Raffles London at The OWO

With roughly a dozen outlets — Saison (Mauro Colagreco's flagship), Paper Moon, Kioku, the Drawing Room, Guards Bar, Spy Bar, Café Lapérouse and more — The OWO functions as a destination dining complex in its own right. The range is genuinely impressive; you could stay a week without leaving the building. Paper Moon and Kioku draw particularly strong praise, and the Guards Bar is an atmospheric gem with its views of Horse Guards Parade. The Spy Bar — a subterranean speakeasy with an actual Aston Martin mounted behind the bar and a strict no-photo policy — is one of London's most inventive cocktail experiences, though at £30–£50 per drink it's pricing itself into occasional-only territory. The weak link, surprisingly, is breakfast: the buffet is notably sparse for a hotel of this class (limited cold cuts, cheeses, and fruit), the English breakfast execution is uneven, and charges for extras like espresso shots and condiments strike a penny-wise note at odds with the setting. Afternoon tea in the Drawing Room is excellent when on form, with cleverly themed spy-inspired pastries, though service can falter at capacity.

Here The OWO is close to peerless. Thierry Despont's restoration (his last major project before his death) is a masterclass in how to convert a listed government building without sanitising its character. The central marble staircase, the Florentine flooring, the panelled corridors, the courtyard with its glass pavilion housing Café Lapérouse — these are spaces that photograph beautifully and feel even better in person. The subterranean spa and 20-metre pool are among the most striking hotel wellness facilities in Europe, full stop. The design leans historicist rather than contemporary, which is a deliberate choice: those expecting the sleek minimalism of the new Raffles Bali or the Peninsula London may find it traditional, even ornate.

Few addresses in London rival this one for sightseeing convenience. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, the Horse Guards, and St James's Park are all within a five-to-ten-minute walk. For first-time visitors and history-minded travellers, it's essentially perfect. For shoppers and fine-diners whose axis runs through Mayfair and Knightsbridge, it's a tangible compromise — London traffic can make a trip to Bond Street or Harrods a thirty-plus-minute exercise. The hotel mitigates this with a complimentary house-car service, though availability is limited and the 10:30 a.m. start is too late.

The suites — particularly the named heritage suites like Clementine, Granville, Haldane, Westminster, and the Raffles Suite — are genuinely spectacular, with soaring ceilings, rich oak panelling, marble bathrooms featuring mirror-embedded televisions, heated floors, and iPad-controlled everything. The bathrooms across categories are a consistent high point. However, the standard Deluxe and Junior Suite categories are the property's most polarising element. Because the Grade II* listed status prevented structural modifications, some rooms face interior light wells or bricked-up views — a real issue given the £1,000+ nightly rate. A few critical voices suggest the standard-room design reads closer to upscale business hotel than ultra-luxury. Minor maintenance irritations — inconsistent iPad connectivity, overly bright standby LEDs at night, the absence of full-length mirrors in some suites — suggest the property is still refining its operational polish.

This is the hotel's defining strength and the quality that most consistently justifies its prices. The front-of-house team operates with a warmth that is rare in London's top tier, where luxury service can tip into the chilly or the mechanical. Doormen greet arrivals with genuine smiles; reception is handled seated at writing desks with welcome drinks; butlers, concierges and spa attendants are uniformly proactive. The hotel also excels at the small theatrical gestures that make celebrations memorable — balloons and cakes for birthdays, bespoke gifts for returning children, Polaroid cameras for teenagers, thoughtful notes at turndown. That said, the service is not uniformly flawless. A handful of recurring frictions surface: occasional missteps with pre-arrival correspondence for Accor loyalty members, uneven responses at peak afternoon-tea service, and isolated reports of front-desk inflexibility around room views and late checkouts. For a property charging what it charges, these should not exist at all.

Nightly rates routinely exceed £1,000 for entry categories and climb well beyond £2,000 for the grander suites, with cocktails, dining, and incidentals priced accordingly. The question of value hinges almost entirely on what you prioritise. For the spa, the architecture, the service warmth, and the sense of occasion, the proposition holds. For sheer room quality alone — particularly in the standard categories — the Four Seasons Park Lane, Mandarin Oriental Mayfair, and Peninsula London all deliver more for the money. The 10% discretionary service charge added to rooms strikes many as a needless flourish that would be better rolled into the headline rate.