Hotel review: Z Hotel Soho, London
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10:08 PM |
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With frosted glass wetrooms, Thierry Mugler toiletries and doubles for under £100, Soho's newest budget place to stay, the Z Hotel, is hard to beat
There is disappointment in my sibling's voice. "No five-star bar?" Nope. I'm reviewing budget. "I'll just meet you for dinner, then," he says.
In Cambridge Circus, tourists are clicking cameras beneath an illuminated stiletto which sparkles on the Palace Theatre's facade beside the title, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. On a side street I spot the low-key entrance to Z Hotel, slip through and find myself in a tiny, unmanned bar. A walnut-veneered hallway opens out into reception. Behind reception, a compact hotel cafe. Won't get lost here.
The Z in Soho is a starter hotel in a new chain (Victoria, SW1, and Liverpool are next). A series of converted Georgian townhouses, Z Soho will offer 80 rooms on completion. The builders are still in and a glass lift slides by packed with expensive-looking mattresses. I take the stairs.
Up, past a first-floor courtyard, to the third floor. The golden rule with budget hotels is to book the highest and biggest room you can. I look at a double and it's verging on claustrophobic. By contrast, a queen room has space to swing a couple of alley cats, plus windows overlooking Charing Cross Road. It's so central.
There is a good Sky package, you can play i-everything through your large TV screen, and Wi-Fi is free. My wetroom is a sleek, frosted glass box with plenty of towels and, mm, fragrant Thierry Mugler shower gel and soap – but what's with the passion-killer loo? It's visible from the room – because frosting hasn't extended to the sliding glass door. Two wooden hangers, a hairdryer and full-length mirror show someone's paid attention, but it's still a bit hard-edged. I have yet to find a feminised take on the budget hotel room, though Soho House group's Dean Street Townhouse, which opened two Christmases ago around the corner, has, probably, the best template so far.
We could eat at any number of haunts but have picked Soho's new Indian, Carom, formerly Meza at 100 Wardour Street, which hosts pop-ups by the likes of The Modern Pantry's Anna Hansen. It is a cavernous room – and neither bar nor restaurant is busy, which is a shame because we enjoy former Benares chef Balaji Balachander's cooking very much. We kick off (to live sitar) with hot potato and ginger cakes and lentil, onion and curry leaf fritters, try smoky, juicy chicken tikka with mint chutney, and seabass cooked Keralan-style plus a side of slow-cooked black lentils and flaky rotis. "Lovely," says my sibling, with a satisfied look.
We part company beneath Priscilla's shoe, then I hit the sack while traffic rumbles far below. The mattress is too firm for me, but the organic wool duvet is lovely.
Breakfast telly, tea in bed, and a last awkward perch on the loo (because my knees hit the bathroom wall). Downstairs, homemade buns, pains au chocolat and fresh fruit are heaped on a black quartzite cafe counter. I could have a bacon bap and fresh coffee, but opt for a swift bowl of fruit, granola and honey, balanced on a low stool.
At weekends you can pay £230 for the smallest (honestly categorised as "broom cupboard") rooms at Dean Street Townhouse, but have the run of its hip public spaces. Here, communal parts are compact, with none of the cachet, but you pay far less for a bigger room. It rather depends on your priorities. One thing is for certain. The cash-strapped can now crash in Soho
.
• Carom (020-7314 4002, meza-soho.co.uk). Dinner for two around £60, excluding drinks
There is disappointment in my sibling's voice. "No five-star bar?" Nope. I'm reviewing budget. "I'll just meet you for dinner, then," he says.
In Cambridge Circus, tourists are clicking cameras beneath an illuminated stiletto which sparkles on the Palace Theatre's facade beside the title, Priscilla Queen of the Desert. On a side street I spot the low-key entrance to Z Hotel, slip through and find myself in a tiny, unmanned bar. A walnut-veneered hallway opens out into reception. Behind reception, a compact hotel cafe. Won't get lost here.
The Z in Soho is a starter hotel in a new chain (Victoria, SW1, and Liverpool are next). A series of converted Georgian townhouses, Z Soho will offer 80 rooms on completion. The builders are still in and a glass lift slides by packed with expensive-looking mattresses. I take the stairs.
Up, past a first-floor courtyard, to the third floor. The golden rule with budget hotels is to book the highest and biggest room you can. I look at a double and it's verging on claustrophobic. By contrast, a queen room has space to swing a couple of alley cats, plus windows overlooking Charing Cross Road. It's so central.
There is a good Sky package, you can play i-everything through your large TV screen, and Wi-Fi is free. My wetroom is a sleek, frosted glass box with plenty of towels and, mm, fragrant Thierry Mugler shower gel and soap – but what's with the passion-killer loo? It's visible from the room – because frosting hasn't extended to the sliding glass door. Two wooden hangers, a hairdryer and full-length mirror show someone's paid attention, but it's still a bit hard-edged. I have yet to find a feminised take on the budget hotel room, though Soho House group's Dean Street Townhouse, which opened two Christmases ago around the corner, has, probably, the best template so far.
We could eat at any number of haunts but have picked Soho's new Indian, Carom, formerly Meza at 100 Wardour Street, which hosts pop-ups by the likes of The Modern Pantry's Anna Hansen. It is a cavernous room – and neither bar nor restaurant is busy, which is a shame because we enjoy former Benares chef Balaji Balachander's cooking very much. We kick off (to live sitar) with hot potato and ginger cakes and lentil, onion and curry leaf fritters, try smoky, juicy chicken tikka with mint chutney, and seabass cooked Keralan-style plus a side of slow-cooked black lentils and flaky rotis. "Lovely," says my sibling, with a satisfied look.
We part company beneath Priscilla's shoe, then I hit the sack while traffic rumbles far below. The mattress is too firm for me, but the organic wool duvet is lovely.
Breakfast telly, tea in bed, and a last awkward perch on the loo (because my knees hit the bathroom wall). Downstairs, homemade buns, pains au chocolat and fresh fruit are heaped on a black quartzite cafe counter. I could have a bacon bap and fresh coffee, but opt for a swift bowl of fruit, granola and honey, balanced on a low stool.
At weekends you can pay £230 for the smallest (honestly categorised as "broom cupboard") rooms at Dean Street Townhouse, but have the run of its hip public spaces. Here, communal parts are compact, with none of the cachet, but you pay far less for a bigger room. It rather depends on your priorities. One thing is for certain. The cash-strapped can now crash in Soho
.
• Carom (020-7314 4002, meza-soho.co.uk). Dinner for two around £60, excluding drinks
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