You needn’t be a guest of London’s hotels to enjoy their restaurants and bars. Sarah Riches handpicks some of the best
The completely new one
Inspired by locals past and present, The Mayfair Townhouse officially opens on 16 November near Green Park.
Go for a meal in The Lower Ground, a smart mint green restaurant with herringbone flooring.
Depending on how long you want to linger, you can sit in chairs for breakfast, stop for lunch on stools or lounge over dinner in the banquettes that line the room.
Later on, relax over cocktails in The Dandy Bar. The softly lit, intimate bar has Art Deco features – think mirrored columns, low hung lampshades and a bar that glows gold.
If you do decide to stay, then you can enjoy little touches such as in-room cocktail kits and private raised patios in the garden suites.
The relaunched one
Once a collection of Victorian townhouses, Blakes London is now a 44-room hotel near South Kensington.
Its restaurant, Dinner at Blakes, re-opened in October. It serves global dishes such as sashimi, truffle pizza, coconut saffron curry and grass-fed rib eye from a farm in Surrey.
Meanwhile, Blakes Café is completely new, and it also launched in October.
Likewise, its new bar, Blakes Below, is currently set to open on 1 November.
The basement bar has the feel of a 1920s speakeasy, with Asian artwork depicting white cranes covering one wall.
As well as organic wine and dessert such as chocolate mousse, pistachio eclairs and mochi, it serves cocktails. So after dinner, you can relax over a lychee or hazelnut espresso martini or a Negroni made with rhubarb liqueur and lavender syrup.
The one with discounts in October
As the name suggests, Treehouse Hotel London in Marylebone has fantastic views of the city.
But even if you’re not staying, you can still take in the sights from its restaurant, Madera, which has glass walls and a pergola ceiling.
The California-Mexican restaurant has extended the government’s August Eat Out to Help Out offer into October.
This means each diner can enjoy 50 per cent off (up to £10) on food and soft drinks every Monday to Wednesday for lunch and dinner until 31 October.
Take your pick from Mexican dishes such as a fajita brunch bowl, tequila prawn flatbread and enchiladas packed with beef barbacoa and stinging nettles.
You can also order dishes from a raw bar, which include vegan ceviche made with hearts of palm, lime, mango and shaved coconut.
The one with a new menu
Like many hotels, The Mandrake boutique hotel in Fitzrovia used lockdown to revamp its menu.
Executive chef George Scott-Toft previously worked at The Lecture Room & Library in Sketch, the two-Michelin-star French restaurant The Greenhouse and with Christophe Pelé in the Michelin-star Serge et le Phoque in Hong Kong.
In 2019, George travelled around Argentina, Chile and Peru. While there, he visited local markets, sampled traditional dishes and ate in top restaurants. Therefore, he learnt more about South America’s classical cooking techniques, indigenous Amazonian ingredients and low-intervention wine.
When The Mandrake’s South American restaurant Yopo re-opened in October, it opened with a new menu inspired by George’s travels.
Dishes include octopus, artichoke and olive empanadas; prawn ceviche, and pumpkin and smoked ricotta ravioli with sherry. Larger plates include roast pork belly in an onion seed taco.
Meanwhile, desserts include Guatemalan chocolate mousse, coconut, buckwheat and almond. You can also finish with alfajores – almond biscuit filled with passionfruit and salted caramel.
Pair the new dishes with a natural South American wine or Champagne produced from single-estate vineyards. Alternatively, each week the restaurant has new rare bottles from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Italy and Spain.
