Taxi...........??

On my last business trip to London, England, my colleague and I had the opportunity to stay at the Sherlock Holmes Hotel and dine at Jamie Oliver’s restaurant, Fifteen.

Overall we had a very enjoyable stay despite the humidity, heavy rain, thunder & lightening and severe transport difficulties with both the London Underground and Paddington Express to London’s Heathrow Airport. On a couple of occasions and when all else failed, we resorted to taking taxis. This is where I will point out that ‘The Knowledge’ that London taxi drivers are alleged to have was most definitely a myth - on at least two encounters. I will also add, in case the question arises, that ‘yes’, on both occasions the drivers were London natives. Both of the elderly drivers needed to resort to the London A to Z in order to locate two of London’s more popular (you would think) destinations. One being Fifteen and the other being Heathrow Airport.

At this stage, I will revert to the more pleasurable parts of our stay.

The Sherlock Holmes Hotel is a ‘boutique’ hotel with real charm. The entrance takes you through a very trendy yet cosy bar area overlooking Baker Street. I was upgraded to a Superior Studio room upon our arrival – for no apparent reason, although I’m not going to complain about that! My colleague was given a standard room but discovered, to his joy, that the slippers, assorted combs and two bottles of wine lying across his bed were compliments of the hotel. My room was, in the words of Austin Powers, “Yeah, baby. Yeah!”.

The room is made up of an entrance hall with luggage storage and a wardrobe area, two steps up into the studio area to the bed, couches and writing desk, with enough of the solid wood floor left to hold a disco. Off of the studio, separated by glass doors, is a rather cramped but functional bathroom complete with a floor drain, which was very useful, even necessary, considering the amount of water that splashed out during my shower.
The hotel restaurant looked very impressive even though we neglected to indulge in the Europeanesque menu as we had already made dinner reservations for Fifteen London, and breakfast the following morning was being provided by conference hosts. The hotel is also very conveniently located near the Baker Street tube station but I would warn that you should know in advance which exit to take out of the station and which direction to walk in as you find yourself faced with an intersection of two major streets.

For dinner at Fifteen we opted for the tasting menu in the basement restaurant. The meal, which turned out to be seven courses, was delicious.

The portions were very satisfying and such that you didn’t leave the restaurant feeling as though you would need a wheelbarrow to get you back to the hotel. Mint seemed to be the herb of choice that night as it played the starring role in at least three of the courses. I opted for halibut as my main course (the other option being a rather uninspiring shoulder of beef) and although the accompanying spicy lentils, sliced potatoes and roasted tomatoes served as an excellent compliment in flavours, the fish was slightly undercooked for my taste. I overlooked this as I felt this was a minor criticism when the meal and superior service where taken as a whole.
The only part of the Fifteen experience that I was not over enamoured with was the décor. Even though it is modern, clean and upbeat, the pink and white basement area with graffiti art and uncomfortable plastic chairs coupled with leather bench couches and mosaic tiling in some areas give the impression of a rather confused interior designer. In summary, this was a very amiable dining experience and I would recommend that you give it a try the next time you visit London. Just remember to make reservations well in advance and don’t ask a London taxi-driver to take you there!!! The staff graciously ordered us a taxi to take us back to the hotel. However, after waiting patiently in the inclement weather for twenty minutes, we eventually walked to the nearest busy road to flag one down. Luckily, this one knew how to get to our destination without difficulty.

My next business trip was to Dublin, Ireland. Come back and visit for the details….!