insideKENT Magazine Issue 81 - December 2018 | Page 86

LONDON
LONDON LUXURY: HOTEL CAFÉ ROYAL cont.
centre. The basement spa offers a calming
pool, sauna, hammam, and Jacuzzi, plus yoga
and relaxation spaces and tranquil treatment
rooms with an enviable list of rituals and
water-based therapies.
And then there’s the food. Enjoy the glitz and
glamour of the award-winning Afternoon Tea
in the magnificent Oscar Wilde Lounge. With
specialty teas including the ‘Oscar’ and
‘Celestine’ and divine mini treats (the truffled
Burford Brown egg sandwiches and lavender
lemon cake are amazing!), it’s not to be missed.
Don’t forget to pop to the bathroom – the walls
on route are lined with photograph upon
photograph of famous faces posing up a storm
outside of the elevator doors.
Pre (or post) dinner there is only one
destination: Ziggy’s. Ziggy’s Cocktail Bar
opened its effortlessly cool doors in late
September with a no-reservation policy and
a reputation that precedes it; it celebrates the
late great David Bowie and ‘The Last Supper’
party he held at Café Royal after retiring his
dramatic alter ego Ziggy Stardust in 1973.
The space is Manhattan bar-cum-70s-hotel
chic, with walls adorned by photographs taken
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by Mick Rock, Bowie’s long-standing
photographer and friend. The menu is an
eclectic mix of Bowie’s favourites and
reimagined classics inspired by Stardust lyrics.
We highly recommend the smooth Tiger on
Vaseline (Cachaca, Tanaka spiced rum, roasted
pineapple juice, lime juice, coconut and white
chocolate foam) and the Snow White Tan
(toasted rice vodka, Frangelico, double cream,
and strawberry syrup).
And of course dining has reached new levels
and enhanced Hotel Café Royal’s French roots
further with the completion of the mezzanine
dining space and new dining room adjacent
to Regent Street, the home of Laurent
Tourondel’s new namesake grill and sushi bar
offering: Laurent at Hotel Café Royal.
The laid back yet elegant affair that is breakfast,
is served in the mezzanine dining room, with
a host of classic continental, healthy, eggs and
specials and leads through to refined lunches
and decadent dinners (so good I have
dedicated a whole page just over there to it!).
threw open the doors to his first permanent
venue outside of his native Spain just last
month. Cake and Bubbles’ concept may be
simple, but the delivery is exceptional, as
decadent desserts including his signature
cheesecake and fine Champagnes and
sparkling wines combine.
It is evident why this true iconic gem has been
coined as ‘the vibrant living room of London,
a place to convene, converse and celebrate’,
and boy does it have some stories… many of
which are subtly woven into its present guise.
You just have to look hard enough, listen
intently and bask in its newly restored and
refined wonder.
Hotel Café Royal
68 Regent Street
London
W1B 4DY
020 7406 3333
www.hotelcaferoyal.com
hotelcaferoyal
And if that were not enough, following a
successful pop up in 2016, famed chef Albert
Adria (voted The World’s Best Pastry Chef)
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hotelcaferoyal