The long awaited Dean street town house opened last week after a pretty hairy start. The first weekend of opening was when it was raining cats and dogs, so when you are a Grade 2 listed building with a dodgy roof it’s bound to cause chaos. And it did. Some of the newly refurbished rooms were flooded, guests were evacuated and soon stories were hitting the internet. Frankly, because I’m a nosey parker this did not put me off, more intrigued me and on checking in I wanted all the gossip. It turns out it was just a small leak that only bothered a couple of the top floor bedrooms and merely as a precaution were some of the guests moved, (all very happily).

I have been excited about this opening as I am a ’super fan’ of the Soho house group. I just think they seem to think of everything a person could want and do it with such modern day elegance. A townhouse hotel in the middle of London’s Soho had me chomping at the bit with excitement especially as ‘word on the street’ was that the menu was going to be slightly more classic French and less Italian as a lot of the other Soho house ventures are.

Well the room was exquisite. We were given a small room and for London sizes there was nothing small about it. Having spent a fair bit of time in New york recently I know what small is and there was nothing cramped about this room. I actually asked to see a ‘tiny’ room which was still quite a good sized. Contained but not cramped. Anyway, as ever, everything was thought of including straighteners and a hairbrush, which I forgot, ( a couple of toothbrushes, toothpaste, (which hotels NEVER have) and wait for it, Mouthwash. You may think I’m being a wierdo but the amount of times I have stayed in the swankiest of hotels to not have even a smidgen of toothpaste, (which I always forget) to then be greeted by mouth wash and floss. I loved this place.

So dinner was calling and we went down to the gorgeous, slightly 20’s/Art Deco dining room and the menu was awesome. Filled with things you want to eat. In fact it was quite difficult to choose but in the end I went for Roasted scallops with bacon and garlic, (perfect) and Dean had the ham and rabbit terrine with picallili which was great. Dean complained the picillili lacked heat and acidity but he’s a boy and for me, being a girl it was pretty lovely.

For our mains I had a piece of very ‘in season’ Dover sole with buerre menierre, which was spot on. Deans rib eye with bernaise was enormous, almost too big which doesn’t come out of my mouth often and a little undercooked. We asked for it rare but it came in blue and on such a thick piece of steak it was a bit of a mouthful, but beautiful meat all the same. The bernaise was deelish and the goose fat chips were out of this world.

For pudding we shared a syrup pudding with custard meant for 2 but would have easily served 4. It was really good. They gave us loads of custard, (very important) and was generally a lovely end to a really rather lovely meal. 

While there had been a few tiny scrupples, the whole experience was blissful. The service was fantastic. Wines were tip-top and we rolled into bed in complete contentment. Had a great nights sleep, super breakfast and it was all washed away as we hit oxford street and more rain. I have already told EVERYONE they have to stay there and you’d be hard pushed to find a better London hotel where you can stay from £90 a night, bang slap in the centre of town.

The dean street town house

69 - 71 Dean Street
London
W1D 3SE

Tel +44 (0) 20 7434 1775
Email info@deanstreettownhouse.com

www.deanstreettownhouse.com