Being someone undergoing chemotherapy for advanced colon cancer I try to make the most of my good days, so when I learned that I would not be having treatment one week at the end of September ’21 I very quickly arranged to have a luxurious night in London, then a fine dining lunch the next day.  Lunch was to be at Frog by Adam Handling, in Covent Garden, and it just so happens that Adam Handling also has overall responsibility for the food at the Belmond Cadogan Hotel in Chelsea.  The Cadogan had been on my radar for a while, so I made a last minute booking through my travel club PKs List.  I booked a Superior Room at £830 B&B, with a £100 hotel credit, and I was “guaranteed” an upgrade.  After I’d booked I tried to reserve a table for dinner in their restaurant “Adam Handling Chelsea” but I was told the restaurant wasn’t open on a Tuesday. However they had a good-looking bar menu, so I reserved a table there instead.

The Cadogan is a small luxury hotel, with just 54 rooms and suites. It’s located about half way up Sloane Street, which runs between Sloane Square and Knightsbridge, right opposite leafy Cadogan Place Gardens, which guests have exclusive entry to.  We arrived around 3.30pm and sat in comfortable seats for a warm and relaxed check-in process, within the very smart lobby area.  That’s when we learned we had been upgraded to their Penthouse Suite, room 501.

Our entrance hallway had a toilet, and to the left was the bedroom with an oversized bed, chaise longue and other chairs, a wall-mounted flat TV and even a small balcony with table and chairs, which overlooked Sloane Street and Cadogan Place Gardens, with the City of London in the distance.  Sloane Street doesn’t appear to have as many cruising supercars as Knightsbridge does, but the windows here were quadruple-glazed, so noise from the street really is not an issue. Decor was understated contemporary luxury.

The bedroom lead into a large white marble bathroom with twin wash basins, a free standing bath tub, shower room and toilet and bidet room; all with under-floor heating. Toiletries were by Bamford, which runs a wellness spa in the Cotswolds.

The bathroom connected to a spacious dressing room which had plenty of storage space for our clothes, and one end connected to the hallway again.

A right turn from the hallway took us into the lounge area.  A cushion-packed sofa faced a large TV, and behind it was a huge walnut-inlaid dining table capable of seating 8 in comfort for a dinner. A kitchenette provided the tools needed to serve up the dinner.  I thought the dining table was beautiful.

The lounge had a real fireplace and we commented that it would be lovely to have a fire going when we got back from dinner, but we didn’t want to cause any fuss.

The suite had two (pay) bars and coffee machines.

The Penthouse Suite at The Cadogan is a beautiful, calming space of around 100 sq m, which exudes contemporary luxury. I can’t actually see prices for this room on the hotel website; it just says “contact us to book”, but looking at some of their other suites it must be selling above £3300/night.  And although the website says their largest suite is the Royal Suite, the fire escape floor plan on the back of our door clearly showed our suite to be the largest on the top floor, taking up one full side of the building.

The hotel’s restaurant, “Adam Handling Chelsea” only opens for Sunday lunch and Wednesday to Saturday dinner, which was a shame for our Tuesday night stay, but also somewhat confusing because it was my understanding (as a former hotelier) that in the UK the definition of “hotel” is a place with bedrooms and a restaurant serving food at least 5 nights a week”.  But food is available in the hotel bar, so that’s where we had our dinner.

The Cadogan Bar and Terrace, to use its full name, is a cosy space offering booths, small tables and counter seating indoors and a covered terrace outside.  The menu is put together by the Adam Handling team, but I’m not sure who actually cooks it, because from this experience, the food wasn’t as good as it sounded.

We began our meal with a sharing platter of some of the plates on the “snacks” part of the menu. We had “cheese donuts”, ham hock croquette and octopus with a pepper and almond dip.  The donuts were stodgy and cold (replaced with warm ones), the croquette contained more potato than ham, and the octopus was quite ‘wet’ and didn’t taste fresh. 4/10

Mr A and I then chose to share some “light plates”. First up was “seabass, ceviche, strawberry, fennel” which we found quite, but not very, interesting. The strawberry was little more than a garnish; it didn’t contribute to the main (fishy) flavour of the dish. 7/10

Tuna tartare with kimchi, cashew nits and coriander was a pleasant eat, though maybe a touch too sweet. But the portion size, like with the seabass, was very small. Too small I would say; this is a bar, not a fancy restaurant, yet the prices are comparable with the latter (£15 each for the tuna and seabass). 7.5/10

Our final ‘light plate’ was beef tartare (£20), and although it was a little more substantial than the others I felt I needed to order some French fries to go with them.  Unfortunately it took about 15 minutes for the fries to arrive, but at least the beef hadn’t gone cold!  The tartare came with a confit egg yolk on top, which I didn’t take to because it was thick and sticky, like a jam.  Two slices of melba toast was insufficient to accompany the beef.  6/10

So we were disappointed with our meal in the Cadogan Bar.  But perhaps the most frustrating thing was that our table for two was just not large enough for food to be served on it – especially if sharing plates are involved.  Overall 5/10

In the morning we took breakfast in the dining room used by Adam Handling Chelsea.  Everything was a la carte.

As usual, I went for the Egg Benedict (this time I requested just one egg because I didn’t want to get full before lunch).  I had a fresh muffin, good quality cooked ham, a runny egg, and a well-made Hollandaise with a good tang of vinegar: IMHO this was a perfect Egg Benedict. 10/10

In summary we had an enjoyable stay at The Cadogan, thanks to the amazing suite upgrade. And with a very good quality breakfast I give an overall score for B&B of 10/10

But not everything was perfect. Our experiences in the Bar were not good, mainly because it’s tables are not appropriate for large plates of food, but there were also some service issues: like plates not being promptly removed when finished with; waiting 10 minutes for them to find a wine I ordered; waiting 15 minutes for fries.  The quality of the food was not up to my expectations and I think Adam Handling needs to examine how the hotel is serving his food, because it’s his name at stake.  BTW Adam Handing is a “Krug Ambassador” and several examples of Krug are available to purchase. Only one type though is available by the glass, but this was not available during our stay!