L'oscar London

excellent hotel

Over six years, a former Baptist church was converted to a positively decadent hotel. L’Oscar has a “problem” of its own making: the design of the hotel is so stunning that it ratchets up expectations. Anything that’s merely very good, you’re going to wonder why it isn’t also off the charts. LOCATION: In Holborn, very close to the tube. Very convenient to the British Museum and Covent Garden. ROOM and DECOR: On a scale of 1 to 10, about 15. I chose to stay here because of a stunning picture of the place, and I was not let down. I booked the studio suite (Room 304) and it was like staying on a movie set. The design of the place is over-the-top fin-de-siècle elegance, with frosted glass birds and peacock feather fabric. If you’re a maximalist, it’s for you. The open plan of the studio was wonderful for a solo traveler (two-room suites tend to leave you using one room or the other) and I was able to entertain guests as well. Staff brings you up to the room at check in and gives you an orientation. Don’t be like me and space out, really listen to it. Not everything in the room is intuitive – the climate control is hard to figure out and there are no USB outlets by the bed. SERVICE: Lives up to the hotel. Staff is proactive and friendly, both at front desk and in the dining room. A lovely detail, my welcome was a plate with cookies and two peaches, one completely ripe and the other just about to be ripe – perfect for the next day. There is an evening turn-down with chocolate. The room was cleaned at the time I requested. One tiny quibble, and it’s only a matter of style. It seemed staff was trained to ask “What’s the plan?” as a friendly inquiry, but it threw me and felt slightly intrusive. I would have preferred more of an invitation than an inquiry, on the lines of “Would you like any assistance with your plans today?” Again, L’Oscar brought it on itself, if the design weren’t so stunning I wouldn’t be critiquing the staff’s chit-chat! FOOD: There is a restaurant and it is good. Much of the staff I spoke to was Swiss, and all staff was attentive and helpful. Again, a jokey quibble: breakfast was good, I ordered a traditional English fry-up and got it down to the hash-brown triangle, but again, after the room and design, I was kind of expecting the kitchen to blow my socks off with some remarkable reinterpretation of the English breakfast. I am complaining because breakfast wasn’t visionary and I need to get a life. VIEW: None to speak of, at least not from my room. You will barely care. VALUE: L’Oscar doesn’t come cheap, and as I said, with the high points so good, any blemish was noticeable. (What do you MEAN the third elevator was not working properly??) Still, though worth mentioning for accuracy, those hiccups were not deal-breakers, even at that price. For two days of feeling like a character in a Noël Coward drawing room comedy, I was not unhappy with the splurge, and I’d come back.