The Oberoi is one of Bangalore’s grandest hotels, in one of India’s most exciting cities. This five-star is on the thundering Mahatma Gandhi Road, but once you walk through its gates you’ll find an overflowing oasis of calm bursting with greenery. All rooms come with balconies and overlook the 2.8-acre garden stuffed with ferns, palms, ficus and jasmine trees, and are soundtracked by squawking black-shouldered kites. It’s easy, then, to see why the metropolis is called India’s garden city.
Interiors are heavily traditional — wooden floors, teak shutters, mustard bed covers, patterned rugs — with more than a whiff of an old colonial mansion. Service is excellent, and everyone is almost too attentive. It’s the kind of place where bedroom attendants notice your glasses are without a case, and leave a branded one next to the bed; and where welcome amenities are personalised to each guest (I got a sugar-icing newspaper, printed with my name). It’s also affordable for a luxury hotel — rates start at around £200 a night.
Overall score 8/10
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Rooms and suites
Score 8/10
There are 151 rooms and nine suites (160 in all, ranging from deluxe rooms to the presidential suite), all with balconies tiered over the lovely gardens, which feature a 125-year-old rain tree and a small kidney-shaped pool. Do keep the balcony door closed, the hotel warns, as monkeys usually want to come inside. Interiors are old-school India: wooden floors, shutters and desks, plus patterned rugs and thick mustard-coloured bed covers. Bathrooms come with baths — a treat in Bangalore — and have every amenity you could ever need (razors, loofahs, even toenail clippers) plus lovely bespoke citrusy Oberoi smellies.
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Food and drink
Score 8/10
All restaurants and bars are focused around the garden, and all spill out into it. Lapis is the casual all-day restaurant, with pillars rising to a show-stopping blue and gold ceiling. It’s where an impressive breakfast spread is served, encompassing both local and regional dishes including Karnataka-style millet porridge, masala dosa and thalis.
There’s a Thai restaurant called Rin Naam, in a traditional wooden pavilion by the koi carp pond; Japanese Wabi Sabi, which pairs saké with each course of sushi, sashimi and yakitori; and the casual Polo Bar, with a TV showing sports and a wooden bar that wouldn’t look out of place in a London pub — if you ignore the rattan chairs and bright cushions on the terrace, that is.
What else is there?
Score 7/10
The highlight here is the large garden, which feels a world away from the zippy city outside and has benches for guests to relax and enjoy the shade from the palms. Elsewhere, there’s a small temperature-controlled pool with a handful of sun loungers; plus a basement spa and beauty salon offering a range of western and ayurvedic treatments.
Where is it?
On MG Road, close to Bangalore’s cultural hubs Indiranagar and Koramangala, which both have bars, restaurants and shops on every corner. The nearest metro station, Trinity, named after the local church, is about five minutes’ walk; but it’s easier to flag down an auto rickshaw from outside the gates and throw yourself at the notoriously bad traffic. The main city sights — Cubbon Park, Lalbagh Botanical Garden, Bangalore Palace — are about 20 minutes’ drive away.
Price room-only doubles from £200
Restaurant mains from £19
Family-friendly Y
Dog-friendly N
Accessible Y
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Cathy Adams was a guest of the Oberoi, Bengaluru (oberoihotels.com/hotels-in-bengaluru)
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