To find a hotel these days in London that’s unlike any other is pretty rare. That the capital’s latest five-star, the new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, has a very distinct character is possibly thanks to the fact that it is the progeny of a surprising threesome: the Indian-financed Clivedale group, the Chinese Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and the British architects RSHP.
Like its older sibling in Knightsbridge, this new Mandarin on the block has come to life in a pretty desirable location: the southeast side of Hanover Square, on the corner of Brook Street. This part of London has always been a fashionable hood; it was the first Mayfair square, in 1710, to have grand aristocratic houses and was the main home, until this year, of Vogue. While Vogue House now lies empty and the once-grand 18th-century homes have been transformed into offices, a recent Elizabeth line entrance and fresh landscaping have injected the square with new energy, as has the addition of this ultra-modern steel, glass and brick, RSHP-designed low-rise.
From the outside — with its layers of thin red brick wedged between an industrial-like Vierendeel structural frame, and its waistcoated and top-hatted doormen — the hotel couldn’t look more English. But once inside, a more Eastern sensibility comes into play. Suddenly, everything feels more serene and pared back.
Within a square entrance hall encased by pale grey-marble herringbone tiles lies a single theatrical table of flowers by the fashionable florist Lavender Green. To the right looms a vast single wall of green Ming marble: the last slab, apparently, from a quarry in China. And through a slit is visible the hotel’s most dramatic space of all: the Akira restaurant, whose floor lies 6m below ground level and whose glass ceiling floods the double-height courtyard space with light.
It’s here — within the courtyard space and three adjoining private dining rooms — that the Korea-born, Colorado-raised, Michelin-starred Akira Back has his first restaurant in the UK. Like the hotel spaces, created by the Tokyo-based Curiosity, Back hopes his food will be a bridge between east and west. Hence the part-Japanese, part “cool art space” feel of the place, which has been designed to represent the four elements: a giant “waterfall” of white cloth falling from the ceiling, big convoluted panels of oak curving out above diners to depict wind, living vertical walls of plants to bring in earth, and a giant panel of colour painted by his artist mother to resemble fire.
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The menu here brings to London for the first time the celebrity chef’s all-time hits, from ginger-crab sushi, blackened cod and a dessert of matcha ice cream and sesame cream, to “Akira pizza”, layered with ponzu aioli, paper-thin tuna, micro-herbs and drizzles of white-truffle oil. (Although his favourite dish, the chef told me on opening night, is his creamy mash topped with a sausage of butter-soft chicken breast “which Joël Robuchon told me was the best he’d ever had — and he should know because I learnt it from him”.) The chef’s intention, he says, is for “people to eat well, but to have fun: to have something light, like miso and edamame, if that’s what they fancy, or indulge in something rich and French, like asparagus with roe, then my take on chocolate mousse” — which comes with banana ice cream.
It will no doubt become a hotspot for the moneyed fashion crowd. The adjoining bar — all dimly lit, lined with seductive velvety banquettes and curvaceous low round silk-backed chairs — has a DJ booth and a late-night licence until 3am. The hipster bartenders, in their dragon-embroidered red bomber jackets, can shake a mean cocktail and offer a wide range of wines by the glass, as well as delicious non-alcoholic drinks. And thanks to the former couturier Nicholas Oakwell, from NO Uniform, the staff look like they’ve come straight off a catwalk, in their bespoke outfits: some in embroidered cheongsams or one-shouldered black Grecian gowns with gold-painted belts, others in glossy jacquard jackets and tapered cigarette pants.
Upstairs, above all this drama and movement, the 28 suites and 22 doubles feel like little cosseting cocoons. The rooms’ designers, Studio Indigo, are known for creating calming interiors for sumptuous yachts and private jets, and their eye for detail shows, whether that’s in the marble showers with built-in seats or the fine weave of the gold-leather seats around the dining table of the top-floor 1,517 sq ft Mayfair Suite. The smallest 355 sq ft rooms are as richly embellished as the suites, with hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper, whose magnolia flowers are hand-embroidered; marble cladding in either green, burgundy or blue; gem-coloured velvet cushions; minibars filled with British-sourced treats; and in the bathrooms full-sized Natura Bissé lotions.
Although, given the loveliness of the spa, if I was staying longer I wouldn’t care what was in my room, as I’d hunker down there. Set a floor below the ground and shared with the 70 adjoining Mandarin Oriental residences (all of which, despite price tags of over £7 million for a two-bedroom flat, have been sold), the wellness area has pretty much everything a spa lover might dream of. Along one side, within a black and gold-mosaiced area lined with wall lights resembling long drips of water, stretches a proper pool: at 25m long, one of the longest of any hotel in London, as well as three Jacuzzis, a steam room and a sauna. The other side opens up into a large, light-filled, wood-lined room fitted with the latest TechnoGym equipment, as well as an AI-controlled reformer Pilates bench. There are also two cosy treatment rooms in which to have high-tech Swiss Perfection facials, Seed to Skin massages, or sample biohacking techniques and binaural vibroacoustic therapy (which apparently works on energy, using sound). Unusually, the spa is open only to guests and residents, so when you swim or hang out you could be the only person there. Which in Mayfair, is a treat in itself.
From £1,000 double to £9,000 for the Mayfair Suite, mandarinoriental.com
