The Hotel
100 Queens Gate is a Curio Collection hotel by Hilton, which means you can earn and spend Hilton Honors points. You also get the usual benefits of being a status holder, such as free breakfast. There are only 7 Curio Collection hotels in London, all of which are boutique hotels aimed at the higher end of the market. You can find another of our Curio Collection reviews here.
100 Queens Gate has been converted from several townhouses into a hotel and I have to say, I love the stunning appearance from the front.
Hilton provided our stay so we could review this hotel.
Location
South Kensington is located in the upmarket Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is close to many cultural activities such as the Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall and Kensington Gardens to name a few. The whole area is teeming with many independent restaurants, bars and markets.
South Kensington tube station is just a 5-minute walk away and is served by the Piccadilly, Circle and District lines. This is ideal as these lines cover most of London, from the centre to the City and beyond.
Of course there are closer hotels if you want to stay in central London, but they are more than twice as expensive and are not in such a nice area.
Check in
The hotel looks very grand with its tall white columns and long windows. It is made even more beautiful by the inviting flower arrangements at the entrance and on the inside of the front doors. It is amazing how effective these are and I wonder why more hotels do not decorate their entrances and receptions.
We had to go to an event in London (Community Shield at Wembley, where my team lost!) so we arrived at the hotel at 11:45am, much earlier than the 3pm check-in time. We were met by the very friendly Thomas who welcomed us and explained that our room wasn’t quite ready but it wouldn’t be long. This wasn’t a problem as we were planning on having lunch in the hotel restaurant anyway. Thomas explained where everything was and offered to take our bags. He then showed us around the restaurant.
Cento Lunch
The entrance to Cento is just around the corner from reception. It is an Italian restaurant that prides itself on serving traditional Italian cuisine.
A smiling Josh, the hotel’s Food & Beverage Manager, met us. As it was still early, we were the only two in the restaurant and Josh showed us a lovely table by the window. Josh is from South Africa, our favourite country, so we took up a lot of time talking about all the amazing places we’d all been to. I mentioned that I’d never had a traditional braai before and Josh promised to change that. I’ll remind him!
As we had dinner booked elsewhere that evening, we wanted a lighter lunch. Josh then introduced us to his colleague Deluxy, the Food & Beverage Supervisor who was looking after us. She immediately started opening a lovely bottle of Barolo Enrico Serafino Piedmont red wine.
She then explained the menu to us and gave us some recommendations, such as Nonna’s Scarpetta and the Burrata. We accepted both suggestions and also ordered Branzino and a classic Pinsa Romana (pizza).
After a short wait, the appetizers arrived and Deluxy was right, Nonna’s scarpetta was great. She suggested we just tear off the bread and dip it in, so that’s what we did!
The branzino, one of my favorite snacks, was perfectly cooked and seasoned. Katrina really enjoyed her pizza, however it was a little too big for her, so I did the right thing and helped her out!
Feeling pretty full, we skipped dessert, but Deluxe wouldn’t let us leave without trying the hotel’s ice cream partner, Buontalenti Pistachio. I’ve tried pistachios quite a few times outside of Italy and I’m almost always disappointed. They’re usually a weird color and taste like perfume. I’m happy to say this one was incredible, and I wish I had room for more.
It is worth noting that Cento is the hotel’s main restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. However, the toilets are quite far away and you have to negotiate several turns and even a flight of stairs to get there. It would be great if they could find space to put them in a more convenient location. Especially since they could also serve as toilets at reception.
10 minutes before the end of our lunch break, Thomas appeared and personally handed us our room cards. This was great as we didn’t have much time and at least we could go straight to our rooms. It’s the little touches that make the difference.
The room
We stayed in room 308, a superior room with two large windows overlooking the hotel entrance and the main street. We heard no street noise at all, which was great.
We went to the room where our luggage was waiting for us, as well as a nice bottle of Laurent Perrier, three macaroons, a fruit plate and a handwritten welcome card. In a hurry and having just been told we had no room for dessert, we dug deep and found room for the macaroons. The room was an expected size for London, if not a little bigger.
The room had the usual suspects: iron and ironing board, safe and mini fridge, and really cool retro telephones.
The room had plenty of outlets, including USB-A ports, and a large TV in front of the bed. We had a small seating area and a desk in case we needed to work.
Unfortunately, the bathroom was on the small side. Perfectly functional, but small. It also didn’t look like it had been renovated, as the pictures on the website suggest for other room types. It had a bathtub with a freestanding shower and Molten Brown toiletries. The shampoo and shower gel were in large containers attached to the walls, which I like much better than those fiddly little bottles that you can never open with wet hands. It’s also a plus for me from an environmental perspective.
ESQ Bar
After dinner we went back to the hotel. It was only 9pm so we went down the fancy stairs to the ESQ Bar which is right next to the reception.
As with all our previous interactions, we were met by a friendly member of the team who showed us to a table and took our order. We both opted for a Dark & Stormy which was cooked to perfection and exactly what we wanted.
Since it was underground, it was a very cozy place. The atmosphere was perfect to relax and chat with family or friends. They offer a “small dish” menu, which we didn’t try since we had just finished dinner. Even that didn’t stop me from eating the three bowls of popcorn they brought with the drinks.
Cento Breakfast
As mentioned, breakfast is served in the Cento restaurant and the offering is a fairly extensive buffet with all the usual items such as pastries, cheeses and meats, as well as everything you need for a full English breakfast.
You can order specific types of eggs, but there are no a la carte options, which I found a bit odd since the hotel seems to be busy and geared towards the higher end of the price range. Not to mention, they offer breakfast plates like avocado on toast and pancakes on their room service menu.
I would have loved to have the opportunity to review my usual Eggs Benedict, but it wasn’t possible this time.
Nevertheless, the staff was on the ball as always. Katrina ordered a coffee and after a few bites we were full and on our way.
Other facilities
Gym – As far as hotel gyms go, this one looked great. We didn’t try it out but spent some time there looking around for testing purposes and being avid gym goers ourselves, it was refreshing to finally see a decent gym. Sure, the space is compact, but they’ve done everything they can to make the most of the space.
There’s a nice stretching area, plenty of cardio equipment including a Peloton, and to my surprise, a stack of dumbbells weighing up to 30kg, which is also very unusual for a hotel gym.
botany – Located right next to Cento and housed in a conservatory that exclusively serves afternoon tea. It’s really beautifully decorated and although we didn’t try it, I can see why it was so busy during our visit. I see the hotel regularly offers discounts so you can try it out and if afternoon tea is your thing, I’d recommend you give it a try, especially for the setting.
Gelato – 100 Queens Gate has partnered with Badiana, an award-winning gelato maker named after its inventor. Quick note: if you’re staying here, you absolutely have to try this. They have a pop-up at reception and the taste is incredible.
Summary
We really enjoyed our stay at 100 Queens Gate. The whole team were real professionals and are an asset to the hotel.
Our room was great for an overnight stay and the facilities offered exceeded our requirements.
I noticed that some of the rooms don’t have windows, so be aware of that when booking. Also, the room is a little further out than we would normally book, but I’m glad we stayed here because we realized we don’t necessarily need to be super central.
You can book for as little as 60,000 Hilton Honors points, but when we did some research we found that the cash price was very reasonable for a top-notch London hotel.
