Worth it? (Langham Hilton Hotel London)

Member Name: iToast

Product:	Langham Hilton Hotel London
Date:	06/01/08 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good service, good facilities, great location, nice food

Disadvantages: price.

~~Introduction~~
I stayed here over Christmas, just for two nights, for a kind of Christmas treat. The idea was basically to see what staying in a posh hotel is like, what with fancy food, room service, swimming pool, and the rest.

~~Location~~
This is one of the things that makes the Langham so expensive. It's located at the end of Regent street; right in the middle of London. Since we stayed there over Christmas, we needed a place near the centre because there was no public transport on Christmas day. Really, there can't be many better places in London to stay regarding location

~~Accommodation~~
This was not all that impressive, to be honest. It was just a normal hotel room. Not particularly big, with an en-suite bathroom. There was a small TV in a cabinet, with freeview, but no sky, and pay-per-view for films and games. The bathroom was quite nice. It had a black bath and a nice shower, with a big sparkling mirror. Still, hardly gobsmacking.

~~Food~~
An important subject in my opinion. We had two breakfasts and one dinner while staying at the hotel. The breakfasts were very nice, we opted for continental, which meant assortments of buns and pastries, followed by toast and jams, with a cold and a hot drink. The downside of this is that it came to I think it was £16.50 each. For toast and pastries. Yeah. Still, you're paying for the experience I guess.
Dinner was a much more fancy affair, with 5 courses, for about £100, including wine. When I say it was fancy... well, I really mean it. I've got the menu here:
1) White bean and truffle soup with quail's egg
2) Smoked Scottish salmon and goat's cheese with caviar
3) Seared Orkney scallop with cauliflower purée and chorizo
4) Cutlet of Devonshire lamb, confit of mutton, mint and artichokes
5) Moelleux Amadei chocolate fondant

You would think that all that lot would leave you absolutely stuffed, but not so. You see, most of the dishes were a very large plate with a small pile of food in the middle, arranged artistically. The lamb dish was the only one that had a decent amount of food on it. At the end, I was feeling reasonably full, but I could easily have eaten something else.
I expect they're about quality more than quantity at the Langham though, so let's go on to the quality of the food. It was VERY rich, and very flavourful. Most of it was very nice, although what all the fuss with caviar is about is beyond me. I wouldn't want to be eating like that every day, but it was nice for just the once.

~~Service~~
Very professional, and fairly friendly as well. They brought us mince pies and stuff in our rooms on Christmas, which is a nice touch. In the restaurant they seemed to have lots of surplus staff. We had fun counting them. There were at least as many staff as there were customers, and lots of them were just milling around doing not a lot. Still, too many is better than too few.

~~Facilities~~
There is a pool, jacuzzi, 2 saunas and 2 steam rooms, as well as a large gym. They are really very nice facilities, especially the gym, which is very spacious and has at least 50 exercise machines. However, getting there poses a bit of a problem. The whole swimming pool and gym complex is in a separate part of the building, which means you must get in a lift, go to the right floor, walk across the building, get in another lift and go up a floor to where the gym is. All this while dressed in a dressing gown.

Once you're there though, there's enough to do to stay a fair while. The pool is large enough to swim around in properly, and when you get cold, the jacuzzi is there with bubbles going on and off every 5 minutes. I have already mentioned the gym, and then there are the saunas and steam rooms. There is one of each for each gender. Of course, finding your way back to your room is even harder than finding the gym, since there are no signs pointing to your room.

~~Price~~
£165/night/room.

~~Conclusion~~
Worth it for the experience, once in a (big) while, but I wouldn't make into a regular thing. Unless I was very very rich. If enough people read this then I might be able to fund another stay!

-Toast

Summary: If you have some money that you don't know what to do with...