STAYCATION: Is this hotel London’s best kept secret?
| 27th May 2021
| 27th May 2021
STAYCATION: Is this hotel London’s best kept secret? Set in the most perfect of locations, right in the centre of Strand sits The Strand Palace Hotel. Steeped in history and heritage. This hotel has been transformed with a multimillion-pound recent refurbishment.
This mammoth overhaul saw the renovation of all 785 bedrooms, public areas, a brand-new restaurant and bar refurbished with a modern art-deco inspired interior design.
The hotel’s central location gives guests the freedom to take advantage of some of the world-famous sights & attractions on its doorstep including: St. Paul’s Cathedral; Trafalgar Square and the London Eye on the River Thames, which means travel & leisure is easy.
Covent Garden is also just a stone’s throw away – perfect for those who have been dreaming of retail therapy and relishing in the reopening of fashion & shopping landmarks.
From Manchester, London is a short two-hour train ride away. From Euston station, The Grand Palace is around a 10-minute cab ride away. We ordered an Uber which cost us under £10 each way and seemed the easiest option with our bags. There are, however, many different travel options at your disposal when navigating the streets of London.
We arrived relatively early on our first day (check in time is 2pm) and the staff were more than happy to keep our bags safe for us, whilst we ventured out to explore our nations capital. For those that would rather cycle their way around London, Strand Palace even have their own bikes that you can rent for the day.
Buckingham Palace was about a half hour walk from the hotel. We walked through Trafalgar Square and St James Park before looping around to Westminster, the home of Big Ben and Westminster Bridge.
After visiting a few of the most well-known tourist hotspots, we arrived back at the hotel to relax and put our feet up, before getting ready for dinner.
With beautiful art-deco inspired bedrooms, featuring artwork from Manchester’s own Justin Eagleton (it’s a small world after all) our deluxe room (priced from £190 per night) featured a huge super king bed, TV, Nespresso machine and get this – a complimentary mini bar, stocked with wine, beer, soft drinks and all sorts of savoury and sweet snacks to choose from.
The hotel had provided us with our own super soft fluffy robes and slippers, and after a good shower I felt so cosy and relaxed.
Dinner is served downstairs in the Haxells Restaurant. Dinner is served from 5pm, although there is a lunch and special afternoon tea menu available from 12pm on weekends.
Serving modern British cuisine, the dishes you can expect to find from Haxells include fish and chips (£16), British beef burger (£18) and black truffle risotto (£16).
To start, I opted for the goat’s cheese and walnut salad (£12). This was served with Goat’s Cheese, Walnuts, Confit Tomato, Pomegranate, Figs, Sorrel Leaves & Honey Dressing. I particularly enjoyed the contrast of the goat’s cheese and pomegranate. The savoury and sweet flavour profiles balanced perfectly together, and the dish was presented beautifully.
For our mains I went for the grilled salmon (£18) on a bed of tender stem broccoli and watercress, whilst the other half went for the British favourite, Fish & Chips (£16). The salmon was cooked to perfection and I thoroughly enjoyed every part of my main, however, I did get a fair bit of food envy looking at the fish and chips.
The desserts, as many eager VIVA readers will know, are always my favourite course. I chose the chocolate fondant with raspberry coulis (£6) whilst the other half went for the crème brulee (£7). Both were delightful, perfectly portioned and neither heavy nor stodgy.
We retired to our room shortly after dinner. With a long fun filled day behind us, it didn’t take us long at all to drift off to sleep. We both slept wonderfully and the next morning we were treated to a classic full English breakfast.
Under normal circumstances, breakfast is a typical buffet style. However, with COVID restrictions still in place, we were seated and asked to go up table by table. No table had to wait very long at all, and the breakfast staff were very attentive, and always made sure we had everything we needed.
Overall, we felt very welcomed by all the staff, and were so impressed by every aspect of the hotel, from the rooms to the restaurant and the location. I can honestly say we really felt sad to leave. But as all good things must come to an end, we can safely say we will be returning to The Strand Palace Hotel in the very near future, to explore even more that London has to offer.