STAYCATION @ THE ARCH LONDON

It has been a while since I last did a staycation – the last one was during my birthday at the Royal Horseguards Hotel which was a fun weekend indeed.

This time I had the pleasure of spending a night at The Arch London, a family-owned contemporary boutique hotel. Inspired by the London landmark, Marble Arch which is located just a stone’s throw away, The Arch London spans over seven Grade II listed townhouses and two mews homes.

We were booked into one of their ensuite Executive Rooms where there was a bottle of champagne ready for us on the table – I could get used to this.

Dinner was served downstairs in their restaurant, Hunter 486, which offers a ‘Best of British’ inspired menu. We were sat by one of the large Georgian windows which offered a view of the neighbourhood mews.

For starters, I had the pan fried scallops with chorizo, red peppers, rockets and balsamic, which was good, whilst E had the soup of the day (butternut squash soup). The fillet of halibut had a subtle sweetness and nice, firm texture yet still nice and moist, served on a bed of white beans, mussels and clams. The organic salmon was just as delicious with creamy cauliflower puree, salsify, lemon and caper dressing. The side of cauliflower cheese looked pretty good, but it was maybe a tad bit overcooked and watery underneath.

We shared two desserts which were simple and comforting – the chocolate fondant had a soft gooey centre and was served with with burnt orange ice cream, and the hazelnut and apple tart was nice and buttery with with cinnamon custard on the side.

Breakfast was also complimentary and served in the same dining area. They had a continental buffet counter on display but instead we ordered a la carte. We had the Eggs Royale and the John Ross organic smoked salmon and scrambled egg. – we do love our eggs and smoked salmon in the morning…