The Chancery Rosewood — Hotel in London

We have been following the development of The Chancery very closely as regular visitors to London and looking for a location to stay for our frequent visits. ||The physical building comprises all four sides of the old American Embassy plus two new floors. There are separate entrances for different features of the property. Ballroom, restaurants, hotel, etc.||The central core of the property is a large atrium with reception on one side and the concierge on the other, with several of the restaurants circulated around the atrium. |Serra on one side, Japanese adjacent and Jacqueline at the back of the property but with large bay windows. Thankfully Carbone, has a separate entrance.||The lifts are discretely located lead up to the guest floors as well as the Eagle Bar on the seventh floor.||Design||The property has a warm, welcoming feel with a homely style décor in the main reception, as well as the individual rooms. Soft padded carpets combined with the décor and design lowers the sound – noise of the property, giving a very relaxing, calming feel.||We had a tour of the property just as it opened prior to visiting, and all of the rooms are superb whether they are Grosvenor Park or Mews – Hyde Park facing properties. ||There probably is a benefit being on a high floor because of the view and being slightly lighter, but given the size of the windows, all rooms are light and airy.||Each room is well apportioned, with either comfortable sofas, tables, coffee machines and a very comfortable bed and linens. ||The bathrooms have lovely marble, with ample space and a good size shower.||The light fixtures are simple, multiple ambient lighting buttons with electronic curtains.||The rooms are, without doubt, the high point of the property and we are grateful to management for the upgrade, which came as a very pleasant surprise.||Serra||We had already dined at Serra on a previous occasion and had a brief lunch. In addition, this is the location for breakfast. ||The breakfast is à la carte is good, the team quite capable and very pleasant. ||Unlike other hotel restaurants of this calibre, there is no mention about the provenance of the breakfast food or explanation in terms of the bakery, butters, etc. Perhaps this will come.||The food at Serra for lunch or dinner is delicious, but the menu very limited. Despite being a new restaurant it was quiet and we wonder if this is because the restaurant menu does not cater for all tastes and is quite Chef-specific. We do wonder if they are going to have to force themselves to be a little bit more mainstream if they are going to cater for the wide variety of hotel guests. ||Jacqueline||Again, physically, the location is wonderful, very relaxing, with a large area designed for afternoon teas, coffees. ||The Chef is very creative and has designed some superb pastries but, again, I wonder if it is too specialised and focused to cater for the large audience that they would like to have on an ongoing basis. ||This is also the location where hotel guests would relax and have a snack if they were not going to Serra, and it is not clear if this is yet catered for here. ||General Experience||Our visit was nearly two months after the hotel had opened. The hotel is charging full hotel rates and they are not in the official soft opening phase. ||Our comments, therefore, are made on the basis that if you charge a full fee, you should be providing a full service. ||We provided extensive feedback to the management and will not provide an overview in this note of the many facets that were not close to standard but anybody wanting more insight, please do drop us a line.||We hope that the property will address all the service-related shortcomings. They say they wish to compete for example with the Peninsular and Claridges. It will take some effort to do so.||We are booked to stay at the hotel just before Christmas to give it one final opportunity. ||Hopefully significant improvements will have been made and this can become the hotel that we stay at when we regularly visit London.||Irrespective, we wish the hotel, the team and the Rosewood Group every success as they have an excellent physical property on their hands and certainly, in time, will win on the service side as well. The team were almost all, warm and welcoming and they...

No hospitality in the much-awaited Rosewood

As Londoners, we were genuinely excited to see one of the city’s most iconic buildings reborn under Sonia Cheng’s Rosewood banner, with Sir David Chipperfield connecting past and present in stone and Joseph Dirand weaving his minimalist story through the interiors. Add to that the gossip about Carbone and Masa flying in from New York, plus whispers of our beloved W6 restaurant finding a new home there, and you can imagine our anticipation after years of waiting.

So of course, we rushed in for a pre-birthday drink at the Eagle Bar. What a mistake.The vision is spectacular. The design is impeccable. The hospitality is non-existent.We were questioned at the door about our intentions, as if we were attempting to breach state security. After some back-and-forth, we were finally “granted entry” and made our way to the seventh-floor Eagle Bar.

Miraculously, we were shown to a terrace table — or so we thought.Five minutes later, our interrogator reappeared, this time wearing the title of maître d’, firing questions at a speed that would put a police interview to shame. Upon learning we weren’t hotel guests, he abruptly downgraded us: only inside. When we asked why, he parroted the same line over and over — “this seat is reserved for hotel guests only” — like a broken record. At one point, he even declared that  a bench sitting opposite was “not comfortable enough” for us. My giggle at this absurd comment seemed to break his rhythm, and with a final flourish, he relented: “Go ahead and sit there, not here, but you cannot order much food, the table is too small.” Really?

So we sat at our new bench, sitting at the corner of the terrace, watching empty tables remain empty while we tried in vain to order. Our celebratory mood had already evaporated. We settled on a non-alcoholic cocktail, a tonic water, and a glass of wine.

Then began the waiting. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes… still no drinks, but had a complimentary olives and weird nuts.When the drinks finally arrived, the tonic water was fine (straight from the bottle), the non-alcoholic cocktail looked the part but was undrinkable, and the wine glass arrived minus the wine, which followed five minutes later with all the ceremony of my eight-year-old niece pretending to be a sommelier.

By now, any appetite for celebration was gone. I walked up to the bar to pay and explained my disappointment to the manager. He shrugged with all the gravitas of a corner-shop cashier and delivered the immortal line: “If you come back, we’ll try to do better.” One almost has to applaud the audacity.

I refused to pay the 15% service charge, which the manager seemed unable to remove from the bill. Our waitress, who had only taken our order and apologised sincerely throughout (without being responsible for any of the chaos), was the only one to show genuine grace.

Instead of resolving the bill properly, the manager decided to “do us a favour” by comping everything. From metres away, I could sense his air of self-congratulation, as though brushing us off.All he needed to do was apologise sincerely, nothing more. Instead, he acted as if he were bestowing a gift upon us. It was insulting.

We left without so much as a goodbye; the farewell here is as absent as the hospitality. Walking out felt less like leaving a five-star hotel and more like exiting a prettier train station.London deserves better. The visionary team behind this project...

The Chancery Rosewood: When the Curtain Rises but the Cast Stumbles

The Chancery Rosewood has opened with the pomp one expects of Mayfair’s latest temple to luxury. Housed in the old American Embassy, its architectural gravitas and interiors are undeniably exquisite. You can practically hear the marble whispering: this is where the world’s elite will drink, dine, and deal.

And yet, behind the theatrical backdrop, the performance falters.

I wasn’t a guest cloistered upstairs in a suite, but a visitor, hosted by friends who had reason to celebrate. We began at The Eagle Bar, a space as handsome as a glossy magazine spread. Sadly, the service was anything but. Waiting staff seemed indifferent, as though guests were an inconvenience rather than the very purpose of their employment. I eventually had to abandon hope of being served at the table and walked to the bar myself for drinks, a small humiliation that sits poorly in a place touting itself as London’s newest luxury landmark.

Downstairs, at Jacqueline, the tea room that promises charm and refinement, things only sank further. Service was slow, curt, and wholly unworthy of the setting. If Abbey, the front-of-house, hadn’t stepped in with grace and basic courtesy to find us a table, the experience would have descended into farce.

And then the pièce de résistance: at 10pm, when I asked about ordering food, I was told the kitchen was closed. No alternatives were offered. No suggestion of another dining outlet within the hotel. Not even the common courtesy of a recommendation nearby. Just a flat refusal, as though hunger were somehow an eccentric request.

Contrast this with The Dorchester, The Peninsula, or Claridge’s, where a guest, resident or visitor, is never left without options. Luxury is not defined by chandeliers or marble, but by imagination, flexibility, and a refusal to let a guest leave dissatisfied.

The Chancery Rosewood has the stage, the set, and the orchestra. But until it trains its cast to deliver lines with warmth, intuition, and finesse, it risks becoming that most damning of Mayfair phenomena: a hotel that looks the part but fails to play it.

Verdict: Spectacular design, dreadful service. A hotel that must urgently learn its lines if it wants to join London’s...