How the grande dame of London hotels breezed into the TikTok era

Homely charm — and excellent food and drink — keep the Connaught at the top

- BY DAVID ELLIS

Once upon a time, when the world was still in black and white, London dining was divided between the haves and have-nots. This is an oversimplification — there has always been a middle, however truncated — but largely at one end London jostled with greasy spoons and caffs, at the other were five-star hotels offering fine dining. Some of this was performative, all silver service and greying beef being rolled around a room, to customers who didn't care, or thought eating was common (truly).

But haughty maitre d’s began to be ushered back to their coffins and things started to change. Of all the grand hotels to embrace this change, none did it quite like the Connaught. Setting itself in aspic did not appeal.

“I came here from Claridge’s, which is always considered the jewel in the Maybourne Group crown,” says the Connaught's director of food and beverage, Andreas Cortes. “And it is, and always has been, one of the grande dames of London. But I think within the group, the Connaught is the one where the food and drink really, truly stands out. We have all these incredible names, these brands if you like, under one roof: Héléne Darroze; Jean-Georges; the famous Grill. Or the bars — the Connaught Bar is world-famous, though the Coburg is my favourite. We have a cigar room, but we also have Nicolas Rouzaud’s patisserie...” He pauses for breath; the Connaught is not short of choice. What it offers, Cortes says, is something for every mood.

It’s quite the roll call: Darroze’s French dining room has three Michelin stars — one of only six restaurants in the capital to have the honour (and one of only 10 in the entire country). Jean-Georges, in which the eponymous, acclaimed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten astutely pairs British and South East Asian cooking, also offers guests something informal and easy: pasta if you want it. Hotel guests sometimes seek the familiar.

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