in the public areas while I was there because a VIP guest's wife was allergic to irises) or the chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and three BMWs the hotel keeps for guests, but it was good to know that they were there. The Dorchester offers a home from home even if — perhaps especially if — your primary home is Buckingham palace.
The Dorchester, 53 Park Lane, London W1K 1QA; 020 7629 8888; thedorchester.com. Rates start from £495 per room, per night, excluding VAT.
