Leicester House Hotel

1 Leiscester Street, London

What to expect at a restaurant with rooms in the heart of Soho? Originally the St John Hotel, set up by Fergus Henderson, it was recently taken over by the company that owns east London’s vintage-style Town Hall Hotel. The rooms have been designed to ‘have everything the traveller needs and nothing they do not’. And so they do (though the option of a softer pillow might help those with more fragile heads). The 15 rooms in what is a genuine boutique hotel have a unique skinny style; they look like the cream-painted interiors of Brighton beach cabins. There’s no chunky furniture, no dimmer switches, no patterned carpets, no thumbed through magazines, no redundant stationery, but a panel inset in the walls allows for all the uploading, downloading and communication the modern traveller wants. The made-over first- floor bar, discreet and cosy – with carefully chosen London micro- brewery ales as well as very English cocktails – contrasts with its neighbour, the W Hotel, whose offering is more about plush, glitzy decor and wide cosmopolitan spaces. Head chef Tom Harris was Henderson’s right-hand man at St John and won a Michelin star for the restaurant, which has been retained post-makeover. The superb breakfast includes smoked bacon in a milk bun, braised mushrooms on toast and butter-milk pancakes with honey and whipped cream; lunch and dinner dishes include smoked cod’s roe and devilled pig’s skin and roast Dexter beef with carrots and horseradish. MR. Doubles from £140.